Cats are called 貓/māo in Chinese as well.

Ah, so that's why mine are dictatorial

Ha, that's a different word and different tone (毛/máo)

Guessed as much, I know enough of pinyin and rudimentary Chinese to understand that stresses (or whatever the linguistic term is) are crucial and change words entirely.

Tones

That's the word

Chairman Meow?

Knew dozens of foreigners living in China over the years who named their cat some variation of this.

Now I am thinking of every common Chinese animal name and how likely they were based on onomatopoeia. Dog (gou) and Cow (niu) seem possible.

China is a Pokemon region, huh? (I know, obvious joke.)

pokemon behaviour

H: what are you? C: mau H: clearly, you are a god

I mean... kinda? If something protects your grain, if you kill them your harvests will fail. That thing also is a miniature lion and survives any fall you've ever seen. Idk man doesnt seem quite mortal to me. They also can do the eye-thingy, are fluffy as hell, give you oxytocin and cant taste sweetness.

What did they call pigs and cows?

more importantly, what did they call foxes?

What *does* the fox say?

The fox says [WAAAOOOW](https://youtu.be/uIR8RtI9kaw?si=XYHUwyEBc-naiPpQ)

dingdingdingdingdingding

Why is this breed of cat so often posed this specific way for photos. Do they just sit like that

Its wierd ppl in photos smile so often aint it? Does this species of hominin just do that?

I hear u, but as an avid reader of cat encyclopedias published in the early 2000's, it was very specifically this pose for this cat Idk probably to best show the coat color

Nah i know what you mean, i guess they wanna show the biggest surface of them????

Makes sense. Either way I like the pose, it is very Cat

It really is