Ten Things You Need to Know About Owning a Bengal Kitty That the Internet Won’t Tell You or a Short Introduction to What is Really in Store For You ( And Why it is Worth It )

1. Bengals ARE domestic cats. Yes, bred from the Asian Leopard Cat, but they are not classified as wild animals. That said, they are not Cute Little Kitties with Spots. They are LOT of cat. Kind of like Extreme Kitty. Superhero Kitty. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Or leap onto you.

2. www.softpaws.com is your friend.

3. Bengals are interactive creatures. There will be no ” Hi Kitty , thanks for waiting so patiently for dinner, eat up and go lie by the fire in my lap while I pet you from time to time. ” They will tell you, vocally , about their feelings on being made to wait for this dinner, what they think of said dinner, and it will take them 30 seconds to eat it, after which, they are ready for the evenings entertainment. This will generally involve stalking their prey.

4. If you do not have a LOT of toys to play with, WITH your Kitty, this will be you. ( They invented ” Fetch” Dogs only stole the idea ) If you have a computer, get used to them running across it. These Kitties are constantly online and in contact with SOMETHING. They can also take DOWN a roll of toilet paper . They will save you from it. And tell you about it in detail. Vocally.

5. If you have lovely net curtains on your canopy bed, you will have new adventures in decorating and get some funny looks when people come over and see the shredded remains….They also love to creep under your covers. In the night. While you are sleeping. See # 2.

6. Bengals like to climb. ( Like say, French Doors, those lovely squares of glass separated by squares of wood?? Walk in the park. ) They can manage leaps of up to 8 feet. Remember tho, what goes UP , will come DOWN.

7. Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qit3ALTelOo . Watch this video. It will make you happy. It will make you smile. It will stay in your head, and you will send it to all your friends. One fact for you tho, the Kitty in this video is an Egyptian Mau . This is what was bred to an Asian Leopard Cat to create the Bengal. Enough said.

8. One question to ask is , Do you have the kind of friends who will mind, when they come to dinner, your Kitty leaping up to share the feast ? On the table. From your plate. And theirs. You can of course shut your Bengal in another room. Then your friends will wonder what the heck you have locked in there, as the door is pounded and shakes and screams ensue. This may cut down on your dinner parties. Which could be good or bad.

9. Get used to hearing strange crashes from the other room. Get used to saying ” HOW IN THE HELL!!!!!!!! WHY????” Get used to getting no answer from them ( and they will answer you ) but ” Well , it seemed like a good idea at the time, what the heck is your problem. Can we eat now? “

10. F3’s? Don’t do it. This tells you how far you are from the Leopard . F4 is your pet. At least 4 Kitty generations from WILD. Only people who are at home a LOT and know what they are doing have any business with an F3. Yes, we all have the nice fantasy of the Wild Creature who is our friend. They call it reality for a reason tho.

All this being said, and trust me when I tell you and this really IS a short introduction to the breed, they are as loving, sweet, intelligent , entertaining , loyal, playful, fun and wonderful as they are demons from the deepest darkest corner of doom. I adore them. They are not pets. They are family.

If you have the time and patience and understanding, they may be your breed. If you want a sweet easy Kitty, who will lie by your fire, and sit in your lap, your local shelter has LOTS. And they are beautiful. And they need homes.

If you decide , after reading everything you can find about these cats, that you want one, consider adopting one thru one of the MANY Bengal Rescue Associations . Too many, far too many , people acquire them, and find out they have WAY more Kitty than they bargained for, and these Kitties need homes.

Again, that being said…. .,

They will love you . Totally.

And you will love them.

Completely.

Love and Magic Kitties,
Lorraine

Kitty Cat is guest-blogging as SuperQuiche is multi-tasking to the max today, and Malena is off fighting crime in the Uk? in Egpyt? We forget….

“I’m in heaven….heaven….”
Look at this breakfast Quiche made for me this morning.

Yes, that is avocado on top.
And so what that i promised to be on clean-up detail since she cooked, it was completely WORTH IT!

Spent the evening of arrival at an Irish Pub listening to her charm the crowd and then we made it back home, chatting away like ravens.
Then next day we goofed around and went antiquing @ our favorite local place (which was closed but let us in anyway as she could spot some serious customers a mile away, i suppose).
Now i don’t know if this is SOP but you’ll have to ask my flame-haired tourguide—

(Just so you can see her amazing hair-color)
She ended up buying 2 chairs (one rocking, one stationary), one clawfoot piano stool, an entire set of British-themed antique dishes, one torture device, one glass (for me!) and the cherry on the cake? A beekeeper veil.

I bought a light-up, sea-blue green tinsel Christmas tree from the fifties & a glass owl & some playing cards and a set of perfect wine glasses. oh! mustn’t forget the Saltine cracker tin that i am double-excited about. My cherry on the cake? a copy of the film Alien with a full 3-D cover of the pod egg w/face-hugger coming out… Since the only thing i truly collect with any follow-through is lenticular 3-D items, i was/am on the moon.

Can this level of pleasure continue?
we will see.
now, back to the Batcave.

I was thinking a lot last night about New Years Resoultions , and things I really want to do. I started out to write a blog, but it turned into more of an essay, and really seem to make some things clear for me..

Here you go….

What Can One Person Do?

I have been thinking a lot this season, about what is important, about the world, about what the heck can I do to make things better. I’m not rich, I’m not known world wide, I have no skills that can save lives. I’m such a dork that I don’t know how to make my house look clean and today I found my paychecks and gig checks from the last month and a half piled up on my desk . Oh, and yeah, might want to deposit them and pay the bills.

What can one person do?

I play Irish music. I’m a fiddler. And an entertainer. I don’t play the Excel center for 70, 000 people. On New Years Eve I played for maybe 100.

New Years Eve really got me thinking. That gig was so very good. I don’t mean US, or even the music. Just what happened. All those people, coming together, forgetting the day to day, forgetting the bad, loving each other, re-connecting, coming together, loving music, and fun , making new friends, going home thinking that life is good.

A small thing making 100 people happy out of all the billions in the world. But that is happening in pubs all over the world. Every single night. 24/7. People leave feeling better . Just better. And happy.

That’s one thing a person can do.

I went to our Humane Society today. Broke my heart. They have 135 cats in there. I fell in love with 134 of them. ( ok, I lie, ALL of them. ) I could have taken any of them home and loved them forever. I just made arrangements to adopt a Bengal cat. A second. I thought ” What am I doing? For what this Bengal costs, I could have 20 of these”

What can one person do?

Well, I want another Bengal. And I make no apologies. But I asked if they had a Wish List and Darned if the didn’t. I thought, can I afford a bag of food, a bag of litter, some paper towels and a bottle of bleach, perhaps every week?

Oh yes.

What if everyone brought in a Thing or two every week? Or even once a month. A couple things. Or even once. One thing.What if everyone told a friend , every week, hey, can you buy a bag of litter for the shelter. And then they told a friend. And so on…..So simple, so easy. That might make a difference.

That’s one thing a person can do.

I can’t save the world, but I can make small parts of it better.

What can one person do?

What if everyone did one small thing, whatever it might be, a bag of food to the Pantry, the Humane Society, a friend in need, smiled at the person ringing up your groceries and asked how their day was going, took a moment to chat with the harried person at the post office, noticed the person on the phone at Customer Service sounded tired and asked ” hey you sound tired, long day ? ” or took that ( yet another in my case ) snow parking ticket in to pay and instead of growling at the people behind the desk, made light of it and laughed, made them laugh too, and feel good for a moment…….

Just making one thing good for one moment.

That’s what one person can do.

And there you have my New Years resolution.

For some months now I have been going thru something many women go thru. It’s never been quite so strong for me tho and finally I have come to believe, it’s the right thing to do. Yes. I want one more baby. I mean, why not? The house is big enough, I can afford it, I am a great Mother. Of course, I am not having this miracle myself, I want to adopt. So I started looking. I knew exactly what I wanted ( girl, of course ) I even knew colour.

It took a long time. She had to come from a loving home, not some sort of Baby Factory. After many many nights of searching, I finally found her HERE . There she was. The Family in fact, had six they wanted to adopt out. I have spoken to the Family, the terms are agreed on.

And here she is…..

She is just 5 weeks and will be coming to me at the end of January. She is a pure Bengal, silver marbled. They don’t seem to have the first picture of her up on the website now, but if you had seen her at 2 weeks, I tell you, there is not a one of you who wouldn’t have done the same.

Here she is with her Mom. ( Whose name is Saphyra. Hey, her Dad’s name is Brockenmoor WhoDunnit of Magical Summit. And I thought Freaky Venus Seaweed was an odd name )

I am in love. Obviously.

I have some other sound reasons for adding yet another Bengal. Freaky Venus is WILD, and is driving poor Misty Girl kind of crazy. Misty Girl likes her, and lets her wash her for time on end, and even plays with her. But Venus’ idea of ” Playing” soon deteriorates into a game of ” I am a fierce hunter and you are my prey. Prepare to die. ” And I think Venus needs something more to do all day than shred toilet paper, scatter my belongings, pull down my drapes , hide my glasses, scream for MORE food , and try and remove her nail covers and attack me when I get home. Or try and sleep. Or wake up to feed her.

So what do you do? Easy. Get another Bengal. Seems clear to me.

Actually, I kind of found a Kitty that might just be cooler than a Bengal, but at $20,000 , no, not a typo, the Ashera seemed a bit excessive. See them HERE.

( Yes, I see you out there, shaking your heads, saying darkly to yourselves, ” Trouble will come of this …” )

She even was born in the town my Mom and Grandmother were born in, an hour away from where I was born in New York. Fate, I say.

Life should never be dull. And I do not think mine will be.

Now, what to name her…..

And oh, yes, I told Venus tonight , and she is over the moon. Here is her Over the Moon face…

Love and Freaky Kitties,
Lorraine