How the breeding of the Egyptian Mau started…

At the beginning of the 20th century, Italy was populated with the descendants of the cats of Egypt. According to the descriptions, a large number of them were cats with spotted coat looking like the cats of the Pharaohs.

With WWII, many cats died in Italy, and the direct descendants of the Pharaonic cats almost disappeared. However, we can still, sometimes, find spotted house cats in Italy and even, it is said, in Provence. In the film ' Le Hussard sur le Toit ' (by Jean-Paul Rappeneau, in 1994), the feline hero presents all the characteristics of a bronze Mau.

De même, en Afrique du Nord, le chat brun moucheté de noir semble encore assez répandu. Des chats des rues ayant l’apparence du mau bronze sont signalés jusqu’au Maroc

Also, in North Africa, brown cats with black spots are not uncommon. Street cats having the appearance of the bronze Mau have been seen in Morocco. On the other side of Egypt, we can also find this type of cat all along the Silk Road.

Nathalie Troubetzkoï was an exiled Russian princess whom the fortunes of life had led to settle down in Rome. Nathalie was a real cat lover. One day, a little boy brought her a kitten in a cardboard box. She just couldn't resist to the unusual beauty of this kitten. The kitten was named Ludivine and nicknamed Ludol or Lulu. Lulu was of a beautiful silver colour with black spots. The princess noticed that the box in which the kitten had been brought to her came from Egypt. And so she deduced the origin of this magnificent cat. She had soon understood that she had come upon a descendant of Pharaoh's cats.

She asked her many friends to try and find her another cat of that kind so that she could have kittens with the same striking appearance. Some friends found her Gregorio, an 11-years-old black male coming from a spotted line. Her friend the ambassador of Syria brought her an authentic Middle East subject, Geppa, a black smoke male.

Lulu and Geppa soon had their first litter (1953) which was as spotted as the parents. Among these, Nathalie Troubetzkoï kept a small silver female, Baba. Then, Gregorio and Baba had some magnificent spotted kittens (1953), among which a cat of a new color, Jojo, a bronze.

Nathalie Troubetzkoï began to promote her cats in Italy and kept on with their breeding. Liza (or Donna Lisa) was presented in show in Rome in 1955.

In 1956, she was finally authorized to emigrate to the United States. As she could not take all her cats, she had to choose only 3 of them and found a home for the others. And so Baba, Jojo and Liza set out to conquer the United States.

Once settled, Nathalie Troubetzkoï kept on with the promotion of the cats of Egypt by showing them and working hard to have them recognized as a race under the name of Egyptian Mau. She created her breeding under the name of the Fatima Cattery. In 1957, Baba was the first of the breed to be crowned champion.









In 1998, when AIME was created, Vasar was (if I remember well) of the 22nd generation and Elendril of the 23rd. In their pedigrees, we find the Sangpur cattery (reminder: according to the books of origin, 4 to 5 generations are present on pedigrees).

Concerning the Haj cattery, I think that it is the oldest Mau cattery still in activity

As you can see, the history of the Mau still is a recent one, and we can go back to the first subjects very easly. Your own Mau is a descendant of Lulu, Jeppa and Gregorio and is separated from them by approximately 30 generations...

D. Hallépée - translation Zoran Radovanovic