Emperor Xuanyuan wanted to choose twelve animals as court guards, and the cat asked the mouse to sign up. As a result, the mouse forgot, and the cat missed the date. Since then, the cat has sought revenge when it saw the mouse. Originally, the cow was pushed first, but as a result, the mouse sneaked up the cow's back to take the lead, and the mouse ranked first, and the cow ranked second. Not convinced, tigers and dragons were named as mountain gods and sea gods, ranking behind rats and cows. This time, the rabbit refused to accept it and wanted to race with the dragon. The rabbit ran in front of the dragon again. The dog didn't like it, so he bit the rabbit in a rage and was punished to the bottom. Snakes, horses, sheep, monkeys and chickens still went through some contests. In the end, You Zhu came and the dog was the second from the bottom.

The above legends also explain why there are no cats in the zodiac. In fact, there were no cats in ancient China. The hometown of domestic cats was in Sudan, Africa, and then it was introduced to Egypt, and from Egypt to China. At that time, the zodiac had already been formed.

Resources: /link? url=kPbt_dBll3XBhqB6YRvWo4AHPMtWGZYZCZRZXFnUz4s5lWpccGjvsQbLhohnkPqOlUHXewT8MtJ_F7RoIEwu8NLK6cPgGtxwuKJKNuhve