Savannah Breeding Cat Seeks Human Company

This Savannah breeding cat in an enclosure seeks my company. In fact she is desperate for my company or the company of any person. I just happened to be passing and looking. She immediately jumped up to about my height (there was a table to jump on inside the enclosure) and rubbed her cheeks against the fencing of the cage which to me is a signal she wants me to interact with her. She is depositing her scent on the wire cage but I feel she wanted to deposit it on me in a typical sign of domestic cat friendship.

I couldn’t do anything really other than film her. Earlier I had spent about 30 minutes in the neighboring enclosure where I had photographed a beautiful black F4 Savannah cat, whose breeding partner had spent a lot of time licking my trousers until they were wet trough. Another sign of the need for human contact or indeed any sort of alternative activity.

Reluctantly and with respect I would argue that the enclosures were and probably still are too small and barren, meaning they lacked enrichment with such items as climbing and hiding areas and perhaps water to play in (Savannahs like playing in water). The place is A1 Savannahs, Ponca City, OK, USA, in about 2009-2010.

I felt sorry for this cat, I really did. In fact I felt the same way or something similar for most of the cats even though the facilities were and probably still is very good by conventional standards.

I don’t think it is economically viable for a commercial breeder of cats to make the enclosures very large and very interesting for the cats because it costs too much to build and maintain them.

I have always said it: commercialism and cat welfare are uneasy bedfellows. The two don’t really mix.