Boo would like to tell you about grey tabby cats — especially since Spike had his say about orange cats awhile back.

Penmarric tells us:

The
word TABBY, is thought to be derived from the word ATABI, which is a type of silk
manufactured in the Attabiah region of Baghdad. They exported quantities of this
fabric to England, where the striped pattern was compared to the striping on the
‘tiger’ cat. This type of cat then became known as the TABBI, which was later
modified to TABBY.

The
history of the tabby pattern is complicated. The modern domestic cat appears to
have developed from the African Wild Cat in Egypt. It was taken to ancient Greece
and Rome by traders, and from there spread across Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
In the progress, it bred with other wild cats, and eventually, the modern tabby
is a dilution of what it was at the beginning . . .

. . . all domestic
cats carry the tabby gene. If the tabby markings are not visible, it is because
the coat color is masking it.

About Cats says:

Tabbies are so ubiquitous that many people think of them as a breed.
Not so; the tabby is a color pattern – most often stripes, but
sometimes stripes and whorls, or even spots and stripes.

Boo wants to be sure you understand that grey tabbies are ubiquitous because they are so useful:

I must say, Boo has never washed my clothes. But grey tabbies do inspire artists and musicians. In fact, The Dubliners’ Tabby Cats combine Cats, Celtic Music, and Drinking Songs into one of the most-creative music groups of the 21st century.

Like all of our kitty friends, tabbies are descended from wilder ancestors. The Cat Site reminds us:

The tabby pattern with its different
variations is the most common coat pattern in the wild. The tiger is a
striped tabby, the leopard is a spotted tabby, and the lion is a tabby
agouti . . .

This
pattern appears especially useful as camouflage for the different
feline predators. Hiding behind the grass blades of the African
savannah, or in the branches of a leafed tree, spots and stripes can
make a cat virtually invisible to its prey.

Boo says this wildness has not been bred out of our little domestic tabbies:

It is very cold outside here in Montana. I plan to curl up with my tabbies (yes, Spike is a tabby, too) and entertain myself:

Friday Ark
I and the Bird
Carnival of the Cats
Carnival of the Dogs
Circus of the Spineless
[Addition] Zoë: She loves me She loves not

Today’s kitty animations are all from Lucy Rand.

Today’s real kitty is BooKitty.