All tabbies are defined by the little "M" marking that is on their forehead. Kipling even wrote about this. What story do you think this tells about tabbies or what special meaning do you believe this has?
Answers:
I love the stories of tabbies. I think my very favorite story of the magnificent "M" was told by Jim Willis in his story, Beloved of Bast, which is included in his book, "Pieces of my Heart - Writings Inspired by Animals and Nature." It tells the tale of an old brown tabby "barn cat" by the name of "Mother". I think this story has such a special meaning for me because I often see my long gone tabbies out of the corner of my eye!
http://cats.about.com/cs/tabbycats/a/bel...
I know of two stories:
One Christmas Eve over 2000 years ago, a man and a woman were making their way to Bethlehem, for the census.
The woman was expecting a baby. They were late arriving in Bethlehem and the only place left for them to stay was in a stable.
During the night a baby boy was born to the couple and they decided to call him Jesus.
It was not very comfortable because they were sharing the stable with some animals who kept them all awake with their noise. The baby didn't settle the straw in his bed was scratching him. His mother tried to calm him by wrapping him in some fine linen material.
A few streets away, there were some stray cats out looking for some food to eat.
They knew something really exciting was happening and they could hear a baby crying, not too far away. They made their way towards the sounds and when they arrived were surprised at what they saw.
The stabled animals had settled down but there were many people looking at the baby who was still crying. One of the cats went towards the baby and climbed into the manger with the child and offered him a warm place to lay his head. The baby was comforted and fell asleep straight away.
The mother of the baby was of course Mary, and she was so pleased that the little cat had settled her baby that she told him that from that day all of his progeny would bear the Blessing of God, and she touched him on his forehead.
There to this day you will find Mary's mark of the letter 'M' on the forehead of all tabby cats.
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A legend from the Islamic world recounts that Mohammed had a tabby cat called Muezza who once saved his masters life by killing a snake that had crawled up Mohammed's sleeve.
Later, when it was time to attend prayers the cat had fallen asleep upon the sleeve, and so to avoid disturbing Muezza, Mohammed cut the sleeve from his garment.
From that day on all tabby cats were born with the 'M' marking on their forehead to remind all that see them that Mohammed loved cats, and that cats should always be respected.
There are a number of different legends regarding the 'M'. You can read them at:
http://cats.about.com/cs/tabbycats/a/tab...
It's very interesting really, and not something you really think about. Thanks for bringing that up.
Tabbies remind me of tigers, some of which are said to have a forehead marking that looks like the Chinese character Wang, meaning King.
and I'll leave it at that.
I am Muslim and I always heard that the M was a symbol for the prophet Mo mummad. I was told the story in much more detail but I cant remember it all very well so I will not even try to make it up from what I do remember, lol.
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