To some, Tabby Cats look like every cat out there. Just about any breed can have tabby cats among its numbers because this designation is a color, or better, a pattern of colors, that separate it from other cats. Tabby cats are very common so many people see it often and assume most cats are tabbies.
Actually, there are four patterns of colors and formations that
can make your feline friend a tabby cat.
These include:
- The classic or blotched tabby cats. American Shorthair cats often have this distinctive color pattern of blotches, or large spots of color, on their sides. These are the tabby cats so often seen in the media.
- The mackerel tabby cats. This name is not attached because these are cats that eat fish. Instead, it is because they have a striped pattern not unlike these saltwater fish. They have stripes on their legs, tail, and chest and swaths of color on their sides.
- The spotted tabby cats. Just as the name implies, these are very distinctive round spots, not splashes of color, and often are in an observable pattern. This is the coloring of the American Bobtail and the Ocicat.
- The ticked, or agouti, tabby cats. This is an overall color for a tabby. Individual hairs have bands of several different colors. Good breed examples are the Singaporean and Abyssinian.
Regardless of its overall body colors, tabby cats are supposed to have a
distinctive trademark "M" in the coloring on their foreheads. 
There
are many legends about how this came to be. Some tracing back thousands of years
claim it has to do with tabby cats being connected to the Moon. Others say the
"M" on tabby cats is because of its connection to the Virgin Mary. Others claim
the affiliation is to Muhammad, who is said to have been such a big fan of tabby
cats because a cat saved his life by attacking a snake that is said to have
crawled up his sleeve.
Somehow it is not surprising that tabby cats show up throughout modern history.
For example:
- Winston Churchill's ginger-colored tabby Jock is said to have free run of the house. Meals were sometimes delayed until Jock showed up.
- Sir Walter Scott, who wrote Ivanhoe and other books, had a tabby named Hinx.
- Author of "The Owl and the Pussycat", Edward Lear, is said to have been inspired by his much loved tabby cat named Foss.
- Abraham Lincoln is said to have shared the White House with, yes, and a tabby cat.
Inspirational or political, tabby cats have managed to find prominent places in the human world.
