Abyssinians are a special type of tabby cat; they are distinguished from all other tabbies by their beautiful ticked, resilient coats. All tabbies, in fact, have this ticked or agouti background in their coats (whereby each individual hair shaft is banded with different colors); however, superimposed on this ticked background is a particular dark pattern such as mackerel, spotted, or blotched. Through more than 85 years of selective breeding, these dark patterns have been nearly eliminated from the Abyssinian breed, and this is what makes them so unique. Although other tabbies are bred in different colors, Abyssinians are bred and recognized for championship by CFA only in the ruddy and red varieties.(In CFA, the color blue was recognized in 1984 and fawn in 1989).

Some breeders prefer to believe that Abyssinians are the most ancient of breeds and that they were both companions and gods of the Egyptians. The history of the Abyssinian breed could begin whereever a ticked tabby walked, because similar cats existed in all countries. The notion that ticked cats were imported here, there, and everywhere is a rather provincial idea. There is little or no doubt that Abyssinian cats developed in England, for there is no record of any Abyssinian cat imported there.

Like so many other breeds, the Abyssinian is not without its legends, but the truth of the matter is that the Abyssinian is more at home on the Thames than on the Nile. The British really hand-tailored a group of cats that they called Abyssinians. They began with what was at hand, the British Shorthairs; many of these cats were of unknown parentage. That is not to say that a ticked cat did not come upon the scene to be used in the program; the earliest records indicate that the main requirement for the breed was a ticked coat. In the beginning, there was a great range of colors, extending from the wild silver agouti ticking to an intense yellow ticking. The silver color seems to predominate in the early Abyssinians if one notices the names of the cats. Such names as Aluminium, Quicksilver, Silver Memelik, and Silver Fairy hardly could have been given to ruddy-colored cats. Today, breeders are concerned about a silver "mutation", and such concern takes on another perspective in light of the early colored Abyssinians. Mr. H.C. Brooke (one of the early British breeders) opposed the silver color and, in order "to get back the warmth of body color....," used a cat he described as a "self red" in breeding his cats (Denham and Denham, 1951).

In the beginning, Abyssinians were, thus, silver cats accompanied by remnants of tabby markings. At a time when silver and brown tabbies were truly popular in England, breeders tried to produce a totally distinctive cat. They introduced a little red to warm up the coat as Mr. Brooke did, and they bred out the tabby markings. This kind of work took a long time and required great effort.

When any breed is established, there are certain breeders' names and cats that dominate the early registrations. Among those very early Abyssinian breeders were Mrs. Constance Carew-Cox, Miss E.A. Clarke, Mrs. Frederick, Mrs. Patman, Lady Edith Douglas-Pennant, and Lady Decies. Two other important names were Mr. Sam Woodiwiss and Mr. H.C. Brooke. All of these people were significant breeders of their time and they are responsible for establishing the Abyssinian as a recognized breed.