Never Boring, Never Quiet

This sweet baby came to live with us the last week of November. We had promised Chelsea a kitty when we moved to Austin as we had given ours away before we moved. Sadly the first two attempts at a new kitty didn't take (one was peeing all over my furniture and the other turned out to be a feral cat that wanted to live outside - our neighbors have a couple 0f outside cats and he now lives with them). So this time I announced that we were not going to get a cat from the animal shelter but instead were going to get a sweet, healthy kitty from a breeder. Ha! After searching for months on the internet I convinced everyone that what we wanted was either a Savannah or a Bengal cat. Both are domestic cats that their ancestors have been bred with either wild Serviles (the Savannah) or wild Asian Leopards (the Bengal). Both are extremely outgoing, playful smart cats that usually are larger then a normal house cat. They can be taught to fetch and walk on leashes. The Bengals have extra soft fur (like petting a bunny), blue green eyes, a "M" on their foreheads, black tipped tails, striping on the legs, black bottomed feet and can have rosettes all over (ours just has his spots on his underbelly).

Since I had that week off from school we started touring catteries. Oh my goodness!! I'm thinking nice sweet old people with too many cats - wrong again! These were old people but this was their livelihood. They had outdoor facilities filled with dog runs that had multiple cats in each one climbing up the sides of the cages (the Serviles had all their own cages as they would eat the smaller domesticated cats) . And people were charging from about $1200 to $4000 for these cats. Emma saw no problem with these prices or the wildness of the kittens and thought we were the meanest parents ever for not getting her one!

Finally I saw this add in the paper advertising Bengals starting at $300. When I called the lady she was so rude I almost hung up on her but I guess if something is cheap enough I will put up with a lot of abuse. Only James and I drove out there because this lady insisted that we not bring anyone along with us. Think "crazy cat lady from the Simpson's". When we got there she made us stand off her property by the front fence and she would bring the kittens to us. Once we saw her 4 pet wolves wandering around, we agreed wholeheartedly with her! She had three very sweet, very pretty Bengal kittens that she was willing to sell to us. She had two normal friends there with her that had adopted two kittens from her in the past and they sold us on getting one of her kittens. Later we found out that she has cancer and several other serious health problems. She lives all by herself with all her animals and these people were out there checking on her and bringing her food. She had 15 other cats that live inside her trailer with her; a good 20 outside; two horses; and a few months ago a rescue group came out and took 19 of her wolves away leaving her the 4 we saw.

Of course we took our new little guy right to the vet. The vet said that the kitty had really bad ear mites that took three weeks to get rid of but the kicker was she had never seen such a bad case of giardia. It is a single cell parasite that is highly contagious to other animals and people. Hikers get it drinking contaminated water. 4 weeks and hundreds of dollars later we are still trying to get rid of this parasite. He's darn lucky he's so cute!

But having 7 people in a house trying to decide on a name has been ridiculous. Some call him Kanye, some call him Sheerkahn, some Mowgli, some Jumpin' Jack, but Fandango is what is on his tag so that wins this week...the ladies that work at the vet are excited to see what we are calling him each week. They have bets!!