When nurse Alice Wybert, working with hospice patients, was asked by terminal patients to find homes for their cats, she agreed. Once she got started, she found there was a much larger population of cats--and dogs, too--in need of homes.
On July 6, 2005, Safe Harbor opened at 359 Cree Lane (phone 573-243-9823) in Jackson with 25 cats. Today, it shelters 250 cats and 20 dogs. The good news is that 100 cats have been sent to new homes so far this year!
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| Safe Habor's facilities |
But each month, the facility runs a "special" on a certain kind of cat. In March, the special has been yellow cats--$35 instead of $50. Declawed cats are $50, down from the regular $75.
This is the last week of March, but there is still time to adopt a yellow cat, like this one (right), at the special rate. Yellow (or orange, or ginger, whatever term you prefer) cats are the most friendly and laid back of cats, in my opinion. They are also "guard cats"--the self-appointed watchcat of the home. When my husband and I arrived at Safe Harbor, this one came up and greeted us, checking us out in a friendly way. He was a boy cat, of course.
This is the last week of March, but there is still time to adopt a yellow cat, like this one (right), at the special rate. Yellow (or orange, or ginger, whatever term you prefer) cats are the most friendly and laid back of cats, in my opinion. They are also "guard cats"--the self-appointed watchcat of the home. When my husband and I arrived at Safe Harbor, this one came up and greeted us, checking us out in a friendly way. He was a boy cat, of course.
Check out my post "Most Perfect Animal" for stories about my own ginger cat, Ezra.
Yellow cats can be female, but there are far fewer female ginger cats. Coat color is carried on the X chromosome, of which males (XY) have one and females have two (XX). If the boy's X gives him yellow, then he is yellow. But a ginger girl has to have two yellow X's. If her other X is for black instead, she will be a tortoiseshell, or if she also has the white spotting gene, she will be a three-colored calico.
In April, the special will be on tabby cats; in May, dilute calicos; and in June, the month of weddings, what else but the black and white tuxedo cat!
Coming in April
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| All dressed up and ready to go to a new home! This kitty is adoptable and included in the special during April at Safe Harbor |
Tabbies
This April, you can obtain a tabby cat from Safe Harbor in Jackson for $35 instead of the usual $50. Declawed cats are $50, down from the regular $75.
The Tabby cat's name comes from a word formerly used for ribbed silk material. according to Harrison Weir. "The word tabby was derived from a kind of taffeta, or ribbed silk, which when calendered or what is now terms 'watered,' is by that process covered with wavy lines," Weir said in his book Our Cats and All About Them.
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| My cat Abby has more of the ticked pattern. She has the thinnest fur of any cat I've ever seen. Her ancestors were from Africa, for sure. |
The tabby cat is the most common of varieties, found in all parts of the world that have cats, which is everywhere today. Of all domesticated cats, the tabby most closely resembles the small wildcat that inhabited Europe, Asia, and Africa. When there was a land bridge across what is now the Bering Strait, cats roamed in North America also. But the land bridge disappeared, and cats for some reason were trapped on the eastern side. Our present-day cats were brought to America from Europe.
The felis sylvestris is basically the same cat everywhere, with distinct adaptations to its environment. For example, the European cat had long, thick hair because of the colder climate. African and Southeast Asian cats' fur is short, and much thinner.
Evidence of the first domesticated cat appears in the Middle East. The earliest mummified cats have been found in the island country of Cyprus, located in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. The fertile crescent is where agriculture began, and it was also the beginning of the relationship between man and cat.
Wild cats started coming around humans to eat rodents, according to feline researcher Dr. Laura Lyons, at the University of California, Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. As humans became farmers, they created grain stores and refuse piles, two things that draw rodents. Humans allowed them to stay around because they protected their food source, and cats in turn tolerated humans because they provided food for them. The cats that were most bold--or tame, from our perspective, got the most food, and they started domesticating themselves.
Wild cats started coming around humans to eat rodents, according to feline researcher Dr. Laura Lyons, at the University of California, Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. As humans became farmers, they created grain stores and refuse piles, two things that draw rodents. Humans allowed them to stay around because they protected their food source, and cats in turn tolerated humans because they provided food for them. The cats that were most bold--or tame, from our perspective, got the most food, and they started domesticating themselves.
Human civilization moved to Egypt, and so did the cat, where it was worshipped. The Romans seemed to be a little slower in using the cat for rodent control. Some stories say that the Egyptians attempted to forbid cats from being taken to Rome. But the cat was already in Europe! Nonetheless, Europeans did not use the cat for rodent control at first, but instead relied on the smellier and less tamable weasel.
Most likely, the European wildcat did not venture so easily to human settlement as the Middle Eastern and African cats. It was more isolated in European forests, and farther away from the humans' food sources. I suspect that the first domesticated cats in Europe did come from Egypt, and then they quickly interbred with the native wildcat.
Felis sylvestris is endangered almost to the point of extinction, especially in Europe, because of its domesticated relative. The wildcat has bred so much with feral cats that scientists are doubtful they can still find a bon fide Scottish wildcat. The African wildcat is also getting more and more rare.
The domesticated tabby cat may resemble the wildcat, but it is not "wilder" than other cats. It is definitely domesticated, and a lot of breeding has gone into even the most ordinary of cats. Harrison Weir proscribed the appearance of the perfect brown tabby in 1889: "[Its] ground color is of a very rich, orangey, dark brown ground, without any white, and that is evenly, proportionably (sic), and not too broadly but elegantly marked on the face, head, breast sides, back, belly, legs and tail with bands of solid, deep shining black." There is more, but you get the idea--the tabby was bred for specific features desirable by its owner.
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| A Mackerel: Come get me! I'm waiting! |
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| Blotched tabby: This adoptable cat is beautiful! |
A tabby is any cat that has a distinctive coat that features stripes, dots, lines or swirling patterns, usually together with a mark resembling an "M" on its forehead (See photo, right). Tabbies are not a cat breed. Its features are found in many breeds of cats. The Maine Coon Cat is a long-haired tabby, and the Norwegian Forest Cat comes in a tabby variety. In short-hair varieties, there is the British shorthair tabby and the American shorthair tabby--the two differ mainly in the breed standards established by the two countries.
(By the way, Safe Harbor has at least one long-haired tabby, too, although I don't have a photo.)
There are four recognized kinds of patterns in the Tabby family.
The Mackerel Tabby pattern has vertical, gently curving stripes on the side of the body. The stripes are narrow, and may be continuous or broken into bars and spots on the flanks and stomach. Often, an 'M' shape appears on the forehead. Mackerels also feature a 'peppered' nose, where black spots appear along the pink tip of the nose.
The Classic (or 'Blotched') Tabby, tends to have a pattern of dark browns, ochres, and black. Classic Tabbies have an 'M' pattern on the head similar to that of Mackerel Tabbies, but the body markings are different, having a whirled and swirled pattern with wider stripes that make what are referred to as "butterfly" patterns on their shoulders, and usually a bullseye or oyster pattern on the flank. The legs and tail are more heavily barred and the pattern is variable with respect to the width of the bands.
The Ticked Tabby pattern produces hairs with distinct bands of color on them, breaking up the tabby patterning into a salt-and-pepper appearance. Residual ghost striping or "barring" can often be seen on the lower legs, face and belly and sometimes at the tail tip.
The Spotted Tabby may not be a true pattern, but a modifier that breaks up the Mackerel Tabby pattern so that the stripes appear as spots. Similarly, the stripes of the Classic Tabby pattern may be broken into larger spots. Both large spot and small spot patterns can be seen in the Australian Mist, the Bengal, the Egyptian Mau, Maine Coon, and Ocicat breeds.
The tabby striping is in the genes of every cat, purebred or plebian, but other coloring makes it hard to see in the case of solid cats. In cat genetics, pattern is unrelated to color, so the tabby coat pattern can show up in combination with a variety of coat colors, including tortoiseshell (Tortoiseshell Tabby cats are called 'Torbies'). White spotting of any degree can also appear in combination with tabby patterns. White is the only coat color that does not have any tabby markings, because, as you can read in my blog post "In Search of White", the white gene masks all color in the fur.
(By the way, Safe Harbor has at least one long-haired tabby, too, although I don't have a photo.)
There are four recognized kinds of patterns in the Tabby family.
The Mackerel Tabby pattern has vertical, gently curving stripes on the side of the body. The stripes are narrow, and may be continuous or broken into bars and spots on the flanks and stomach. Often, an 'M' shape appears on the forehead. Mackerels also feature a 'peppered' nose, where black spots appear along the pink tip of the nose.
The Classic (or 'Blotched') Tabby, tends to have a pattern of dark browns, ochres, and black. Classic Tabbies have an 'M' pattern on the head similar to that of Mackerel Tabbies, but the body markings are different, having a whirled and swirled pattern with wider stripes that make what are referred to as "butterfly" patterns on their shoulders, and usually a bullseye or oyster pattern on the flank. The legs and tail are more heavily barred and the pattern is variable with respect to the width of the bands.
The Ticked Tabby pattern produces hairs with distinct bands of color on them, breaking up the tabby patterning into a salt-and-pepper appearance. Residual ghost striping or "barring" can often be seen on the lower legs, face and belly and sometimes at the tail tip.
The Spotted Tabby may not be a true pattern, but a modifier that breaks up the Mackerel Tabby pattern so that the stripes appear as spots. Similarly, the stripes of the Classic Tabby pattern may be broken into larger spots. Both large spot and small spot patterns can be seen in the Australian Mist, the Bengal, the Egyptian Mau, Maine Coon, and Ocicat breeds.
The tabby striping is in the genes of every cat, purebred or plebian, but other coloring makes it hard to see in the case of solid cats. In cat genetics, pattern is unrelated to color, so the tabby coat pattern can show up in combination with a variety of coat colors, including tortoiseshell (Tortoiseshell Tabby cats are called 'Torbies'). White spotting of any degree can also appear in combination with tabby patterns. White is the only coat color that does not have any tabby markings, because, as you can read in my blog post "In Search of White", the white gene masks all color in the fur.
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