The animal itself
Cats are the only common domestic animal that domesticated itself, moving into grain stores about 9 000 years ago in the Near East. They were never bred for a task, which is visible in the behaviour.1 of 2 calendars · 2,490 searches a month
Cat
The cat is read as independence and quiet observation. It appears in one of the two birth calendars we cover. The two are presented online as interchangeable, yet they name the same animal on only 17 days of 365 — 4.7% of the year.
Which calendar assigns it, and when
Celtic calendar
21 January – 17 February
Its tree
Rowan
Only the Celtic calendar assigns this one. Anyone born in these dates gets a different animal from the other system — the two agree on 4.7% of days →
What it stands for, and where that came from
Independence and quiet observation — presence without obligation.
Honoured in: Egyptian Bastet; Japanese maneki-neko as fortune; medieval Europe as the witch's familiar, which cost the animal centuries.
Counted across all 39 animals
Where the cat sits
22/39
animals here carry a birth-date range. The other 17 are symbols
people choose, not ones a date assigns.
4.7%
of the year — 17 days out of 365 —
is where the two calendars name the same animal. The rest of the time they
disagree.
4th
most looked-up of the 39 animals we cover.
Both calendars are published online as though interchangeable. They are not, and the disagreement is the reason two sites can give you different animals for the same birthday. How the two calendars differ →
Searched about as often
Cat is ranked 4 of 39 by search demand. Of all 39 animals here, 22 sit in one of the two birth-date calendars and 17 are searched as symbols only.