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Smart, cute, agile and always ready to play, domestic cats are wondrous creatures.

Moggies is the British slang for cats who are Mutts or what we in America call the domestics.

The world of pure blooded animals has expanded exponentially during my lifetime.  When I was a child, there were a lot of cats and dogs around.  I don’t recall one of them that was considered a purebred animal. There were Thoroughbred and Saddle Bred Horses but cats and dogs were just cats and dogs.

As the German Shepherd dog, the Cocker Spaniel dog the Siamese Cat and the Persian Cat gained popularity so did the clubs and registries for cats and dogs. It became fashionable to have animals with proven backgrounds, bloodlines and of course, Pedigrees. The more champion ancestry in those Pedigrees the better…bragging rights, you know.

Inevitably the argument became which is better, the purebred animal or the Heinz 57 variety? Then as many ‘backyard breeders’ and puppy mills  proved greed, not love of the animals was their reason for  being in business, some things began to become clear.

The first thing lovers of dogs began to see was the harm being done to  Brachycephalic breeds like the Pekingese, the Pug and the English Bulldog. Cat lovers could see he same thing happening in the Persian breed. The problem was breeding for looks humans wanted in the dogs or cats with no thought at all to the health or well being of the animals. The result was dogs who cannot naturally deliver their young, cannot maintain their body temperature and are more susceptible to diseases and health problems that were rare or unknown in their ancestors.

Many dog and cat lovers came to be of the opinion it was better to have a Mutt than a purebred because of the health issue alone. Mutts were proving to be healthier and live longer than their purebred counterparts. You can find a Mutt with looks that mimic the best of the purebreds and they will usually carry the personality characteristics of the breed they look like. These reasons are why many people determined a Mutt was the best of both worlds.

This all culminated in Mutts being allowed as of last year into AKC agility, performance and rally competitions. They are not in the “beauty pageant” part of the dog show because that is a purebred dog competing against the ideal for his breed and of course, Mutts don’t have breed standards to compete against.

Now it looks as though cat lovers are finally looking for recognition of their Mutt Cats.  Moggies is the British slang for cats who are Mutts or what we in America call domestic cats. The most common breed of cat in the United States is the Domestic cat, either Shorthair or Longhair.  These are the cats you see at least one of in almost every American cat household and the cats you see numbers of around barns and farms.

From now on I think I will refer to the domestic cat as a Moggy. Perhaps giving them the name Moggies like Mutts was given to dogs will move the whole domestic cat group into a more recognized animal for our society. That might lead to the domestic cat being accepted as s part of American culture like the Mutt and that would make it harder to just kill them indiscriminately.

After all, that is what we are after, isn’t it?