tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-111072542024-03-23T11:31:23.050-07:00Living with BengalsWe're an ordinary couple who, one day, bought a Bengal kitten. We soon learned that Bengal cats aren't like other cats. But we've learned some tricks along the way, and we've survived. You can too.Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026625090131911322noreply@blogger.comBlogger86125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11107254.post-3077138238920766052008-07-22T10:47:00.000-07:002008-07-22T10:50:52.808-07:00Pet Detectives ThrivingInteresting piece from the Bay Area about a woman who uses trained dogs to track down missing pets - mainly cats because, as she notes, people notice dogs going by. You ask around the neighborhood and someone saw the dog. But cats are pretty much invisible.From the Times Herald, Vallejo, California: Bay Area's Ace Pet DetectiveJohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026625090131911322noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11107254.post-31296340789181971182008-07-18T16:08:00.001-07:002008-07-18T16:15:51.750-07:00Behavior Evolving... BadlyA growing problem with Leela that I'm not quite sure what to do about. She, as I assume most Bengals, develops new behaviors occasionally, and others fade away. Sometimes this is because we find a way to interrupt them. She used to ping off the walls, leaping up to eye level and sliding down the wall with her claws out. It's great for your security deposit. She stopped that when we got her Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026625090131911322noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11107254.post-91285485799474692052008-07-17T14:14:00.000-07:002008-07-17T14:17:01.452-07:00Let Sleeping Bengals LieFrom the aptly named Bengal Cats, a gratuitous cat picture worth checking out.Young Merry snoozes in dignified repose...Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026625090131911322noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11107254.post-56113326821342380262008-07-16T13:23:00.000-07:002008-07-16T13:38:11.620-07:00Facing Laszlo's Kidney FailureWe had some bad news about Laszlo recently. He was losing weight, and he was drinking and passing water in truly massive amounts. He was obsessed with water, climbing into the shower to lap it up and endlessly yowling at the faucets.We took him to the vet and the results came back as CRF, or chronic renal failure. Basically, his kidneys were shutting down, which is something that happens with Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026625090131911322noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11107254.post-63352988843173251972008-07-15T11:37:00.001-07:002008-07-15T11:57:01.397-07:00Catnapped Bengal Recovered SafelyFrom the Village News in Fallbrook, California, comes this somewhat bizarre story about a local Bengal that briefly ended up on the wrong end of someone's... unique ideas about cat ownership.Short version: Sheba the Bengal goes missing, owners find her collar in the driveway. The guy who took Sheba apparently took her to a local vet to scan her microchip, then called the owners and demanded a "Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026625090131911322noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11107254.post-11406544828878335272008-07-14T00:15:00.000-07:002008-07-14T00:21:44.724-07:00Habits Change. Seldom for the BetterLeela's behavior patterns have shifted as she's matured. She's still a dangerous sociopath. It's just manifesting in different ways.The most dangerous change that's suddenly appeared is a fascination for tipping over any unattended glasses she finds. Particularly those that are half full and sitting next to things like books and computers.So far we've been lucky and she hasn't managed to Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026625090131911322noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11107254.post-1132354206693526092005-11-18T14:28:00.000-08:002007-01-10T14:05:31.290-08:00Leela Loves HewieAh, this is warm and weird at the same time. I've been playing a game called Haunting Ground on my Playstation 2. It's a horror game where you play a teenage girl (okay, I admit videogames haven't grown up quite as much as their users - a teenage girl with an embarrassingly prominent chest) named Fiona. You've been in an auto accident out in the country somewhere, and you wake up locked in thisJohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026625090131911322noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11107254.post-1131045775182274652005-11-03T11:02:00.000-08:002005-11-03T11:22:55.213-08:00Window WarsBoth our cats are indoor cats, but there are plenty of outdoor cats around the neighborhood, including one solid black cat that appears to have incorporated our back yard into his territory. We've been seeing him around all over the place. And, of course, because Laszlo is solid black, we always have this immediate panic reaction - Oh no! Laszlo got out! Ah! - for about three quarters of a Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026625090131911322noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11107254.post-1128451317939058082005-10-04T11:37:00.000-07:002005-10-04T11:45:18.096-07:00Stop! Koshatnik! Help!A lot of chatter around the net recently about a forthcoming book by Adam Jacot de Boinod called "The Meaning of Tingo and Other Extraordinary Words from Around the World." It's about various oddities of language, like the lengths the French have gone to to avoid the word "computer" because it sounds vaguely dirty in French, or the surprising variety of words for moustache in Albanian. But the Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026625090131911322noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11107254.post-1128219361910980902005-10-01T19:13:00.000-07:002006-11-30T12:10:53.906-08:00Gratuitous Cat Picture #15Yes, it's been forever since I've posted. Blame Leela. Ever since she figured out how to hold a knife between her paws, we've been at her mercy...I've convinced her that she should consider her public image, and that allowing me to post occasionally would look good to a judge, so I'll try and get occasional photos up.Like this one, of Leela claiming the high ground as she stalks my wife's tea bagJohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026625090131911322noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11107254.post-1123037070381143182005-08-02T19:40:00.000-07:002005-08-02T19:44:30.386-07:00Alley Cats OnlineAlley Cats is an online flash presentation containing a series of photos the authors took of wild cats living on the streets in an urban environment. It seems to be a kind of teaser for an actual printed book with more photos, but that's not entirely clear.The shots are simultaneously heartwarming and gut wrenching - the captions indicate which of the cats have since died. It's very much "Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026625090131911322noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11107254.post-1122682201907542392005-07-29T16:58:00.000-07:002005-07-29T17:10:01.913-07:00Sour-Tongued RascalsI don't know if this has already made it to every single cat lover in the world already, but in case it hasn't:An interesting discovery from someplace called the Monell Chemical Senses Center, which spends all its collective time working on science related to the senses of smell and taste and on chemical irritation.Thanks to a genetic mutation somewhere back in the mists of time, cats apparently Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026625090131911322noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11107254.post-1121623077187555892005-07-17T10:46:00.000-07:002005-07-17T10:57:57.206-07:00Moved the SofaA few days ago I decided it was time to take apart the modular sofa, move the pieces out of the way and vacuum. A selected inventory of items recovered:two wine corksa fuzzy purple ball with bell, trailing a shredded length of red cordan eraseran electronic thermometera cardboard tube a bit under an inch wide and long - stamps came rolled around ita penan intact, but empty, clear plastic Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026625090131911322noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11107254.post-1120416698080495102005-07-03T11:50:00.000-07:002005-10-01T19:20:58.623-07:00Gratuitous Cat Picture #14What an overstimulated Bengal looks like. Leela exploring playground furniture at the park.<<< Previous GCP ---- Next GCP >>>Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026625090131911322noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11107254.post-1119726759152198442005-06-25T11:51:00.000-07:002005-06-25T12:12:41.723-07:00Finding Your Missing BengalOn one of the cat forums I frequent, I've noticed an upsurge in worried reports of missing Bengals over the last week or two - enough that people are wondering what's going on, blaming the full moon, etc. (It has been quite a moon lately.)A more likely explanation is that it's warm out, and people are leaving windows open. At least one of these missing cats dug a hole in the screen of an open Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026625090131911322noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11107254.post-1119571705174148992005-06-23T17:06:00.000-07:002005-06-23T17:12:56.523-07:00Stealth BengalCan you spot the cat in this picture?Leela has taken to spending hours a day like this, burrowed in underneath the bedspread in the guest room. We're not entirely sure what to make of it. She was much more generally active in the past. Now she saves up her energy to be released in one manic blast around 11:30 p.m. At least Laszlo's getting some peace and quiet out of it all. She's much less Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026625090131911322noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11107254.post-1118600820064663172005-06-12T10:55:00.000-07:002005-06-12T11:27:00.076-07:00Social (& Anti-Social) BehaviorI've been looking into what's known about feline social behavior, mostly because I'm curious about how Leela sees us. There doesn't seem to be much, especially next to the rich social hierarchies of dogs, but there's something going on. Found a general survey in Science News of research by various scientists who seem to have no personal experience of cats themselves. Well of course they have Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026625090131911322noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11107254.post-1117682468725419702005-06-01T20:05:00.000-07:002005-06-01T20:25:57.693-07:00Bengal vs. BengalA few days ago our eBay Happy Meal McBengal arrived. Once you've got something like that, what exactly do you do with it?The obvious answer: meeting of the minds. So I introduced Leela to the McBengal. I have to say it's about the level of quality you'd anticipate from a happy meal toy. I still think it looks really sad, its whiskers are kind of ridiculous and - the big one - it can't stand up onJohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026625090131911322noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11107254.post-1117223239882989242005-05-27T12:36:00.000-07:002005-05-27T12:48:51.246-07:00Revenge of the Plastic BagNot Episode III, more like Episode II (see Episode I). Leela discovered another plastic bag a couple days ago, and managed to play pretty much the same trick with it.This was a bigger, heavier bag from a college bookstore, meant for lugging 25 pound chemistry textbooks around. She found it and stuck her head through one of the openings. Then, once again she panicked and took off and the bag wentJohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026625090131911322noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11107254.post-1116798009826272372005-05-22T14:39:00.000-07:002005-07-03T11:56:03.926-07:00Gratuitous Cat Picture #13And above all else, dignity...<<< Previous GCP ---- Next GCP >>>Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026625090131911322noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11107254.post-1116620399936259012005-05-20T13:05:00.000-07:002005-05-20T13:33:32.516-07:00Are Bengals Too Mundane Now?The New York Times recently published an article on Savannahs in New York that appears to be causing a bit of a kerfluffle. The Savannah is a cat breed that's sort of like the Bengal, as it's a hybrid of a domestic cat with a wild cat species. But the Savannah's wild parentage comes from the African Serval.The Savannah is bigger than the Bengal, much more expensive, and not the sort of thing you Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026625090131911322noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11107254.post-1116374745904599762005-05-17T16:42:00.000-07:002005-05-18T00:40:32.956-07:00McBengal! - kawaii desu ne!!Got a comment a couple posts ago from Cube, who noted a bit of synchronicity. He had just gotten a stuffed Bengal at McDonalds, and didn't realize they were any different from regular domestic cats. Then he stumbled on this site and learned otherwise. Wait, back up a second. He got a stuffed Bengal at McDonalds? A quick exchange of e-mails and some Google searching later, and sure enough. A Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026625090131911322noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11107254.post-1116182058439064122005-05-15T11:01:00.000-07:002005-05-15T13:41:54.380-07:00Is She Sending Us a Message?I don't know what to think. We woke up yesterday morning to find this in the doorway to the guest bedroom.The object itself is meant to be a cute replacement cap for your toothpaste tube. It's a little blobby person - you probably can't make out the two huge, perfectly round eyes on the top. And the hand over his mouth swings away to cap and uncap your toothpaste. We got it as I think maybe a Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026625090131911322noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11107254.post-1116098105088628622005-05-14T12:14:00.000-07:002007-03-01T17:48:26.996-08:00Gratuitous Cat Picture #12Bengal Cats store easily in any kitchen cabinet.<<< Previous GCP ---- Next GCP >>>Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026625090131911322noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11107254.post-1116050407675524642005-05-13T22:56:00.000-07:002005-05-13T23:00:07.676-07:00No Cat Hunting In WisconsinIn about the closest thing to breaking news Living with Bengals is ever likely to report, the Wisconsin proposal to allow hunting of feral cats appears to have finally been killed.MSNBC reports that the Wisconsin Conservation Congress has finally given up, although it seems like they really wanted this.I don't know. I suppose they have their reasons. Perhaps this is an illustration of how Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026625090131911322noreply@blogger.com0