Bringing up baby Alexandria is turning out to be a remarkable adventure. I am certainly no stranger to raising kittens, I have always had at least one if not several cats in my life since childhood.
For me life would simply not be worth living without the company and companionship of animals. That being said... our little, or maybe not so little (any more, she is growing like a weed!) Alex is something all together different!
She is complex, fiercely independent, bold, smart, clever and playful, she can be very gentle, sweet and loving as well. Everyday is a new adventure with her for sure. Little Julliette will attest to that, even though they are getting along famously!
So far the only thing we have had broken is a giant ostrich egg that I have had for 10 years, Alex just couldn't resist... and how could I blame her, I mean it was a GIANT egg for heavens sake!
I decided I needed to create an environment more suitable to her wild heritage so I dragged in some very large tree limbs and strapped them to her cat tree and as you can see, she loves it!
I have begun to notice the things about these Bengals that make them so different from domestic cats. She has a funny way of purring, she doesn't really purr when you pet her though it is obvious she loves it...
Alex purrs very, very loudly when she is getting into mischief or playing with her toys and it is adorable!
When birds come to the windowsill Alex stops dead in her tracks, she won't move a muscle and it appears she actually stops breathing or slows it down so much it is undetectable to the eye! It scared me the first time I saw her do it!
She now has discovered the wall light switches and thinks it's real funny to leap up and switch off the light whenever she wants to. And sometime in the last two days she has figured out that flipping them up turns the lights on too!
I was talking with a lady recently and she gasped out loud and put her hand to her mouth when I told her we had gotten a Bengal, it kinda freaked me out a bit because I guess they have a reputation for being really wild and aggressive.
And here is where all of my experience with cats and dogs comes in handy. I spend a good amount of time everyday playing with her, teaching her about the house rules and training her. She is wonderfully responsive and pays real good attention.
After a training session she likes to go into the bathroom and flush the toilet to watch the "water show" happen, really cute and annoying all at the same time!
Sometimes it feels like we are living in a Pink Panther movie as we watch Alexandria and Julliette (our 4lb Chihuahua) act out a scene with Julliette as the infamous inspector obliviously entering the room and Alex as Kato quietly, patiently, laying in wait for her chance to pounce!
They chase each other around the living room coffee table and into the dining room and around the dining table in repeated figure eights. One minute the dog is chasing the cat and the next minute the cat is chasing the dog. They really enjoy each others company!
I have been doing a lot of research on Bengals as they are a relatively new breed (since the 1980s) so that I can learn to raise her correctly. I thought I'd post a couple of photos of the Asian Leopard Cat which is
what domestic cats such as Abyssinan's, Egyptian Mau's and Burmese were bred with to get the Bengals.
Oh, I almost forgot, Alexandria has a great love of water, I have to be very careful to get the temperature just right when I start the shower for myself because she will hop right in with me and splash around! It's cute but kind of unnerving, I suppose I will get used to it though! Thanks for stopping by to visit, next week I will have some very interesting adventures to go on with you!
