Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. The Dog is eleventh of the 12-year cycle of animals appearing in the Chinese Zodiac related to the Chinese calendar. This got us wondering, what happened to the cat? Well, the cat certainly got dissed by the Chinese! There is a tiger, but that is like saying we can swap out a wolf zodiac sign for a dog. So, why no cat? Give up? There are twelve months in the lunar calendar, hence only twelve animals allowed in the Chinese zodiac. When we dug deeper we found that cats originally came from Egypt and only Chinese Emperors owned cats, which means cats didn’t really appear in China until after the creation of the Chinese calendar (invented under the Yellow Emperor). There are also many folktales too, one that explains how the cat got tricked by the rat, who was not originally in the Chinese Zodiac. No wonder cats and rats are rivals!
