A Brace of Bengals

the regal Bengal look... - MW

Most of the Sanctuary cats are “moggies” - the English descriptor for a cat of indeterminate breed. Short-haired, long-haired, tabby, black, orange, white, and any number of combinations – we have them! Cats of specific breeds are usually in demand, and when they come to a shelter, they often get adopted quickly. That is, unless there’s a problem of some sort – and that problem is usually pee-ing!

Zulu - BD

Currently we have two Bengals living with us. I missed meeting their predecessor Zulu, who was known for his penetrating voice – especially when food was concerned.

Lucky - MW

Lucky came to us about three years ago, and has settled well.  He’s an established personality in the back courtyard – until recently he lived mainly in Waldi’s hut, opposite the tea-room, but he can most often be found now in the tea-room itself or in the double-wide laundry room. And the attraction of those two places? That’s where the sinks are – and the possibility of someone turning on a tap! Lucky adores running water – either running fast, in which case he drinks from the stream – or running in a trickle, in which case he sticks his head under the water and lets it get him really wet.  It seems to be a common passion of many Bengals, and may be part of the reason that they are also known for their bad bathroom habits.

The view's better up here...   PH

Lucky’s a friendly boy; like Hannah, he will sometimes appear on an unsuspecting shoulder, though the favoured shoulders have come to expect him.  He’s a favourite of Michele’s, and she has many lovely pictures of him.

Wonderful eyes - MW

A good stretch...  MW

He was joined at the Sanctuary last fall by Dandelion.

Dandelion - MW

Once again, the peeing problems were just too much for Dandelion’s owners – and their final decision (which they struggled with for some time) was confirmed by his determined bullying of their smaller female cat. Bengals tend to be sleek and muscular; Dandelion is the most overweight Bengal we’ve ever seen.

Dandelion - PH

For the first part of his stay with us he was caged, as all our new cats are. His owners had told us he was fussy about his food, but he calmly ate everything that was offered. We decided that along with other overweight cats, his health would be best approached by encouraging more exercise, rather than caging him and limiting his food.  However, since release, he has found a few corners to claim and is usually found sleeping peacefully, ignoring the other cats around him.

Wake me when it's springtime...  BC

We hope that when the warmer weather comes, Dandelion will join Lucky in roaming the back courtyard, and perhaps regain a trimmer outline!

Blog by Brigid Coult

Photos by Brigid Coult, Barbara Doduk Phadra Hardman, & Michele Wright

Cats' Eyes

Just as a cat’s coat pattern and colour is dictated by genetics (see here and here) so also is eye colour. Most kittens are born with blue eyes, and as they mature, the melanocytes also mature to give the eyes the adult colour.

Autumn - MW

Jake - MW

The majority of our Sanctuary cats have eyes that are in the yellowish end of the spectrum. Depending on where the cat hangs out, the colour may be very obvious, or overshadowed by an enlarged pupil – many of the indoor cats with less natural light may appear to have dark eyes that are actually mostly pupil showing, with a thin rim of coloured iris.

Mad Max - MW

Marmalade - MW

With some, the colour is very vivid – especially when the yellow eyes belong to a black cat.

Colin - MW

but our beautiful Dell has wonderful eyes too!

Dell - MW

The more melanocytes, the more intense the colour. Pumpkin was named less for his fur colour and more for his eyes.

Pumpkin - MW

Orange Hannah’s eyes are also very intense in certain lights.

Orange Hannah - MW

With some cats there is patterning of the iris. This may be true heterochromia, in which a cat may have two different coloured eyes (usually one blue and one another colour) or colours within the iris that may make the eyes appear different colours. When Sara Lee and Sara Lou came in together, the only way to tell them apart was Sara Lee’s darker-coloured right eye in contrast to her left one, which is blue/green. However if you look closely, you’ll see that the basic colour is the same; it’s the brown patterning that makes the eye look brown.

Sara Lee - MW

Freckles is another cat with patterned eyes – named for the speckles around her nose, it’s a name that also suits her eyes.

Freckle - MW

Luigi is one of our many black cats, but easier to identify when you can see the markings in his right iris.

Luigi - PH

With some of the cats the yellow shades over to green that can appear quite intense in certain lights.

 Sophie - MW

Krissy - DW

Lucky - MW

Blue eyes are characteristic of certain pure-breeds, and the only cats of that description that we get at the sanctuary are with us because of bathroom habits.  Both Bluebell and Jobie have the right eye colour that says they were probably bred for pedigree – but neither is a cat that you would really want in your home!

Bluebell - MW

Jobie - MW

But we love them anyway!

Blog by Brigid Coult

Photos by Phaedra Hardman, Debbie Wolanski, Michele Wright

A Tale of Several Tails

The Sanctuary plays home to more than 400 cats of a variety of types – and has been home to probably a thousand more in the course of our 16 years in Richmond. They come in all sizes and shapes, purebreed and moggies – if you want to find a cat of any description, it’s probably passed through our gates at some time. The purebreeds – cats like our Persians and Bengals – are usually here because of their bathroom habits, but those are habits that keep a number of cats from being adopted, unfortunately.

A variety of cats come with a variety of tails – everything from the long and elegant tail of Bengal Lucky, usually carried low, or the similarly slim tail of tabby Hannah, usually erect...

Lucky - MW

Hannah - PH

to the magnificent bushy fluff of Puffin or Owl

Puffin - MW

We have our share of tail-less felines, usually known as Manx cats. These vary from the totally tail-less cats like Sweet-Pea, Kilmer and Emery, (known as “rumpies”) to the cats who actually have a tail, but one which is shorter than normal, and has the last few vertebrae fused together. With the latter it’s not always possible to tell without an X-ray whether the tail deformity is genetic or the result of an accident.  Depending on the length of the tail, these are known as a “rumpy riser” (Huey), a “stumpy” (Blue, in pen 6) or a “stubby” (Abby)

Abby - MW

Sweet-Pea is at the end of the Manx spectrum, suffering as she does from what is known as extreme Manx syndrome, in which the shortness of the spine creates a form of spina bifida, making it impossible for the cat to control its bladder and bowels. Those of us who love our little trilling calico mop up after her, and cuddle her in a thick towel from time to time; she gets a daily bath, as does Kilmer, who has a similar problem – though not quite to her degree.

Sweet-Pea - PH

Sometimes we know that the shortness of the tail is not genetic. Little Marilee was one of a family of cats who were trapped, neutered and released back to the farm where they lived. Unfortunately, Marilee managed to get her tail trapped in a bit of farm machinery. The tail had to be amputated, and it was decided that the Sanctuary was the safest place for Marilee. The picture of a wary Marilee from her early days with us is in contrast to the relaxed girl she is starting to become.

Marilee - PH

Do you recognize any of these tails?

One thing you can usually be sure of – a raised tail signals a happy cat – and what can be happier than meal-time!

Dinner-time! - TS

Blog by Brigid Coult

Photos by Brigid Coult, Phaedra Hardman, Tim Stocker & Michele Wright

Analyzing the tabbies

Checking into the genetic modifiers for the dilute cats got me started on analysing some of the other cat colourings we have around the Sanctuary. It’s frequently been noted that we have a number of black cats, and that they’re not always easy to tell apart – but the same is true with some of our many tabbies. A little Googling led me to identify the four main types of tabby markings, and then it was off to the Sanctuary to match cats up. I quickly realised that the markings were most easily seen in the short-haired cats, and that in longer-haired ones, distinct patterns were blurred by ruffled fur.

Most common would probably be the MACKEREL tabby – distinguished mainly by the clear stripe markings on the sides, and almost always by the clear “M” marking on the forehead.  Apparently they’re also called “fishbone tabbies”, though it’s the markings on the side of the mackerel fish that gives the feline patterning its name.  Our clearest mackerel tabbies are probably Whisky and Cloverleaf

A Whiskey stretch - MW

Cloverleaf - MW

But mackerel markings can be seen in some of our other coloured tabbies too. Little Orange`s fur shows lovely stripes.

Little O, snoozing on a hot day - MW

The CLASSIC tabby is also known as a “blotched” or “marbled” pattern – rather than clear stripes, the colours appear in swirls, and sometimes in a bullseye pattern on the side.  I think our most beautiful classic tabby is timid Quinn who hangs out in the back courtyard. He’s often found in Waldie’s hut, but when approached by humans, scuttles away to hide.  He can be tempted by a bit of chicken, if you can do it when Owl’s not watching!

Quinn - `now, which way should I run...`- MW

This handsome boy in the barncat pen shows the clear bullseye.

BC

Pumpkin is a relative newcomer to the back courtyard, but making himself at home. His pale orange shows the markings in the right light.

Pumpkin is gradually becoming tamer - ML

The TICKED tabbies have fur that changes colour along each hair, called an agouti pattern, which gives the effect of a salt-and-pepper mixture. For the most part, the cats with this sort of patterning also show faint remnants of the other patterns as well. In many of them, it's their contrast colour, with black patterns.  

Piper says "This is MY shelf!"

The SPOTTED tabbies are actually a sub-set of the Mackerel or Classic tabbies – the stripes in the original genetic pattern are broken up to form spots.  The clearest examples of this are Lucky, our Bengal, and Emery, who clearly has some Bengal in him.

We can see how in a wild cat this would be protective colouring.
One of many wonderful Lucky pics by Michele..

But this is probably the most common marking, with the remnants of spots or stripes showing through the agouti fur for both long and short-haired tabbies.

Birdie showing his pretty markings - MW

Blog by Brigid Coult

Photos by Brigid Coult, Moira Langley & Michele Wright

Garbo cats - back area

One of the first blogs I wrote, back in the summer of 2014, introduced a number of the front courtyard inhabitants as The Garbo Cats, who want to be left alone by other felines, though they may more readily accept human attention.  The back courtyard and double-wide cats seem to tolerate each other much better, but there too we have our share of loners – cats who prefer to avoid the company of others. 

 MW

The queen of these antisocial felines has to be Jingles. When I first came to volunteer at the Sanctuary, I was warned about one cage in the double-wide which was labelled as Jingles’ home.  It had formerly been the med-cage until our medics got moved to a much lighter, slightly more spacious area, and then it became the safe haven for (and from) an angry little black cat. Claire introduced her in 2009 as The Cat Who Hates Everybody, and she had herself quite a reputation for lashing out at the unwary.

 MW

These days Jingles no longer confines herself to a single cage, but she still remains a Cat Who Walks By Herself (or more accurately, lies – she’s not a very active girl!).  She’s much more accepting of petting from human passers-by, but you have to keep an eye open for other cats who think that it’s their turn for attention – at a moment’s notice Jingles will decide that someone’s in her space and she’ll swat whatever is nearest.

 Baby - PH

New volunteers are routinely warned about orange Baby, in the tea-room.  He’s been labelled a Jeckyll & Hyde cat, because his personality can change on a dime, and when Baby bites, he bites hard. Interestingly, I don’t think he’s a nasty cat; he’s very wary around other cats, and his personal space is important to him.  Most people, he just ignores, but  he’ll accept careful petting from the humans he likes.  It’s been a while since he’s actually attacked anyone, and we’re hoping he’s grown out of it, and is more accepting of his surroundings.  But we all read his body language very carefully!

 

Piper - PH / Jody - MW

Baby shares the tea-room bathroom space with two other antisocial cats, and it’s amusing to watch them jockeying for space on the three shelves by the sink. Piper, who is usually at the top, is quiet about her dislikes – she just removes herself from the space (unless occasionally she comes face-to-face with another cat).  Much more vocal is elderly Jody, with her worried face, often found on the middle shelf. When there’s a vocal protest going on, it’s usually Jody telling someone to get the h*** out of her way. She adores human attention, however, and loves to lick the caressing hand.

BC

My own favourite Garbo cat at the back is Emery. This tabby Manx boy probably has a bit of Bengal in him, with the same long legs and athletic build as Lucky.  He avoids all contact with other cats and prefers not even to look at them if he can help it.  I find that he’s quite often one of my greeters at the gate, if it’s quiet, and he will occasionally ask to be picked up and cuddled. More often, you will find him tucked away on a shelf inside an open cage, where he will often reach out and climb onto a shoulder.

 MW

 If he’s in a particularly relaxed and loving mood, he reaches up to put his paws on my shoulders and snuggles his head into my neck – totally guaranteed to melt the heart!

ML

Blog by Brigid Coult

Photos by Brigid Coult, Phaedra Hardman, Moira Langley & Michele Wright