March 18, 2011
Jungle Cats
This is the sister-in-law’s jungle cat Sugarfoot. He actually is the “sweetest” of her batch. Still, no petting. When SIL and her husband moved from Arizona to Chicago, they had problems finding a vet who would do home visits. The cats are big and don’t do well in cages. You also don’t want to be hauling them through the hallways and foyers of Chicago condo buildings.
The Iowan says it is spooky to spend the night there. You have to lock the bedroom doors because one of the cats can twist open the doorknob. Then, when you leave the room at night, “their glowing eyes follow you. Like they’re looking at their midnight snack.”
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I’ve often thought of domestic cats I have owned, “If she (or he) were only that much bigger and ten pounds heavier, I could have a world of trouble on my hands.”
Imagining a Roy Horn scenario.
Oh, I love that cat! I had a cat named Santa Claus that I’m sure was part Big Cat. He would haul jackrabbits twice his size up a steep ravine and often eyed unattended children with a hungry look.
Good kitty.
I like all of his toes.
Out of curiosity: What is generally the purpose of owning a Jungle Cat, since they aren’t friendly and can’t leave the house? Do they protect property? Are they affectionate at all to their owners? Are they happy?
Or does one basically have a rogue wild animal running around their condo preying on unsuspecting house guests?
Cindy, I really wouldn’t do that! Sugarfoot is a bigun, for one thing, and his friend Zeus the grumpy one might take offense. Not not a kitty by any standards. You can’t tell how big they are from the photos.
I understand re Santa Claus. Some of them must have “wild” in them. Sister has a rescue cat that is very large, long long legs. He’s not a kitten anymore, but stalks me all over the house. Sometimes I don’t even know it until he pounces from some hidden place.
Shelia, I wonder what that eagle did to amuse himself. And who was in charge of getting his meals. And remember, a young Zelda Sayre rode a horse into the foyer of her big fancy house in Montgomery.
I’d bet any of y’all $100 that I could get that kitty to jump in my lap. Okay, $100 or a dime bag of schizophrenia pills.
Flannery! I love your questions! They did buy the cats when they lived in a house in Arizona, which may be more exotic pet friendly. But I think getting them has to do with the lure of owning an exotic animal, IMHO. Some owners are in a sort of loose network set up for sharing information. My SIL got a lead about a housecall vet in Chicago, for instance, from someone she met at a conference in D.C. She can pet Sugarfoot a bit, but not the others (I think there are four of them last count). They are very beautiful and graceful animals, certainly.
As far as guests, the condo is in a building converted from a factory (complete with the water tower and big vat on top). The spare bedroom has walls that stop before the ceiling. So if you stay there, you are warned that you might have a visitor in the night, a big cat jumping from the top of a wall down to the bed.
They own another condo in the building that they rent like hotel room/rooms and also to put up visiting family. I imagine that unit gets the lion’s share of the family visits. It’s not that people really are afraid of them. But they certainly are different!
I’ve certainly kept my share of exotic pets (Prairie Dogs, ferrets, and all manner of reptilian and bug species), so I understand the allure. My questions in such cases generally center around the happiness of the pet. In cases where the animal doesn’t tolerate affection, it pains me to think of any creature living in constant stress from — and fear of — its well-intentioned captors.
Not to say that your sister in-law doesn’t love the kitties (and vice versa, in their way); this is simply my first response to any such situation.
I understand, Flannery. They seemed very healthy and relaxed, well, after getting over having new people in the place. The owners are crazy about them and did a lot of research before getting them. The jungles acted pretty much like aloof cats, lounging, watching us a bit, then getting bored with us. Except for Sugarfoot, who was relaxed throughout and curious about us. They did have very distinct personalities, all said to be normal.
The connections we humans form with other animals are so varied, aren’t they? Like Flannery, I wonder.
Over the months when I still held out hope either that Lena would return or that my search efforts would succeed, I am sure that some people must have thought something that, out of consideration for my feelings, they did not express: “If you love that animal so much that you dream of her every other night and weep over her and go wandering the woods at 3:00 AM in search of her, did it never occur to you simply to keep her inside?”
No. It did not. If I may presume to speak of a cat and of love, she loved her life out of doors, and she loved life indoors with her humans.
As Lena’s other human put it, back when we still spoke of her in the present tense, “Lena’s an adult. She knows what she wants, and she knows it’s dangerous out there. But she wants it.”
As for the keeping of non-domesticated animals, I suppose my feelings as as mixed, at least, as they are about the keeping of such animals in zoos.
Yes, I suppose it would be easier with cats, who are generally aloof and independent anyway.
And you don’t know my mom — that cat would be in her lap in about 5 minutes.
Okay, one more question: Do they eat cat food?
I’ve no idea what, if anything, my non-anecdote had to do with the care and keeping of jungle cats; I really just got thinking of how we appreciate and relate to other species.
Shelia, I know what you mean about the outdoor cat. If they start out that way, as Lena did, keeping them inside would feel like being a jailer. There are several cats here that roam. I like to be in the garden at night when it is warm, so they quickly found me. Ben would sit down and keep me company. He turned up missing and I was in genuine distress, this was not long after Lena left, so I didn’t want to mention it to you. People talked about the coyotes seen nearby on the trail, and I told the owners I was just sure that had not happened (I don’t know why). They did find Ben some days later, he had been hit by a car and killed. He was an old cat and maybe his senses were going.
And Flannery, I am thinking the jungle cats eat raw hamburger meat, but other things too. That’s another good question and I’ll find out. When we walked into the condo and saw the cats, I quickly stepped in front of Mr. Boudreaux without thinking. He was bigger than me even then, so not necessary. But I know about and am concerned with instincts.
I was reading about jungle cat rescues in FL. One had been adopted as a stray cat, but was destroying the home of the rescuer. It was determined that she was half jungle cat and half domestic. Another jungle cat was brought to the sanctuary because she was tearing up the house, refusing to use the litter box, and “chased the dog and destroyed the furniture. When she was put outside in a cage, she constantly escaped and chased the neighbors’ dogs.” This one “is a sweetheart to care for, and enjoys our company – as long as we don’t try to pick her up…”
I also read that they are easily domesticated if bottle fed and interacted with everyday. So Cindy probably could get Sugarfoot on her lap. But if she tries to lure Zeus there, I’m sorry, I’m going to take my “baby” and flee the premises!
So I just found this photo. I’m not sure he would fit in a lap.
That’s a big kitty.
Flannery, that’s a good way to demonstrate how big they can get, putting the JC beside a domestic cat. Plus, the males can be considerably bigger than the females.
Carole, I have finally figured out what happened to Lena. When she went down into the ravine, she met the only animal more bad-ass than herself. The honey badger.
Lena went on ahead, Shelia, to a place where we could not follow.