Posted on 03/24/2006 9:52:40 PM PST by DogByte6RER
Resident develops new breed of dog-like cat - the puppykat
By: JOSE CARVAJAL - Staff Writer
LAKE ELSINORE ---- It's not a dog; it's a cat that acts like a dog. Confused? Don't be. It's a "puppykat," a new breed of cat developed by Lake Elsinore resident Dawn Houston.
Houston says she stumbled across the puppykat seven years ago, when two wild cats she had rescued mated. Their offspring were very puppylike, she said, so she gave them the new moniker and began breeding more of them.
Three years ago, she said, she began breeding them full time.
Houston, who said she has rescued animals most of her life, has big plans for the puppykat.
Already, she has registered the breed with the Rare and Exotic Feline Registry.
And she plans to continue to breed and sell puppykats ---- she guesses she has already sold more than 40 of them in the last seven years for between $275 and $675 ---- so that she can raise enough money to fund future cat-rescue efforts. Those efforts include plans for responsible breeding education programs and plans to get lax breeding regulations changed.
The puppykat, Houston said, has become popular with people who like their pets to have certain traits more commonly found in dogs. Like their canine counterparts, puppykats are more social, curious and playful, she said. They'll even come when you call.
Their physical traits ---- mainly their folded ears and shorter tails ---- are also doglike.
"A lot of people that would have never gotten a cat are now open to owning a cat," Houston said.
Kent Broussard bought two cats from Houston about a year ago. One of them was a Manx, the other was a puppykat.
He said that, while the Manx is standoffish and tends be content on its own, the puppykat craves the attention of humans and is much more playful.
"She just has to be around people," the Laguna Beach resident said. "She loves being petted. She's a little sweetie.
"She definitely follows you in the other room like a puppy. That's a perfect name."
While the results may be adorable and Houston may have found a market for the puppykat, her breeding hasn't been received positively by everybody.
Breeders and cat lovers from across the country have sent dozens of e-mails and letters criticizing her for mixing the Scottish fold, Manx and polydactyl breeds, something they consider dangerous to the health of the cats.
But Houston asserts she's being responsible.
She takes great care to make sure the cats she uses in breeding don't carry the same dominant genes, she said, thus eliminating potential dangerous genetic threats to the cats.
Plus, she isn't doing what many breeders do, Houston said, in overbreeding their cats by inbreeding or by making individual cats have too many litters. Those can each have detrimental effects on generations and generations of cats, she said.
"If you do it wrong, it could be traumatic," Houston said.
Houston also shot back at the animal rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, whose members have heavily criticized her the last several weeks after reading a news report about her breeding. They have sent dozens of e-mails and letters, she said, many of which have been less than pleasant.
PETA researcher Dan Paden said that his organization was contacted by more than 100 people who complained that, through her breeding, Houston is contributing to the overpopulation of cats.
The organization issued an action alert through its Web site, he said, asking people to contact Houston and ask her to stop the breeding. It also urged them to ask her to donate the money she has made through selling puppykats to spaying and neutering programs.
The alert calls Houston's plan of breeding puppykats in an effort to help rescue other cats the "most dim-witted idea ever." It states that breeders like Houston "have created a tremendous overpopulation problem that forces animal shelters across the nation to put millions of dogs and cats to death every year."
Paden said PETA has never before issued an action alert for a breeder like Houston.
"No one before has ever proposed that purposefully breeding animals is a good way to help fight the overpopulation crisis," he said. "It's unique in its irony. It's unique in our response."
But Houston said that those who have accused her of contributing to the overpopulation problem don't know what they're talking about.
There will always be people out there, she said, who prefer to buy cats from professional breeders instead of shelters. That market will always exist, she said.
More importantly, Houston said, every cat she sells is spayed or neutered before it is released to its new owner.
All the fuss raised over her puppykat breeding is much ado about nothing, she said.
"I know what I'm doing," Houston said.
Contact staff writer Jose Carvajal at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2624, or jcarvajal@californian.com.
To comment on this article, go to www.californian.com.
My cat is and has always been kind of like that. She will speak on command, follows me around like a wet puppy, very dog-like in disposition.
My Abby was in many ways like a really smart dog.
My cat is every bit as special as her 'puppycat', he even thinks he is a dog.
"My cat is and has always been kind of like that. She will speak on command, follows me around like a wet puppy, very dog-like in disposition."
Now you gotta find a car of the opposite sex that acts like a dog and mate them. Keep doing this and make a new breed. This is exactly how dogs where breed by humans.
Cats are evil.
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I have a Korat cat... it has all those same qualities and is a heck of a lot more beautiful... here's some pics of the breed:
http://www.mistyblue.us/koratpage-2.html
Apparently animal husbandry is not this woman's strong suit (nor PETA's).
My Korat plays fetch, is more authentically Siamese than the breed of that name, has no hairball issues, and is better looking too!
In mathematical terms:
Korats > all other cats
Any cat >>>> dogs
She had those follow-the-people dog-like urges, but she had regular cat pride and aloofness.
When my wife and I would go upstairs retiring for the evening, the cat would follow. But, only after a prideful delay of five to ten minutes, trying to give the appearance that her retiring for the evening when we did was nothing but coincidence.
And when she got upstairs, she wouldn't come fully into the bedroom. She would sit in the door way ~~~~with her back facing into the room~~~~ just for an extra little display of indifference.
Actually, I don't think this is altogether rare. People talk about them all having different personalities. Well, they may each have their own set of "plays." But they all come out of the official cat "playbook," which really is a fairly small document. (It's first page used to explain to cats how to respond to paper grocery bags on the floor which came awfully close to being a universal cat behavior. Don't know what they do now with the prevalence of plastic grocery bags.)
Your will never see a breeder try to make a dog look like a cat...muahhahahahah
Cats are on this planet so dogs have somthign to chase...its that simple...
ROTFLMAO!! You just reminded me of a time when I was on the phone trying to have a series conversation and here comes a plastic grocery bag with claws and paws flying out of the bedroom, slamming into the kitchen table, and rocketing back into the bedroom -all within about four seconds.
I dropped the phone because I was laughing so hard!!
I have a half-Korat....oh, what a mess he is! He's such a sweet, smart kitty and such a HANDFUL! But yes, doglike sums it up well.
I wonder if she meant feral cats? Except for Cougar and Bobcat families there are not any true wild cats in this Country. If the two feral's mated I think the " dog like" traits are most likely a glitch in the gene system.
There is a very good reason why you do not have the variety of appearance among cat breeds as you do among dog breeds. I mean compare a poodle and a greyhound.
I am not an animal breeder but something just does not sound right to me.
I once had a cat with those traits, the problem was it kept chasing itself up a tree.
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