by CMM
(FL, USA)
Striking eyes and coat
My friend got this cat at an auction, and gave it to me after she could not care for her anymore. If it weren't for her white paws, I would think she looked a lot like a Sokoke or a Bengal mix, with her incredibly soft fur, longer hind legs than forelegs, and curvature of her spine. I do currently live in Florida, where there is a breeder for both. I want to get her DNA tested because I am very curious. She acts like a Bengal, but she has a lot of ticking in her coat, which isn't favored in that breed.
She likes to play with water, especially when I shower, she likes to join me! She is also very playful (she rarely sleeps), and is not a lap cat but will lay on my stomach from time to time. I have taught her how to sit, shake, and stay without clicker training. She is highly intelligent, responds to her name when I call her, and she doesn't seem to fear anything, in fact, she actually enjoys riding in the car. I have given her real fur mousies that she loves to pick up in her mouth and carry around (and will play fetch). Unfortunately she likes to play rough and does like to bite. I am trying to break her of that habit. She makes an usual sound when she meows: it is like a chirp or a coo. She is not incredibly vocal and doesn't purr very often, which I find strange.
She certainly does not behave like any cat I have ever grown up with! She may just be a special mutt, which is fine with me! However, almost everyone who meets her comments on her beautiful coat and her striking personality... thus prompting me to wonder more...?
Note: I have had her for eight months now, roughly, and because I got her fixed, she has gained a few pounds... these pictures range from present to when she was literally a baby! She is still less than a year old, however, and still growing... she is awfully small for her age.
CMM
Hi.... Thanks for visiting and posting. First things first, two of your photos were not successfully uploaded which is why they are not on the page!
You can redo it if you wish and I'll add them to the page manually.
Secondly, I changed the title because lots of people ask, "what breed is my cat?" and my answer is always the same or similar! And "Bengal Mix" is a keyword (a word or phrase people use to search on the internet).
OK with that out of the way, you can see what I think from the title I have given the page.
My first thought is that she does not look like your typical moggie, random bred cat. Neither does she behave like a typical moggie - if there is such a cat. As you indicate her behavior is very much that of a wildcat hybrid.
Florida is a place where there are a number of Bengal cat breeders.
Basically, I tend to agree with all you say. I think you have come to the right conclusion, which is that she is a Bengal or Sokoke mix. I think it is more likely to be the former as the Sokoke is a very rare cat breed.
She has that wildcat hybrid face to me. Her ears are large (Sokoke type ears) and her coat is blotched tabby but she seems to be a calico cat. Am I correct?
Sometimes cat breeders of purebred cats try out something different. They make an experiment. I remember Martin Stucki of A1 Savannahs talking about the Savannah cat and what its appearance should be and he mentioned that a cat breeder was cross-breeding her Savannah cats with an American bobtail or something. He was not pleased. You do get breeders who step out of line and breed a cat that is very much not of the breed.
I would think that she is a Bengal cat mix, one removed from purebred.
These are just my top of the head on the run thoughts. Someone may do better.
Pepper and her brother’s mom was calico since they were feral kittens dont know dad her brother nutmeg is orange
Beautiful, Bev. Bengal mix?
Thank you I dont know but i really want to find out they are 6 months got them at 8 weeks may do a dna test.
She looks like my pepper!
I have a cat that looks just like this. I was wondering the same thing. Her coat is very different from any other cat I know. I’m a cat groomer and I see a lot of cats and the only cats I see that have this type of soft Plush Hair are bengals. Her coat is very shiny and looks exactly like the cat in the picture.
Here’s a photo compilation I did with her in it.
Hi Catherine. Thanks for the photomontage. What kind of Bengal Mix is your cat? I have just seen your earlier comment. This post might interest you:
Is a Maine Coon, Bengal cross possible?
here’s another photo of her. she also stopped growing and stayed almost kitten size. tons of wild energy, even at 3 years old, and SUPER smart! she even fetches.
I have a kitto i have also thought was part bengal for a very long time. From New Orleans, so same situation where there are lots of bengals and breeders around. Fig looks so similar to your kitty!
here’s another photo
I have had two cats practically identical one bought from a pet shop and later the same cats daughter! They’re def Bengal mixes and distinctive noises like chirping and quacking amuse me a lot. Faithful, liking company, not good with other cats. Beautiful soft fur and small compared to other cats.
With the mystery cat bought from pet shop one of the give aways that she had Bengal genes was that as a kitten she could climb a tree and come down the tree feet first! The other indicator was the vocalisation ( a lot of it!). I live in north London
Fantastic. Special cats. That little bit of the wild makes a difference. Thanks Elizabeth.
Thank you for the advice. 🙂
I am in Southern California, I live in Riverside and traveled to Los Angelos for him. Well, southern LA…it is a very rural area.
The person got exotic animals from other places, but he (and it was a three man team. He had his brother, and his mom, along with volunteers)…was also breeding exotic animals. It was obvious he did not get all these strange hybrids from other places (some may have, but not all).
It could be a large Bengal and an earlier generation of one. The forum I previously asked was a bengal cat forum and…I don’t know what they were about. They said he was a regular tabby…so, I actually moved on. A tabby does not make wild cat sounds and nothing else is tabby about him. And then they banned me because I thought I made him up…so…no idea what they were about. Anyway, that isn’t for here and not a big deal.
Now he does have some of the look of a Bengal. What they told me was Bengals had rounded cat faces…but, maybe earlier generations are different.
But, yeah…his paws are huge. Which I don’t think Bengals tend to have, do they?
Did we get a Bengal? Or a Mokave Jag cat (my wife and I think he is a type of one, but specicially bred by the breeder)? Or a bengal hybrid of some kind? Everyone says he looks nothing like a Bengal that we ask. And he acts far more like a wild kitty (very friendly and loving though).
First, pictures:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y149/Vendayn/Simba/photo1.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y149/Vendayn/Simba/photo2.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y149/Vendayn/Simba/photo6.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y149/Vendayn/Simba/photo15.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y149/Vendayn/Simba/photo7.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y149/Vendayn/Simba/photo11.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y149/Vendayn/Simba/photo10.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y149/Vendayn/Simba/photo13.jpg
So the story…
Me and my wife have asked many forums what he could be, and no one knows what he is. But, everyone says he looks nothing like a Bengal. A good friend of my parents and Grandma, said he was way bigger than any Bengal she has ever seen (and has gone to cat shows). She said “looks as big as a Maine Coon”. My wife’s aunt said “Wow, he is huge. Looks more like the size of a Cougar.”
He was born september 25th, and we got him in January. Today, not even a year old, weighs 18.6 pounds and is 3.6 feet long. Still growing very fast!
So, we got him at an animal sanctuary. The man who ran it (this was in the rural area of Los Angelos California), had Zonkeys, Mongolian horses, weird hybrid horses, weird hybrid lions (he had a Liger he said, but we couldn’t go in without a supervised visit due to legal reasons)…he had tons of strange hybrid animals and other very rare animals. And he said he a lot more, but he couldn’t show us unless it was a planned trip (we only went for the kitty).
Oh, he had some kind of camel/donkey hybrid…a camel/zebra hybrid and some other weird things. Tons of weird hybrids.
So, breeding very exotic animals. Breed exotic cat…
So, now about the cat himself…
He has chirped, roared (like a lion or tiger, heard that only once, wife heard it twice), growls not like an ordinary kitty (it is hard to describe, but like a wild cat growl), never meows (it is more like a squeek) and other strange sounds.
One thing though…even though he makes strange sounds…he is a very quiet kitty. He shows you he wants food. Shows you his litter box needs to be done. He never meows at you, but shows you instead. He doesn’t make too much noise at all.
He is very fast and climbs all over the place! He teaches himself more than we can ever teach him. He does bite a lot, but has taught himself to not bite us as hard. He can jump on top of the shower door (the thin metal part) and climb on the shower head. The most agile cat I’ve seen.
Loves water (plays in sink and water bowl, but not too much in the shower sadly. He is scared of the noise, so we are working on that…he calms down after a few minutes though and enjoys it. He likes it way more than he used to). We had a fountain water dish that he knocked over and then sat and watched us clean up the mess. We did. Filled it up. He did it again and sat and watched. That was kind of funny.
Oh and his fur is plush/velvet like (never felt a kitty with fur like him, so a bit hard to describe)…very soft…NEVER sheds at all. However saying that, he has only had tiny shredding (very little) twice or three times since we’ve had him and it always stopped after a nice shower. But it pretty much stopped after a few months of having him and he hasn’t shed since at all. But his fur feels really unique.
He likes to play tag/catch/follow you around the house/greet at door…very dog-like. He likes to play hide and seek and all kinds of games.
And lets see…well as I said, very agile and fast. Unique sounds we never heard from a normal kitty. Acts nothing like a normal house kitty (like tabbies).
But, with the description+pictures…hopefully you guys have some ideas. 🙂 I mean, man breeds exotic animals, guess he’d breed an exotic cat.
Oh and even though he may be wild or something…he is so loving to us. 😀 he is definitely mommies boy (always goes for mommy and starts getting scared when she leaves), but likes to play more with me). The only problem is he bites walls and my arms/legs…but we’re working on it. If he is a type of mokave jag cat, I did hear they are biters.
Oh, and he knows when my wife is having a seizure (she is being tested for them)…when it happens and I’m asleep, he can sense it and goes crazy and tries everything to get her to wake up. I think that is pretty unique and smart, and really worries about her when that happens.
Thanks. 🙂
Hi Joe. Here is one of your photos:
My initial impression based mostly on the facial expression of your cat but also the marbled tabby coat is that he is a Bengal cat or as you say a Mokave Jag. Bengal cats (and wild cat hybrids generally) do have a certain expression, inquisitive and confident. Here is a link to a page about the marbled Bengal cat:
https://pictures-of-cats.org/marble-bengal-cat.html
Here are two photos:
I find this surprising because he does look like a Bengal cat. He may be larger than the average Bengal cat but individual cats do vary in size. He may be a F3 which are larger than F5s for example. But he actually looks more like an F5 but just a large boy.
The vocalisations point to a wild cat hybrid definitely. It is one think that distinguishes them. That and their intelligence and activity levels. Definitely not a Savannah as too stocky and as for the rare Mokave Jag, this is also possible. Here is a page on this experimental breed:
https://pictures-of-cats.org/mokave-jag-cat.html
They are larger so this supports this theory. The fact that the person you adopted from was into exotic animals indicates it could be a more exotic cat than the Bengal cat. Jag Cats have large paws too and you have a photo of his large paws.
These are my guesses. A wild cat hybrid possibly Jag Cat. The breeder of these cats is in Jacksonville FL. I don’t know where you are but where you are may help with the assessment. Thanks for asking and sharing.
Here’s another picture of my little one!!
Very cute. Inquisitive face. Orange stripes. Unusual. He’s lucky to have you 😉 – and vice versa.
My cat literally looks and acts the same!!
Lizzy, your cat looks like a Bengal mix in the photo. Active. Lovely coat. Thanks for sharing.
I have a VERY similar cat who came from Georgia 4 years ago. She’s early gen Bengal in temperament, butr definitely tame and affectionate. Wild face and big boned build, at age 4 she has gotten tame with a wild side. A real drive to communicate. She makes the most unearthly sounds, sings and talks, and only learned to “meow” in her 3rd year, after long exposure to domestics. With the wite paws and caramel ringed belly, she looks like there’s a calico in her background, maybe her mom? If you look closely, her coat has some calico tendencies despite her stripes and spots. Now that I’ve adopted a tortie with white paws, I see the similarities. But this girl goes beyond “tortitude”! She’s a definite hybrid, but no idea if her dad was an early gen Bengal or something actually wild. She was a sweet kitten but quickly grew “difficult” and wound up in a shelter. Took me a year to get her settled in with me and now she’s strongly bonded and sweet but hell on wheels if her “fursibs” cross her. best cat ever!
That is a sign of wild cat blood because wild cats do have the ability to make cat sounds that we are not familiar with.
This reminds me of the F1 Chausie that the Flicks once lived with.
I adopted a cat last year that has the exact same markings and characteristics (in fur and in personality) that you describe. She was about 6 months when I adopted her and has stopped growing at 9lbs but I immediately thought the same thing – possibly a Bengal mix. I’m still researching but you cat matches mine exactly in coloring.