Cat head-butting happens a lot. It is scent exchange and friendship reinforcement. I believe this is the hardest domestic cat head-butt on YouTube! Therefore it is the hardest. If someone can disprove that statement, I’d be pleased.
The cat is Titan – an F1 Savannah. This short video is an extract from an earlier video. The person is Kathrin Stucki formerly of A1 Savannahs in Oklahoma who raised Titan. That is why Titan is so close to her. The voice you first hear is the human caretaker of Titan. I have forgotten his name, sorry. They are in a large pet shop, warehouse facility in the USA.
Titan stopped everyone who walked by him, which is bound to happen because he is so impressive. He has a sweet, boyish voice. His “owner” calls him manly. Yes, he is, but he is also quite young and more a big boy than a man (without anthropomorphizing cats). He certainly gives you a belt when he shows his friendship.
F1 and F2 Savannah cats are large and impressive. For a person to wander around a store with a first filial Savannah cat on a lead is very rare and very noticeable. These cats are exceptional. You can count them on the fingers of one hand in the USA. I suppose that makes them very valuable and therefore prone to being stolen on the street or in the store! Just to be clear ‘F1’ means that the cat’s father is a Serval (a medium-to-large wild cat species) and the mother is a domestic cat, probably another Savannah cat with the correct coat type. These cats have a wild side as you can imagine. Living with them takes some organising and people should not make the decision to live with a high filial wild cat hybrid lightly.
Note: This page was first published on 28th Feb 2013. I have republished it because older pages can become forgotten by Google and they become almost invisible which is a shame because they deserve to be seen. The republishing is why the comments are dated Feb. 2013.
From Hardest Domestic Cat Head-butt on YouTube? to Home page.
I actually need to update, I’ll just do it as a comment, the lovely Eva who is in the blog was adopted on Friday, Trixie on Sunday and Gaia, the little kitten found in a garden I mention went to her forever home a week ago 🙂
Hi, wasn’t sure where to post this, but I know you are aware of the branch of Cats Protection I volunteer for, Wear Valley And Darlington. I wrote this a few weeks ago to illustrate the work of our fosterers 🙂
http://vickycatsprotection.blogspot.com/2013/09/2-years-in-life-of-cats-protection.html?spref=fb
Thanks Vicky
Really interesting Vicky and such lovely cats, Wear Valley & Darlington CP is a wonderful branch and one I love to support, Michael and the POC regulars have been very generous to CP helping out with Chester’s expenses and Marc, one of the POC family, was the man who more than doubled our proceeds from the stall at Wilson’s Vets 20th birthday, so you’ve come to the right place and will be in the good company of other cat lovers.
Vicky, as I love to read about real rescue cases, I have a question. Would you either (a) let me publish your article on PoC or (b) write something for PoC about cat fostering? As a reward PoC would be happy to make a donation to Cats Protection.
You are more than welcome to use it Michael, I wrote it for people to learn more about what fostering can entail 🙂
Ruth, I know how generous the members of PoC have been to our branch, we appreciate every donation they have made, it’s a great site and a wonderful way of helping rescues.
I am just writing about you right now 😉 I have selected a part of your experiences. Thanks. You’re a star.
You’re very welcome. I am more than happy to write about our branch, I love writing, so any area of the work we do you would like to know about just let me know.
I have written about Saeko. I’d be very pleased if you could write about your experiences with a cat or cats that you have cared for on behalf of Cats Protection.
Perhaps something that stands out or a general thought or common problem that covers all the cats. Or just write about the branch and promote it.
If you could do that it would be great. You can email the article to me at:
mjbmeister [at] gmail.com. If you have time that would be nice. No obligation.
wrong sister Vicky lol
I love head butts from my cats
No I don’t think its right either to breed half wild half domestic cats in fact it upsets me to see them caged and with no freedom from harnesses and leads.
I suppose it’s like false teeth you get used to wearing them but it doesn’t mean you like it.
I have got to be honest, I don’t think F1 wild cat hybrids fit into the world. They do fit into some places such as large compounds owned by the very rich. That is it really. They are beautiful cats and I really like and admire the breeders (A1 Savannahs) as people but….I’ll leave it there.
But even large compounds are still prisons when alls said and done and the cats are in the power of their owners when they must long to be free.
Yes, that is true. Exotic cats don’t really fit in. That said a very large compound would be the same size as the home range (entire required territory) of a domestic cat. However, compounds like this don’t exist and no one thinks about it.
Yes we call Walter Mr Hardhat because he really socks it to us. Titan is a lovely cat, no doubt about it, but I feel sad and sorry at the sight of that lead dragging and does Titan have to live in that barred cage?
I am sure he has to live indoors or on a lead outdoors. Too expensive. Too rare. Too wild. Too beautiful. People are too much of a pain in the backside because they’d steal him.
He has a sweet kitten-like voice for a very big domestic cat.
Too expensive yes, a man made product for a rich woman or man. Too wild, then obviously not meant for domestication. Too beautiful? No, beautiful oh yes but no more so than any other cat, even the scruffiest lowliest feral moggy is beautiful and a miniature work of art (Just ask Leonardo da Vinci). The trouble is these cats are bred for the rich and privileged, they’re not pets they are possessions and if they weren’t alive and kicking would be stored away in a safe or bank vault like a gold bar. It just makes me sad, I normally don’t begrudge anyone anything, if they can afford it best of luck to them, but when it comes to a living creature my thoughts are more for how that animal has to live than on how impressed I am at someone’s wealth and possessions.
You make an excellent point as usual. I hate to say it but it seems to me that super exotic cats tend to seen as possessions much like a super car or a great kitchen. That is not to say that the owners don’t love their exotic cats and care for them extremely well. They do. But the motivation to adopt such a cat is sometimes different to our motivation.
That’s it exactly Michael, someone who buys a super car, great kitchen or exotic cat takes great care of and has great pride in their possession and I’m sure does love them, but not in the way you love Charlie and we love Walter and Jozef, and all the PoC’ers love their feline family which is a “warts and all” type of love, unconditional and uncaring of looks and value
I’m totally against the breeding of half wild cats, they are not ours to mess about with interbreeding. Leave wild animals in the wild! There are plenty of small already domesticated cats desperate for homes.
Yes Titan looks happy and I’m sure he is because he knows no different, he has had to accept who and where he is, but I expect he sometimes feels deep instincts from his wild side telling him he is missing out on something.
I love it when our boyz give us ‘butties’ Jozef does them very gently but Walter just about knocks our heads off at times lol
He’s a beautiful cat no mistake I just can’t make up my mind about whether the whole hybrid thing is good or bad 🙁
I totally understand that. I am the same. I have lot of reservations about it but sometimes have to meet the expectations of people who like this sort of thing.
True probably its this need to capture some of the wild beast and bring it into your home. I suppose its better that if people are satisfied with a balance of wild and domestic then so be it; far better this than wild big cats being kept in people homes and in private zoo’s just for personal gain and amusement.
I think for me it just boils down to the fact that wild animals should be kept where they belong in the wild unless they are being conserved or held for a captive breeding programme.
I hate people who keep caged birds and exotic animals as well 🙁 we don’t need to 🙁 Is it because people want to get noticed? why? I just don’t get it, its not that I don’t like reptiles and the like I find them facinating its just that they don’t belong in a domestic environment.
I remember being in the queue in ‘Pets at Home’ recently and heard the woman in front telling the assistant about the pet marmaset monkey she had just bought and how he was her ‘baby’ I couldn’t help myself I blurted out ‘Oh how lovely for you! what about what he wants? he was probably wrenched from his mothers arms as a tiny little thing so you could have your baby! what about when he reaches sexual maturity and he see’s you as his mate? will he be your baby then?’ I swear she just stood there with her mouth open! She then left muttering something like ‘I don’t have to listen to this’ I was outraged! people just don’t know what they are taking on with exotic pets 🙁