Danelle German, President • NCGIA
Al Stewart sang about it.
The Vietnamese recognize it.
The Year of The Cat.
I did a little research and discovered that
the Chinese calendar does not have a year
of the cat.
The story goes that long ago Buddha summoned all the
animals to assign them each a year. The cat
told his friend, the rat, and they decided
to go together the next day to get
their year. Well, the rat awoke early
and neglected to wake the cat.
Being a feline, he was prone to
long naps and thus slept late into
the morning. Of course, the cat
missed the entire naming of years
because of this and still, to this day,
blames the rat for his misfortune.