Nice kitty.
 

I lived with a couple Bengal Leopards for two and a half years. Big, wonderful cats.
An old Neighbor, NFL player/ Pride Fighter Bob Sapp, also had a big cat. I forget what it was, but you could tell she's be huge. Also a great cat.

Would love to have this kitty.
Nice kitty...:eek:

10 month old Bobcat kitten...


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We just got some oscelots here at our teaching zoo...

Wish we had the $ to set up a streaming webcam...

The cat in the video is an Amercian Bobtail (also has been de-clawed :( )...big difference between that domesticated cat and an American Bobcat:

http://blog.lauralemay.com/files/200...obcat.2471.jpg

Bengal "leopards" are not all big. My girl is only 7.75 lbs. The larger Bengals are the F1 ~ F3's and are more "wild" :

Wilson T. Cat demonstrating her 5+ foot vertical leap...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...lsonflying.jpg

Ahha, that's what our neighbor had!


The Bengals we had were considerably larger than 7 or 8 pounds. About 20 or so, and long enough in the body to stretch from floor to my belt line. They were freakin' big.


I share your sadness about declawed cats...


Yep.. Ocelot. Looks exactly like the what Bob had.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...0px-Ocelot.jpg

That's just a bit spooky, Wolfe. I can't "read" her like I can a dog playing like this. At times it looks like she really means it.

My old man had a buddy (way back when we were little kids) who had a female mountain lion. And a male St. Bernard. The cat pretty much stayed inside, and the dog outside. Him and his buddy would have no qualms about leaving all of the kids unsupervised in the living room with the cat. She was very friendly and playful. They would get really pissed if we tried to go out in the back yard; they were always afraid the dog would bite one of us. Weird, now that I look back on it.

When I was older (about 18-20), a buddy living out on Hobart Road had a pair of bobcats. Every Tuesday was poker night, and a couple of us would ride the Harleys from Kirkland to go out there and play cards. The bobcats were just like a couple of dogs; really quite unlike domestic cats. Friendly and playful.

Now that I'm a bit older (and arguably wiser...) I think I'm just a bit more leery of such "exotic" pets. Something is different in them than "domestic" pets. There is an instinct, or an outlook on life, that is different. Too many stories of the family pet turning on a long time master.

Those were most likely F1 ~ F3's...the cats used for breeding the "domesticated" (watered-down) version that I have. You can't really keep F1 ~ F3's as house pets as they spray and will f-up small kids and other animals. Most you see are kept in cages or breeding pens. My girl has a wild streak (you can't pick her up), but due to her size, she's not much of a danger to anything other than the skin on my arms (and bugs/lizards/rodents).

My 10-pound house cat is a darling around me and my wife, though he occasionally plays as aggressively as the cat in the video.

He is VERY protective of the house. He has all of his claws and he is not afraid to attack people or other animals (my in-laws dog, for example) if he does not want you in his house. Most cats hide when there are strange people around, my cat actively tries to drive those people from his house.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1215117755.jpg

I have a Siamese that couldn't be bothered to attack anything, as clearly, he is above all that.

Aloof with a capital A. ;)

Well, not a cat story exactly... My sister-in-law had a dog that was supposedly 3/4 or maybe 1/2 wolf and the rest German Shepherd. I've had lots of dogs, and seen them look back at me. I've ridden horses. And noticed that when a horse looks at you, it's different. It seems like they are thinking about you. But the dog that was part wolf, was really cool and creepy at the same time. When it looked at me I got a very weird feeling. It was awesome, but scary at the same time. I can easily understand why the indians saw something ancient and powerful in their eyes. I did too.

We had a bobcat (the real deal) kitten when we were young. They're great fun but, when the sun comes up (WAY early during summer in So. Dak) and you're a bobcat kitten, it's on like Donkey Kong. Jump up in bed, cuddle, purr nicely, then friggin' ATTACK anything that breathes. Three weeks and a few ounces of missing flesh from various children's heads was plenty for my folks....back to the general population for re-population.

One of my dad's clients had a mountain lion as a pet. The thing was young and friendly, but by the time it was an adult, it had to be kept in a cage (lived in their house), as it tore up the furniture and it didn't care for anyone but my dad's client, even his wife could not get near it. I believe he finally gave it to an animal sanctuary. It was the right thing to do. I have been within 30ft of a wild mountain lion ad they are huge, but to live with one?

My wife is currently on a field trip to study the population of Snow Leopards in part of Siberia, in an area called the Altai Republic near where Karzakstan, Mongolia, China and Russia meet. She will be there for two weeks with a bunch of other researchers, living in tents.

Will be interesting to see the photo's she brings back!

Tim

Awww...they're so cute (you get "snow leopards" by breeding a Bengal with a Siamese.)

http://www.hdw-inc.com/ed99snow1.jpg

If anyone living/visiting LA gets a chance, I highly recommend the tour of "Shambala", Tippi Hedren's (The Birds, Melanie Griffiths mother, etc.) big-cat rescue/preserve. It's not like a zoo, as you can get up close/personal with some of the cats.

Before starting the tour, they advised us not to rest against, or put our fingers through, the chain-link fencing. To demonstrate, a handler put a piece of chicken through the fence of a run containing a panther (black mountain lion) who had a balance issue (he wobbled around like a drunk sailor). This cat, as f-ed up as he was physically, made it from one end of the run to the other (about 30') before you could freakin' blink, and snatched the chicken out of the handlers grip. The handler barely had time to pull his hand back before that thing hit the fence.

After seeing that demonstration, you start wondering what a healthy cat could do. Nonetheless, no-one stuck their fingers through the chain-link the rest of the day.

He was sizing you up....for lunch.

I had a friend in collage that had a 3/4 wolf. He was really cool and had the howl of a wolf, that raised the hair on the back of your neck.

Thats funny!

The ones my wife is studying look like this.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1215142005.jpg

About half of the time, that's exactly what it felt like. Sometimes you'd get a weird feeling, turn around, and he'd be standing there staring at you. It was very eerie.

I raised Bengals for about 10 yrs. Cool cats.

Oh...you meant a real snow leopard. Heck, why doesn't she just get the DVD from PBS?...they had a great special on Snow Leopards recently. Would be much easier than travelling all the way to freezing cold Siberia in the hopes of seeing one (apparently they are very aloof). :D