Owners Say Cats Descended from Non-Domestic Animals Are Safe [photo essay]

ABC News ^

[Slings and Arrows]

The first known Savannah cat was born April 7, 1986 when a female domestic cat gave birth to a kitten sired by an African Serval, according to the International Cat Association (TICA). It is described as a tall, lean, graceful cat with "striking dark spots and other bold markings.

[NoGrayZone]

She is an excellent hunter. Long story short...my old apt. was being renovated into a new one. Little did I know it attracts those cute little grey mice with big dark eyes.

I cannot recall how many of these little mice I saved from her, let alone the dead ones she left for me to step on.

Anything that comes in, she is “on patrol”.

[NoGrayZone]

My cats are strickly indoors, my rule and theirs, lol. Front door knocks and or opens they run to the “batcave”...my bedroom.

[Fire_on_High]

A certain stud’s offspring do indeed have the reputation for being nutty and aggressive. Problem is, he was a damn fine looking cat, who sired a loooooooot of kittens, and the aggression passed down pretty reliably.

AAM had some of his descendants and can tell you more.

[Darnright]

The Siamese cats I encountered as a vet tech were a sociable lot, for the most part. I’ve got one spayed female Siamese and she’s a good kitty. Her worst habit is abusing our small dogs when the mood hits her.

[AnAmericanMother]

It's all breeding, whether it's cats or dogs or horses. You gotta watch the pedigree. Cats are more hard-wired and less dependent on proper socialization than dogs, so what you see is what you get, mostly.

There was a particular Quad Gr Ch who was hell on wheels, I saw him bite right through a judge's hand at a cat show and flee under the bleachers (there's some sort of rule that a cat show has to be in a school gym) and bite everybody who tried to winkle him out (including his owner).

I had one of his descendants, I saw him in the pedigree and thought "Uh-oh," but he was 4 generations back and the kitten's mother was a sweet affectionate soul, so I thought it would be o.k. . . . mostly it was, but every now and then he would chomp on somebody. But he was the only Siamese I ever had (and I had a bunch - bred and showed them for years before I got into dogs) who had a tendency to bite people. They would all bite mice, rats, crickets, etc. and any dog that looked at them funny, but not people.

[goat granny]

Years ago one of my kids brought home a cat (I love cats, hubby didn't like cats)and we were sitting in the living room with me reading a book and the cat on my lap...she suddenly sat up and looked toward toward the kitchen, jumped off my lap and about 5 minutes later came back into the living room with a live mouse in her mouth....She looked at me and actually growled like a wild cat. She then spent the next 45 minutes playing with the mouse. She'd put it down and the mouse would look dead and she wouldn't take her eyes off it. The mouse would suddenly come alive and run for its life and she would catch it again. It was a game for her and I didn't know what to do, called my sister as to how to kill the mouse, she said drop a heavy telephone book on it....Couldn't go along with that suggestion. Finally I got the broom and waited for the cat to drop it again and nailed it with the broom and using some wadded up plastic, picked it up and put it into a large medicine bottle, put the lid on and put it outside...Middle of winter in Michigan, it died. Must have made the cat happy that I got rid of the mouse. She came back and sat on my lap as I then continued to read my book......

She must have thought I was a poor hunter and was teaching me...in reality, I don't know if she really knew how to kill that thing,. I read an article later that said kittens have to be taught to kill by their mothers...

[saleman]

I live in a wooded area, 15 acres no other houses.

It used to be full of mice and lizards.

Apparently lizards don’t agree with my cats stomach. Nothing quite compares to heading to the bathroom in the middle of the night and stepping in a pile of cat puke with half a lizard in the middle of it.

[Slings and Arrows]

Either way, it’s a great story. ;^)

I don’t know whether cats have to to be taught to kill, although it’s certainly possible. My brave little moth-killer might disagree, though.

[freedomlover]

The only experience I have ever had with Siamese was when going over to get a “free kitten” at what turned out to be a cat lady’s house. As we walked down the hall past probably 60 cats, the lady pointed into a side room that had about 8 siamese sitting on a table, looking intently at us walk by.

Cat Lady said with a very serious voice: “Don’t EVER go in there - EVER”

We didn’t.

[MWestMom]

My husband maintains that if cat owners were shrunken down to mouse-size that their cats would have no problem stalking, and then eating them.

[jjotto]

Heck, if cats were even half the size of their owners they would torture and eat them.

[freedomlover]

“Nothing quite compares to heading to the bathroom in the middle of the night and stepping in a pile of cat puke with half a lizard in the middle of it.”

Waking up to a dead mice head (with a side of entrails) on your pillow might compare. About three times every spring.

I used to joke to my wife that the cat might be giving us a “Godfather warning”.

She never laughed.

[MWestMom]

LOL! Hubby agrees. : )

[saleman]

Yea, what’s up with that?

Women just have no sense of humor.

[Slings and Arrows]

My husband maintains that if cat owners were shrunken down to mouse-size that their cats would have no problem stalking, and then eating them.

Maybe, maybe not.

[MWestMom]

Now that is just a whole lot of cuteness!

[Slings and Arrows]

Can’t go wrong with lions AND weenie dogs!

[AnAmericanMother]

Or as professional hunter Peter Capstick once observed, “The only reason there are not more reports of man-eating Siamese is that they are just not big enough . . . “