Tabby

tabby is a coat pattern. it's the wild-type pattern — every species of wild cat (lions, tigers, bobcats, ocelots) wears a variant of the tabby pattern. the agouti gene that produces the banded hair is dominant, and it's so ancient that 'cat' before 'tabby' is a more recent evolutionary state than 'cat' after.

the word 'tabby' comes from a striped silk imported to britain from attabiya, a baghdad neighborhood. the silk had a wavy striped pattern that reminded cat fanciers of the cat coat.

mackerel tabby — the classic narrow vertical stripes radiating from the spine. the most common pattern in mixed-breed cats. think of a tiger.

classic tabby — bold swirls and circles on the sides, often with a bullseye on the flank. distinctive 'M' on the forehead is most visible on this pattern.

spotted tabby — distinct round or oval spots. found in mixed-breeds and concentrated in breeds like the bengal, ocicat, american shorthair, and egyptian mau.

ticked tabby — no obvious stripes or spots, but each individual hair is banded (agouti). looks like a salt-and-pepper coat from a distance. signature of the abyssinian and somali.

you also see 'patched tabby' (tortoiseshell + tabby = a calico-tabby mix) and 'mackerel tabby with white' (the classic 'tuxedo tabby').

every tabby has an 'M' mark on the forehead. this isn't legend — it's a coincidence of stripe pattern radiation from the agouti gene. but the legend is great: in egyptian mythology, the M was the mark of mau, the great cat. in islamic folklore, the M was placed there by muhammad after a cat saved him from a snake. in christian folklore, mary placed the M on a tabby that warmed the baby jesus. all the same M, all the same agouti gene.

since tabby isn't a breed, care is breed-dependent. for the typical DSH (domestic shorthair) tabby:

food: high-protein wet food primary. measure portions. litter: one box per cat + one extra. vet: annual + FVRCP + rabies. spay/neuter by 6 months. indoor: yes — indoor cats average 13–17 years; outdoor cats 2–5.

DSH (domestic shorthair) — the vast majority of tabby cats. about 60–70% of mixed-breed cats are tabby to some degree.

maine coon, norwegian forest cat, siberian — all have tabby variants.

bengal — explicitly bred for the spotted/marbled tabby pattern; their wild ancestry (asian leopard cat) is visible in the coat.

abyssinian, somali — ticked tabby is the breed signature.

american shorthair, british shorthair, european shorthair — tabby is a recognized color in all.