I suspect it didn't let you post it because of the length, Ma'atemhet, but I'm happy to reproduce it here for you. As a proud human owned by two cats, the younger of which is a Mau (my giant, chatty spotted boy, "Zigzag" is now about four years old), I wish you all the best with the rescue work.
Hello,
I was looking at the post on your blog about the Year 18 Oracle of Aset.
I tried to post a comment, but was unable to. More technical issues?
Here is what I was trying to post in response:
Uhhh....ooookaaaayyy....
On August 30th, 2010, we applied to TICA (The International Cat Association) to enter feral Egyptian cats into their Experimental New Breed program as a Natural Breed: one that is created by cats, without human intervention. We call it the Nile Valley Egyptian.
On December 22nd, 2010, the NatGeo Wild Explorer program titled "Science of Cats" featured Dr. Leslie A. Lyons of U.C. Davis announcing that her genetics team had successfully proven that the modern domestic cat was first domesticated in Egypt.
As the descendants of the original modern domestic cat, that makes Egyptian ferals unique in all the world, and as precious as tigers, lions, and other wild animals.
In Egypt, there are no animal cruelty laws, the 90% Islamic population does not keep pets and has not for 1,500 years, cats are considered "vermin", and the only means the Egyptian government has for animal control is poison and shooting. It would not be an exaggeration to estimate that +99% of all cats in Egypt are feral.
Those same feral cats are being shot and poisoned on a daily basis, not to mention burned alive, kicked, tortured for "fun", and buried alive.
We are working to have them recognized as their own distinct breed by TICA, and hope to move them out of the Experimental program and into the main registry by January of 2012.
January 31st, 2011, the Nile Valley Egyptian will be introduced to the world by Mr. & Ms. Fretz of Nefertari Cattery in Switzerland at a cat show in Monaco. There should be world attention on the event, as the Royal Princess of Monaco has granted the show her patronage, and will be present (with all the paparazzi that follow royalty).
Since we began this project six months ago, every week there has been some event happening, pushing this project forward, something that none of us could have created, or even predicted, such as the invitation to the Monaco cat show, which came out of the blue from someone we didn’t even know existed until November. It's as if Bast herself was pushing this project forward, relentlessly. (and sometimes mercilessly...oh, my aching head and back...)
I have had 2 cats and 3 kittens shipped to me from Cairo to Texas, moving from east to west, as the sun moves. 3 more cats are coming to me, moving east to west, this month.
We thought that we would spend years trying to prove that these cats were unique, but Dr. Lyons has already done it (and we had no idea she was working on it). We thought we would spend years breeding Egyptian ferals looking to see if we could re-create the original archetype, the African wild cat…lo and behold, a cat that has been in a shelter for six months *changed* from a perfectly ordinary cat that looked like a rather dull Egyptian Mau into a cat that is a spitting image of an African wild cat. And 3 more cats have showed the same astonishing transformation while under observation.
A 6-pound adult female cat gained 3 pounds and about 4 inches in length within 2 months of arriving in Texas.
The 3 kittens are 3 pounds in weight at 8 weeks…they should only weigh a pound and a half, according to all the charts.
You say the Year of First Occurrence began August 7th, 2010.
You wrote: "The Year of Wisdom has Become and Gone. Keep your wisdom close and dear, for the Lord of All, the Lord of First Occurrence, He Whose Sun-Barque never fails as it sails across the sky, tells you now to mark each moment.
"You shall know this year that First Occurrence was, and is, created of making something new, in each measure of time. No turning aside, no hesitation, no pause for thought of the impossibility of the task.
"The Sun guides you. Go where They lead."
If this keeps up, Bast is going to make a believer out of me yet.
In service to Ma'at, that Rightness may be spread throughout the world,
and to Bast, who was once known as The Destroyer, and is now The Protector,
Ma'atemhet
aka Athena
www.maaticats.com
www.nilevalleyegyptian.com
www.emaurescue.org
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