The oldest pattern
Tabby is the coat of the cat's wild ancestor, the African wildcat. It is superb camouflage.
Short-haired cats · Time every day
Tabby cat
A coat pattern, not a breed
A brown-grey cat striped in black, with a ringed tail, lined cheeks and a letter M on its forehead.
- Size
- About 25cm at the shoulder; 3.5 to 5kg
- Lives for
- 12 to 16 years
- Suits
- Almost any home
Strolls after you, tail up. Move your pointer and see.
Good to know
Six things about the tabby
An M on its forehead
Every tabby has a mark like the letter M above its eyes. Many legends explain how it got there.
Four kinds of tabby
Stripes like a mackerel's, swirls like a marble cake, spots, or tiny flecks on every hair.
Named after silk
The word comes from a striped silk once made in a district of Baghdad.
The commonest cat
Tabby is the most common pattern in the world, and turns up in many breeds.
Every cat is a tabby underneath
All cats carry the tabby pattern. In a black cat you can sometimes see ghostly stripes in bright sun.
The real thing
Photos of the tabby
Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
Looking after one
A cat needs good food, fresh water, a clean litter tray, somewhere high to sit and somewhere to hide. Play with it every day, and brush it weekly.
Before you get one
Most cats are easy company, but they can live for twenty years. Rescue centres always have tabbies looking for homes.
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