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Clockwise from top left: Jameela, Calli, Twilight and Toffee
The photos above are all from the "Adoptable" page of EMRO, the Egyptian Mau Rescue Organization. EMRO was named years ago, before we decided to attempt to have Egyptian cats recognized as their own distinct Natural breed (this year). These are all photos of cats which were rescued off the streets of Cairo by EMRO. Because they are Egyptian ferals, they will be the foundation for the Nile Valley Egyptian breed. Twilight (the solid black) and Jameela (the bronze spotted and striped) are scheduled to be airflown from EMRO in Cairo to me in Houston some time this month, and will be my first two queens in the beginnings of my Nile Valley Egyptian cattery, Maati. I'm hoping to acquire a red spotted male as my first stud. (Toffee and Calli are still available for adoption...if you have any interest. ) As I mentioned in the breed description, we expect to see 3 color divisions among the native Egyptian cats, Standard, Agouti, and Lybica.
Some of these photos demonstrate the Standard colors, which are solids, solid-and-white, tortoiseshell, and calico. Twilight is a solid black. Toffee (the kitten) is a red-and-white male. The fourth, the tri-color, Calli, is a calico. (With only 4 photos, I ran out before I got to the tortoiseshell cats, but there are photos of several on the EMRO adoption page, if you want to look there). Jameela is a bronze spotted cat. She demonstrates the Lybica coloring. There is a lot more variation than is permissible in the Egyptian Mau standard. (One of our breeders, Carol with Cairo Cats, took ten native Egyptian cats before 3 TICA judges...the judges said that only one of the ten could be passed as even a "beginning" ("foundation") cat for Egyptian Mau breeding, even though to Carol, she thought they all had potential.) I don't currently have any photo examples of the Agouti coloring, but they will look much like Abyssinians, which have the "agouti" gene. Red and blue spotted (and striped) cats occur naturally in Egypt, but are not allowed in any existing spotted breed of cat. They *will* be allowed in the Nile Valley Egyptian, from its creation, as will striped cats.
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