Have an appointment for a stray cat this person has been caring for for months. Listed as domestic medium hair.
For the first goddamn time.... it's a bengal mix!!!
It has broken rosettes, but rosettes nonetheless, and the fur is the right plush-silk texture.
She's spayed, and was probably spayed at a shelter because she's tattood.
She's microchipped but the chip was never registered.
And she's so, so sweet.
Bengal Top 1 & 2: $5,000US+… very doubtful a Bengal would have ended up in a shelter for adoption. There are still limited numbers of these exotic cats. They are not easy to come by, are expensive to own, difficult to keep. They do not behave as ordinary household pet cats and are superb escape artists!
You would be hard put to tell, at a glance, the difference between a Bengal and an Egyptian Mau (bottom 2) or a domestic tabby, but the differences are enormous. They both come in silver and bronze. They both have 'rosettes'. The Mau has been around since the mid-to-late 1950s in N.A. The Bengal is still relatively "new" and still not recognized as being a purebred in many cat organizations.
I would suggest that the cat in the foto is not a Bengal but an older silver Egyptian Mau. Possibly, a cross. Without seeing its entire head, you can't sue me if I am incorrect.
The cat in the foto supplied would be classified for adoption purposes as "domestic shorthair AOV."
Show me. I'm from Missouri. I want to see a TATOOED CAT. Any kind.
Microchipped, reasonable since many cities demand it.
The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.
Being in an area where Bengals are very popular... yeah, during the 9 years I worked at a shelter 6 purebred, to-standard Bengals came in as strays and 4 of those were intact males. None made it to the adoption floor as employees adopted them. We also had several Bengals surrendered to us. You can search my blog and see some of them.
And despite working at a cat only clinic for 10 years in a very affluent area, we had no Maus as patients. We had several abbies, 1 somali, hundreds of persians, and at least 50 Bengals as patients... and then when savannah cats were created we had dozens of those as well. Hell, I've been a tech for 23 years and I've still never seen a mau.
The cat in the photo is less than 2 years old. It looks nothing like an Egyptian mau at all.
And sure, here's a face shot of this girl who is definitely mostly a domestic shorthair with some clear bengal influence in the pattern. I'd personally say no more than a quarter.
This is rather clearly not a mau. She's young, spayed, and has a sterilization tattoo of the sort that is done at the local shelters and with such a small scar that she was probably done as a very young kitten. My old shelter would alter thousands of cats every year and we tattood every single one of them. Said tattoo is a single green line next to the spay incision.
Oh, do shelters no longer clip the ear tip?
It depends on the shelter, but the ones near me only ear tip if the cat is feral and going to be released. Both Sundew and Tumbleweed were shelter kittens.
This is Lucy- we got her from a shelter. She's got a severe anxiety disorder (possibly spawned from abuse? Really hand shy) and we're gonna take her to the vet for potential medication for it
But one of the first vets we took her to when we first got her suggested she might have some Bengal in her. But I'm not so sure.
Sadly we have no backstory on her from before we adopted her. Never gonna know what happened to her (which would help figure out what her deal is) but she's a sweetheart.
Just curious about your opinion on her potential breed though- sorry for the ramble
