Egyptian Mau

Most spotted cats got their spots from a wild ancestor somewhere in the pedigree. The Egyptian Mau did not. Its spotting arose naturally in domestic cats, which is why the pattern looks different once you know what to look for: the spots sit on the hair shaft rather than the skin, they are random rather than laid out in rosettes, and no two Maus are marked alike. The same cat also carries a dorsal stripe, banded legs and the dark "mascara" lines running from the outer corner of each eye across the cheek.

The face is the second giveaway. Mau eyes are a particular shade, a pale green the breed clubs call gooseberry, and they do not settle into it until the cat is around eighteen months old. Kittens start amber and change slowly, which is one of the small pleasures of raising one.

Then there is the build. A Mau is a medium cat with a long, muscular body and hind legs longer than the front, standing slightly on tiptoe. There is a loose flap of skin from the flank to the hind knee, the same feature you see in cheetahs, which lengthens the stride. The result is genuine speed: Maus are regularly cited as the fastest domestic cat, capable of sprinting at well over 45 km/h in a straight line. In a house, that translates into a cat that goes from asleep to the top of a bookcase in about a second.

Temperament is where prospective owners most often misjudge the breed. A Mau is not a Burmese. It bonds intensely, usually with one or two people, and it is affectionate, chatty and physically demonstrative with them. With strangers it is cautious to the point of vanishing. Visitors to a Mau household frequently leave having never seen the cat, and no amount of coaxing changes that. Early, generous socialisation helps; it does not turn a Mau into an extrovert.

The same sensitivity runs through daily life. Maus dislike sudden change: new furniture, a new schedule, a house full of noise. They respond well to routine and badly to chaos. They also hold onto stress physically, and stress in this breed tends to show up as a change in appetite or in litter tray behaviour before it shows up as anything else.

The voice is worth mentioning because it is unusual. Maus chirrup, chortle and trill rather than meow, and when they are pleased they do a curious hind-foot shuffle with the tail vibrating. It is one of the most endearing things any cat does, and it is completely characteristic.

Prey drive is high and it does not switch off. This is a working hunter's body attached to a hunter's brain. Birds, hamsters and fish in an open tank are not compatible with an unsupervised Mau. If you have small pets, they need a separate room with a closed door, not a mesh lid.

The flip side is that Maus are easy to entertain if you supply the right things. Height above all: shelving, a full-height cat tree, a route around the room that never touches the floor. Then puzzle feeders, a wand toy twice a day, and something to chase that moves unpredictably. Many Maus take enthusiastically to a harness and a lead, and a secure garden or catio suits them better than almost any other breed. What does not suit them is free roaming: a fast, distinctively marked, valuable cat outdoors unsupervised is an invitation to both traffic and theft.

Grooming is close to nothing. The coat is short, dense and fine, with a silky texture, and a weekly pass with a rubber mitt keeps shedding under control. The one thing to watch is the skin: Maus are among the breeds most often reported with sensitivity to routine grooming products, so keep shampoos plain and infrequent.

Health is generally good. The breed has a small gene pool, so buy from a breeder who talks about outcrossing and genetic diversity rather than one who breeds only within a closed line. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy screening in the parents is the single most useful question to ask, and asthma is reported more often in Maus than in most breeds, worth knowing if anyone in the household smokes or burns incense.

Live with one properly and it is a remarkable animal: quick, funny, devoted, and entirely uninterested in performing for anyone outside its own household. If you want a cat that greets your guests, look elsewhere. If you want a cat that considers you its person, this is one of the best there is.