This is for the many cat lovers in Pine Lake
When
Cory Williams' introduced his
Mean Kitty song on YouTube in 2007 it immediately went viral.
Cory's Sparta (the Mean Kitty) is a male
Egyptian mau cat. Maus are a natural breed, believed to be almost unchanged from the time of the Pharaohs. Maus are the cats depicted in 3000-year-old Egyptian artwork. They are believed to be the progenitors of modern cats.
Maus are a medium-sized short-haired breed characterized by spots on their fur (but not on their skin). They have either a scarab beetle marking or an M on their forehead (scarabs mostly in Egypt, Ms mostly in the U.S. When grown, their eyes are gooseberry green. Their rear legs are longer than their front legs, and they have a pouch of skin like that of a cheetah. This enables them to jump further and run faster than other cats. Maus have been clocked at 36 miles per hour!
I had never heard of the Mau, and neither had my sweetie until she got a call a year ago from her friend Richard. Richard, it seemed, had been driving all around New York and Connecticut in his new Prius-- from his home in the Hudson Valley to New York City, to Connecticut, and back to the Hudson Valley. When he stopped the car for fueling he heard a tiny meow. Or maybe a tiny mau.
Under the hood Richard found a six-week-old silver kitten perched atop the starter battery. How it had avoided falling through the engine to the highway is still a mystery.
 |
Mau Kitten. This is Exactly How the Kitten Looked
Note the M on the Forehead |
Richard-- no doubt because she had recently lost her 17-year-old cat-- phoned Sweetie, who drove to his home to pick it up and keep it just for the weekend.
Just for the weekend. Right.
Of course Sweetie kept the kitten. Here's how she looks now-- the spitting image of Mean Kitty.
After much Googling, Sweetie narrowed the kitten's breed down to three or four, and, finally, just one-- the Egyptian Mau. She named her Ivory.
Ivory has all the physical markings of a Mao, and the behavioral traits as well. She uses her paws in ways other cats rarely do, as
here, when she knocks down dominos. Madeline, Sweetie's other cat, uses her nose; Ivory uses her paws, both times. She's hyperkinetic, a well-known Mau trait, an everlastingly curious ball of energy. Her behavior is just like that of Cory's Sparta, even to the hand gnawing and a nonchalance about being locked up in small spaces. Despite several trips to the vet, she likes to hang out in her cat carrier.
He's so full of energy and easily amused
Kitty will attack anything that moves
Causing trouble, starting battles just so he can be a part of
He’s the meanest little kitty so we named him Sparta
