Nice Kitty

When
dear old Mom informed us that she intended to replace her last cat, the
recently departed Jeema, with a 30-pound wildcat hybrid,
our first though was to check her medication. Mom has a way with animals,
and we always had a few in the house growing up. But she has always been
partial to off-beat, exotic pets, which may explain, in part, why she’s
hung in with the Dowbrigade so long.

Jeema, for example, was one of those completely hairless
cats, with wrinkled, gray elephantine skin, looking like a huge rat
with Hutchinson-Gilford syndrome (premature aging). Indeed, she
recently died
prematurely from
some rare feline blood disease. Personally, we couldn’t imagine getting
warm and cuddly with such a bizarre-looking creature.

We were therefore a little skeptical of the 30-lb cat
plan, until we looked on Google, and found that they do in fact exist.  Called
Savannahs, they are the offspring of a wildcat – the African serval
– and a domestic house
cat. They have been successfully bred and domesticated, and are now commercially
available.

The cats – which can cost from $4,000 to $10,000 –
are visually striking with their long necks and oversized ears, and
they can be intimidating. They look like little leopards and grow to
more
than twice the size of normal cats. They love to leap and splash in
water, and they don’t mind taking long walks on a leash. Some people
describe
them as dogs in cats’ bodies.

This from an
article in the New
York Times.  They
are also illegal to own in New York City and a growing array of jurisdictions
around the country (but not, unfortunately, in Down East Maine, where
Mom lives).

Objections to the Savanna seem to be more on principle
than due to any proven danger from the cats. Still, we are not entirely
comfortable with the idea of dear old Mom living with a half-wild predator.
Plus, there are disturbing
ethical implications:

"Breeders are creating animals for commercial purposes
that would never exist in the natural world," he said. "These
hybrid species are threats to the environment and potentially to the
families who think they are buying a family pet and could be purchasing
a wild animal."

Actually, poor hairless Jima is looking better and better
in retrospect.

from the New York Times