为什么十二生肖没有猫？ Why is the cat not a zodiac?

Māo yuán chǎn yú āi jí.
猫原产于埃及。
The cat is native to Egypt.

Jù shuō, zhí dào Hàn cháo, māo cái bèi dài dào Zhōng guó.
据说，直到汉朝，猫才被带到中国。
It is said that the cat wasn’t brought to China until in the era of the Han dynasty.

Nà shí hou qǐ, Zhōng guó rén cái kāi shǐ yǎng māo.
那时候起，中国人才开始养猫。
From then on, Chinese people started to have cats.

Kě shì zài nà zhī qián, wǒ men yǐ jīng yǒu le shí’èr shēng xiào, suǒ yǐ shí’èr shēng xiào méi yǒu māo.
可是在那之前，我们已经有了十二生肖，所以十二生肖没有猫。
However, we already had the 12 Chinese zodiac animals (before the Han dynasty), so there is no cat in the zodiac.

Nǐ míng bai le ma?
你明白了吗？
Got it?

Source: Learn Chinese in Chinatown 唐人街汉语