She wrote at least two articles for CFA Yearbooks: one in 1961 and an extensive one for the 1966 edition. Tabby breeders was Jane Martinke, who bred tabbies at her Minqua Cattery for over 50 years. In an article entitled “Bars and Stripes Forever,” which appeared in the 1984 CFA Yearbook, Phil Maggitti states: “Ultimately, most discussions about the origin and migration of Tabby Persians, like the markings on these striking cats themselves, tend to be circular.” Suffice it to say that the first reference in the English language to tabby cats appeared in 1695, and tabby eventually came to mean “cat.” In the late 1800s Tabby Persians became the first English show cats. Every cat historian has a different slant. There is much speculation as to how the Persian moved from Persia to England and then to the United States.
A specific pattern of a wavelike appearance on silk taffeta is thought to have evolved into the name “tabby.” Many of the cats roaming the area had patterns much like the fabric hence, their name. The word “tabby” is thought to have originated in the Attabi quarter of Baghdad in ancient Persia, where silks and cottons were produced in different colors and patterns. Obviously, the “cream” was really a cream tabby! (Smokes have also played an important role in breeding tabbies.) What looked like a blue-cream turned into a blue patched tabby, patina and all. My first “true” tabby arose from a cream out of smoke breeding – that agouti gene again. The same cannot be said of creams from agouti breedings. In some cases red agouti tabbies have distinctive facial markings, especially a pale colored chin, which leads one to strongly suspect their genetic makeup. The only way to determine what they are is to breed them. Red tabbies out of brown tabbies may or may not carry the agouti gene. A red tabby out of a solid program will never produce a brown tabby (unless bred to a cat carrying the agouti gene). Consequently, a black will never produce a brown tabby (unless bred to one). The agouti tabby gene expresses itself as brown tabby (black without the gene), blue tabby (instead of blue), cream tabby (rather than cream), red agouti tabby (as opposed to red or red tabby), and brown patched and blue patched tabby (as opposed to tortoiseshell or blue-cream). They are beautiful cats, striped, spotted and swirled. Some very fine tabbies out of solid lines have done extremely well on the campaign trail. (There are more red tabbies registered than any other color tabby.) Heredity is certainly a consideration, however, in a tabby breeding program. This is not a factor in the show ring since judges are not judging the heredity of the cat.
Most red tabbies are out of solid color breedings. There are blacks with tabby marks and blues with tabby marks that are not shown as tabbies, nor will they ever produce what I consider to be the determining factor, a brown tabby, blue tabby or silver tabby. The vast majority of red tabbies that are shown in the Tabby Persian division are “tabbied” reds. I must make a distinction about tabbies based on my experience with them.
Huge Tabby divisions were common in the Northeast in the late 1970s and early 1980s. When I flew to Maryland, I got to meet other Tabbyland cats and Beverly Witbeck herself. GC Tabbylands Timothy of Gold Coast (a wonderful agouti red classic tabby bred by Beverly Witbeck) lived in Miami. One of the best things that resulted from my travels with Rocky was that I was introduced to the Tabby Persian division. He was, for the most part, different from the other tabbies of his day, as he had a copious coat and extreme type. Prior to Rocky my introduction to the Tabby Persian was through GC Palmetto’s Sunchaser, a gorgeous shaded cameo tabby bred and owned by Pat Lichtenberg. In 1981 he was CFA’s Best Red Mackerel Tabby Persian (I think he was the only one). I even flew to Pennsylvania (from Miami) for FOUR points to get his grand, and we went to Chicago and to the Pennsylvania Poconos in mid-winter. I was a rank novice at the time, so I took him everywhere. When I got “Rocky” he was an eight-week-old red kitten with stripes EVERYWHERE! Rocky grew and he grew. My romance with Tabby Persians began when I acquired GC Harwood Rock Promise of Marhei from Dorothy Persson almost 20 years ago. Originally published in The Cat Fanciers’ Almanac, October 2000 Sign up for Newsletter or CFA Announcements.
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