Mika - Bengal Kitten Updated Pics

Hi All
Sorry I haven't been around for a while - life's been rather hectic!! Some of you may remember my Bengal kitten I got almost a year ago now - Mika, a silver Bengal. I finally got round to haul my camera out and snap a few pics last night and today. This was the original thread with her young kitten photos.
It was really touch and go whether I kept her because she was such an incredible handful and really upset my other cat a lot. I almost called in a cat behaviouralist, but just before she came out, things started to settle down a little bit.
Life's great for the cats now and they love each other loads. Little does she know that she came >-< close to being rehomed several times! But she's a little Angel Cake and she's definitely not going anywhere now.
I was originally thinking of breeding with her because of the outstanding lines she has, but once I started dealing with her going into season and calling (hell), I put a quick stop to that idea and she finally got spayed last week. Life is peace and bliss again, but she's still full of beans and always getting into mischief!

She has this thing where she loves dancing around on door frames and seeing where they may go - obviously nowhere! and then she twirls around for ages on them and even rocks the doors back and forwards as she keeps turning around and around on the top of the frame. Silly thing!

So, here are a few pics
(the first lot on the door was taken at night with the flash, so doesn't show her true silver/black colours. The later pictures on the duvet shows them better)

oh wow!
i have a little bengal cross!
they are hand fulls!

your girl is beautifull!

Oh my, she is a stunning young lady. Looks like a complete princess too.

Sounds like you've had a really trying year with her, glad it's all worked out. She is lovely, and I'm sure you'd have missed her loads if you had to rehome her.

How is your other cat doing? Getting on better with her now?

Glad to see you're back too.

Hi Bloo,

nice to see you bakc with such good news, glad she has calmed down ! Saying that our tom seems alot more chilled out these days! She looks so gorgeous too, those big green eyes are such a contrast to toms blue eyes - they are such pretty cats !

wow. she has beautiful eyes. i can't remember seeing them the first time round. and what was she doing on top of the door?
ps. good to have you back

Good to see you back Bloo!
Glad she's settled down a bit for you, not by much judging by the pictures!
I'd like to nominate her for POTM but can't decide which pic, so I'll leave it for you to decide.

What a beautiful cat. I love those pics on top of the door She has lovely big eyes.

how on Earth did she get up there to start with?

I've got a question for any Bengal experts: do you ever see them crossed with Japanese bobtails? The tail-less gene in the Japanese bobtail is supposedly dominant (unlike in the Manx) and it seems like the Bengal marking should still be preserved in such a cross.... (I'm mostly fantasizing about what I want in my next cat No more tails for me! They look weird now.)

--edit--

do you know what F# she is? i'm busy telling my bf about Bengals and suddenly found myself wondering.

Thank you everyone for your lovely comments!

AlexAndCarmen said:

How is your other cat doing? Getting on better with her now?

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Hi Alex. Shaka is doing really well now though he was literally traumatized for a long time. Very upset and unhappy for many months. He's such a gentle soul while she was more like something posessed. She was nasty mean and destructive. I think it had to do with the fact that (even though I got her at 12 weeks of age) she was born in a cattery and grew up with very little human contact. So very much on the wild side. It took her a LONG time before she allowed me to stroke or pick her up (without running a mile when she saw my hand reaching out or kicking like a mule).
Now she's the sweetest little thing ever, but believe me I had to deal with tremendous territorial and behavioural problems.
Warning to all thinking of getting a Bengal and especially when introducing it to a cat of opposite nature.

dulce said:

those big green eyes are such a contrast to toms blue eyes - they are such pretty cats !

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Thanks Dulce and for all your previous advice. Yeah, I miss those deep & bright blue eyes! But her emeral green ones are quite striking in the light.

pica_nuttalli said:

how on Earth did she get up there to start with?

I've got a question for any Bengal experts: do you ever see them crossed with Japanese bobtails? The tail-less gene in the Japanese bobtail is supposedly dominant (unlike in the Manx) and it seems like the Bengal marking should still be preserved in such a cross.... (I'm mostly fantasizing about what I want in my next cat No more tails for me! They look weird now.)

--edit--

do you know what F# she is? i'm busy telling my bf about Bengals and suddenly found myself wondering.

Click to expand...

Hi Pica. Ha, you'd wonder what she's doing on the door. She jumps on to them from ground level believe it or not! She's always playing on top of the doors and spends a lot of time on them. Crazy cat.
I'm no Bengal expert I'm afraid! I can't say though that I've read of crosses between a Benal and a Japanese Bob. Interesting!
As for F number I don't exactly know - but looking at her pedigree, both her mother and father have heaps of Millwood champions in the great great parents side. Millwood cattery being the original breeder of Bengals. But from my point of view, the further removed (the higher the F number) the better. And the less you'll be dealing with a wild natured cat.

Hi Bloo

Interestingly my snow bengal boys climb on the door frames all the time, apparently many Asian type cats do it!

I also have a female bengal from the same top breeder your girl is from.............had the same problems. Have to keep her apart from the boys! We can now pick her up and stroke her but it is on her terms. All the male Bengals I have had (from different breeders) and I've had four, have all been nutty but very lovable until my last boy, he isn't nasty but just not a lap cat

Glad to see she has now settled

Seffie x

Hi Seffie!
Do you have some pics of your girl you got? Or your others? Or are they in a thread I've missed? I saw your thread with a few pics of Billy. Adorable! Do you have more? Would love to see some
I think I've learnt that it's very important to get a kitten from a breeder who handles the kittens as much as possible from a very young ages. And a kitten who's used to all sorts of household noises. It took Mika a LONG time to stop absolutely freaking out with any household noise (just pots & pans even). I'm not even talking about the vacuum cleaner and hair dryer. With those she has the fear of death in her and will run full pelt into a wall or up a wall if it's unexpectedly switched on near her. But I'm sure she'll get better with time. She's heaps better already and definitely turning into a cuddle cat

Got any pics of good looking Shaka and Mika together? Sounds like you had a trying time getting her used to you and her new surroundings. But really worth while.

She looks like she could entertain you for hours.

Carmen

Hi Alex. I haven't been too snap happy with my camera lately. But there is one I have in my batch I took a couple of days ago. So here they are
Usually the are cuddle up arm in arm though!



Oh and as I went through my pics, I saw that I took a few of Mika at the end of summer last year. She was out to play with her fluffy toys. So here are more!!

Hi Bloo

Here you go, just for you...........

Basil is first - he was a brown spotted, long haired bengal - I lost him to FELV. Then Barney, a blue eyed marble snow, the most gorgeous looking boy, lost him to a car accident (all my cats stay in now). Next is Sparkle and comes from the same cattery as your pretty girl. Following on is Billy and Alfie the two boys I have now, Billy a Blue eyed snow marble and Alfie a blue eyed snow spot. Billy (his dad is champion Glitterglam White wizard, Billy is the spitting image of his dad) comes from a really good cattery but they keep their babies in doors and never have more than two litters at once - you are so right about being brought up inside the family home. Alfie came from again a good breeder and from in the home - but apparently the women who was the breeder had left her husband and he was bringing up the kittens - Alfie is not a lap cat at all, I believe they were just left to get on with it!

Oh, I was expecting her to be at least an F9.

My kitty does a lot of the same sorts of wildness as you attribute to your Bengal, except she's not quite as athletic (or self-entertaining). I can't find anything on the mentioned cross either, so who knows? If only I had a house and a spare $5k for breeding stock...

Thanks to you both for posting so many photos and stories about your purebred experience. I am super interested in a Bengal right now, even though I don't have room for a second cat. I've really learned quite a bit from you two about how to go about dealing with such a kitten.



Aside: I found this on the web just now. (1) Don't those just look like ordinary orange tabbies to you? (2) I hope that if they really are Bengal x Part-Persian, that was an accident b/c those breeds don't really seem to share many of their desirable characteristics! Talk about jumping on the bandwagon.

http/pets.uk.freeads.net/cats/non-pedigr...ales-584029.htm

Cute as a button, tho'. I do love me some apricot toms. (Just not for that much money and lying.)