Thread: It's tough loving cats.

This is one of our $7k squatters, Thorin.
Bengal aka Leopard Cat.



This is our female Serengeti. She is a blue phase which is usually weeded out of the litters and is not desirable for showing. We call her Zelda Blue.The breeder that started this line lives close to us. She produced both of these fur beasts. She wrote the standards for TICA and is also credited for helping to establish the Bengal lines with Jean Sudden Mill.







Zelda the serengeti is much more outgoing and dog like in her behavior but she's an F-10. Thorin the Bengal is more recluse and stays on the edge of your reach until he is comfortable and wants attention. Then its only for a few minutes. He's only an F4 which is still pretty close to the original pair. Its not until you hit F5-6 and up that they start to become more social with humans like you would expect most cats to do. F1-3 are still very wild and do not make good house pets. Trust me, Ive been to her cattery and got a first hand look at them. Amazing and beautiful but you are still lunch and or a threat that needs dealt with. The F1-3s still have the larger than normal eyes for their head size and the ears are huge. Its no joke when I tell you Bengals can leap straight up 8-10 feet with little to no effort. Ceiling fans are a resting place for these guys.

Nice looking cats folks, I've always been a Bengall cat fan myself, but have never owned one, when I hit the bed in about 15 min. I'll have 4 cats with me, my Bob-Tail, The Grey tabby (Freya), my black cat named Leo, and my little Calico,cat (Spitfire) who has been very sick lately, running a fever, not eating and hardly drinking, I have her on some antibotics and 1/2 of an appetite pill once a day since Thursday, she has started eating and drinking some. She can get to the box for No. 2 but still can't make it for No.1 so she sleeps on a couple of folded towels. Boy, Vet bills costs more than when I go to the doctors. $224.00 this time.

Premium looking cats, I kind of like Ocelots, a friend breeds them. I have had two wild Cats, an Alaskan Lynx and a Mountain Lion, both found as babies with no mother. They were each fun to raise and returned to the wild when they were ready. The Mountain Lion went into the area of several breeding pairs in the canyon North Of Paradise California, had ringtail Miners cats in the canyon too, I would wake up at night to feel eyes on me and a ringtail would be sitting on the beam above the bed watching me sleep, you could hand feed them fruit and I had to protect any fruit not locked up or they would have it. The Lion, he got Huge, I was 6ft5" and he could stand and easily look me in the eye and was quite a strong wrestler, when he attacked me from behind one night I decided to take him to Cement Horse, the same area that "The Last Yahi" Indian lived in and turned him loose, I had logged in the area before and knew there was plenty of game for him to eat. He was back in 3 days, about 45 miles as the crow flies. Took him back out, further and he went to living on his own. None of those cats ever ran up a vet bill.

My boy Seamus, who has been departed from this planet for awhile....and as the OP mentions, just lost another cat, "Ink" or "Inky", stroked out a couple of Friday's ago, then had to be put down, he was another incredible cat, born with no or malformed vocal chords, but did his best to be quite the talker, he sounded like something gasping everytime he'd start chatting away...big black cat with some Siamese in him...

Should also add, my daughter has a pure-bred Rag Doll cat named "Cassie" that is insane, and we have a orange and white male cat named Angus who is essentially the cowardly lion, and freaks out every single time he goes outside, thinks the sky is going to fall on him, and a thunderstorm...stay clear, he goes psycho...

Here's a quick pic I have of Seamus sitting on my old pool table, think he was a Forest Cat or a Maine Coon, he was 22lbs of solid muscle, could literally spring off one pillar to another outside our house and casually appear at the second or third story bedroom window and start crapping off to be let in...crazy jungle beasts, gotta love em...

At my age, and being single, I can no longer do justice to being owned by a cat and be able to care for it properly. The probability is that I will pass before the cat. That said, I am fortunate in having a few friends that have cats that like me. I walk in and get slammed sometimes. No I don't wear tuna cologne!
I have enjoyed wondrous cats over the years and found good homes for them when necessary, as business moved me cross country.
In the 70's, recently single, I met a friend that rescued cute kittens that grew too big for their homes and i got to know big cats. Nowadays, she would be jailed for having rescued the 8 Bobcats( up to 42#), three Thai Leopard cats (about 16#ea.)that looked like Black Leopards, One Asian Tree cat (72#), four very nervous house cats and one mutt that all accepted! The cats later were found good homes in small zoo's
I have been most fortunate to have been accepted by the formerly pet Bobcats and their kittens...to the point that the rescue lady cussed me out when Sonja brought me her new kittens, not even eyes open yet, one by one, and placed them into my hands then returned them to her nest under the shelter. The "Grizzly Adams" trailer with the bobcat jumping on his shoulders... is a very common action for the Bobcats. Having a twenty-five pound individual jump to your shoulders and pull your hair as a kitten does when you walk into the enclosure is a memorable experience. Funny, in the years I knew the cats, I never got a scratch! The enclosures were about 1000 square feet or larger with climbing trees and platforms and plenty of water with a chicken wire cover at about 10 feet up..
I got to know the Asian Golden Cat 'Canella'...that is what Rona called 72 pounds of loving kitty! I can guarantee that if she, the cat, wanted her ears scratched, you knew it immediately! Seems the breed name of the cat was wrong because she was more than twice the Wiki stated body weight and looked like a Puma. By the way she was a house cat as were the Thai Leopard cats and 'Savitar' the biggest Bobcat/Lynx I ever did see at 42#. The house did not stink!! Well trained they were! A side note; If the cat tenses up when being petted/scratched, it is overstimulated and may let you know in an unpleasant manner! Just back off and let it cool down.

I had 'Savitar' stay at my lodgings for a week..they were in a bad part of town. Funny thing, the Bobcat call is very loud and I had no visits at all from the neighbors, from then on...I had been burglarized the day I moved in. We sneaked 'Savi' back in the dead of night.

Cats, before and since then, have made my life bearable, tided me over hard times and put me back together after seeming huge losses. They were, Alleycat, Siamese, Manx, and others, I have been blessed!
Each cat is a personality and no two are alike. Seems I was lucky enough to have the right one come into my life as I needed their love. May every one have that kind of experience of natural caring!
~Richard

Your right Richard, if I didn't have my cats life would be very lonely. I am 55 and hope I live to have at least a couple of more, Freya is in good health but being around 15 years old she could go to sleep one night and that would be the last, I hope when she goes it is nice and easy. I will cry like a baby and make her a good place to sleep in the great divide. I have no friends except for my brothers, all my friends from high school etc, are into "stuff" I don't want to be around.

August 8th 2099

the Last Good Buddy...

I had not seen my Good Buddy in a while. I was wondering what all he has been up to since our last time we had gotten together. I started looking around all the usual haunts where he could usually be found to no avail. I was starting to get a little worried about him. This is not like Buddy. He always was in contact with us on regular bases.

I mentioned this to my wife and she had not seen him in a while either. Now both of us are worried. My wife mirrored my thoughts "This is not like him.," she said out loud. A little while later, I get a call to come in from the wife. She had found a blood spot, a good-sized one.

Oh crap I thought. On looking around, we found more. "HOLY CRAP!" aloud I said this time. This is not looking very good. As I rounded the corner I saw him napping in his favorite chair. Oh good I thought, he is sleeping off another all-nighter as usual. Buddy in known everywhere to gallivant around at all hours of the day and night.

As I approached him I could smell urine and facies. This is not good. When I saw the pool of black blood, my heart skipped a beat and I sucked in a lot of air. Fssssipp! Crap now I could taste it. My Good Buddy has been hit. As I surveyed his wounds I was immediately taken back to The Nam. The sound of chest sucking wounds and the smell of gut shot comrades are never forgotten. The only thing missing was the yelling and screaming and the smell of burnt nitrates. The wounds were just small punctures in his belly, like bullet holes but the smell is a recognizable fatal smelling smell. I had been here to many times before. You never have forgotten it.

Buddy was in deep shock by this time. At the speed of light, I bundled my good friend up and medevac’d us to the nearest hospital. I took him into ER where the triage team immediately started to work on him. There is hope now. He is with the best in the business. Bar none. They had saved another good friend of mine awhile back.

The waiting is the hardest part. After what was, an eternity the doctor came out and wanted to talk to me. He took me to this little room off to the side. "Can I see him?" I asked. "In a minute but first I need to talk with you about Buddy's condition." He put up some x-rays on the light box. Before the doctor spoke, I could already see the mass damage to Buddy's organs and organ sack. Crap he is toast I thought.

As the doctor was confirming what I already knew I looked up at his diploma on the wall. All right! he was a Texas A&M graduate like my father. On the A&M campus is a memorial for all the Alumni that have been killed serving our country. My father is on that stone, he was killed in Korea. Small worlds at the craziest of times. Next to that was a Bronze Star award. For valor under fire in Iraq as a combat medic. Buddy could not be in any better hands.

I finally get to see Buddy. He is all bandaged up with the smell of iodine in the air. I am told he does not have much time left. I hold his hand and talk him for a little while. He looked up at me and then he was gone. I fought back the tears as I kissed my friend good-bye...

the Last Good Buddy...



RIP Good Buddy

After seeing the Bengals in a previous post, I have to put a picture of my pal Felix here. He is a marbled Bengal. He's quite a handful. He opens doors, opens cabinets, loves the water and will play "fetch" with his toy mice until my arm gets sore. I'll throw them and he'll bring them back and drop them at my feet. He will do whatever it takes to get your attention and let you know what he wants. He's the king of mischief and a true showman.


Pete <:-}

jmercer, my heart goes out to you for your loss. I am sure the Universe welcomed him and healed his wounds and took away his pain. It is never easy to say good by and let go of a simple yet complex animal like a cat without feeling part of yourself die with them. If what my departed cats have done, I'm sure he will too and will visit when you least expect it. A noise, or catching something moving in the corner of your eye when you least expect it and your soul will tell you them came to make sure that you are alright without them. Remember in the best possible way - the good times.

You mean that some low life shot your cat??. If that's true there is a low life living in your neighborhood. I love all animals and will just about put my car in the ditch avoiding them if they are in the road, I have even gotten several Box Turtles out of the road this summer and found a field for them to roam in.