Cats

Cats, known in Arabic as gatwa [gat-wa] or locally in slang as miaos [mee-owh] are probably the most popular pets within Arab households.

Not only are they popular as indoor pets, many Arabs have an outside cat – that is they feed them either through the kitchen window or put food outside for them, but they never put a paw inside the house.

In many areas you’ll see feral cats, and it seems that each dustbin area has different coloured cats (all black, or all tabby, or all white) living in it.



Urban Legend
I've always liked this story; Someone once told me the reason for tabby cats having the shape ‘M’ on their forehead, between thier two eyes, is because the Prophet Mohammed once touched a cat's forehead and from then onward his inital appeared on all tabby cats.