Caracats

Hello All,

I haven’t made an entry here in two months.  I am very sad because Mandela moved to his new home in Illinois in February.  I miss him terribly.  Some lovely folks who have a cattery adopted Mandela.  They raise Savannahs, and they want to raise Caracal hybrids as well.  Mandela appears to be settling in well, and he will meet some new lady friends soon. 

Neither Bonnie nor Beverly became pregnant before Mandela left, so I have the only F1 Caracats on the planet.  It looks like there may never be another F1 Caracat, because Mandela’s new owners want to cross him with larger Chausie females.  Abyssinians are an exceptionally small breed of domestic cat, and I am unwilling to trust any other Caracal Lynx with Bonnie or Beverly.  Mandela’s new owners do not offer stud service, and they are not planning to cross him with an Abyssinian cat.  However, the hybrid cat they are planning on producing sounds like it will be a beautiful animal.

I am delighted to report that Miss Hillary is in season!  She is now 10 ½ months old.  She is not yet finished growing, and I want her to wait until she comes into season the second time so that her body will be finished growing.  Even more good news is that Master Romeo has noticed that his “main squeeze” is in season.  He is three months younger than she is, so I did not expect him to reach sexual maturity until the late spring.

They are so dear to watch…Hillary lies on her belly, “assuming the position,” and Romeo lies down next to her, licking her face and trying to play with her.  He has always been an exceptionally cuddly kitten, and now he is a wicked romantic husband.  I am so proud of both of them.  When he is not licking her face or trying to mate with her, he just lies next to her and naps.  They are inseparable.  He has not shown any interest in mating with Bonnie or Beverly when they were in season, so it would appear that Romeo and Hillary are a genuine item!

Romeo is trying to go through the motions of sex, but his anatomy is such that his torso is considerably shorter than Hillary's torso.  Romeo tries to bite Hillary on the neck and service her, but because of this anatomical difference, he is not having any success. 

Romeo will have to learn to mate with Hillary without biting her on the neck at the same time.  The anatomy difference may be a problem temporarily, but F2 hybrids have been produced for years, so I am confident that Romeo will find a way to make conception happen, hopefully by the second time Hillary comes into season.

F2 Savannahs, Bengals, and Chausies are born everyday, so I am confident that Romeo will find a way to make conception happen.  If Mandela, at 50 pounds, could find a way to mate with Beverly, at 8 pounds, Romeo will succeed as well.  I am so excited I could bussagut!  I may be able to provide F2 Caracats as early as the late summer!  Please say a little conception prayer for me…

I am certain that the F2 Caracats will make the best pets.  The F3 Caracats will simply look like overgrown Abyssinian cats.  The F2 Caracats will have a diminished cougar moustache and smaller ear tufts, but they will still have these distinct Caracal qualities.  Romeo will contribute exceptionally sweet Abyssinian genes to the F2 Caracats.  The F1 Caracats are already affectionate lap cats, more personable than most of the F1 Savannahs I have met, so the F2 generation will be delightful, albeit a bit smaller than the F1 Caracats.  I still fully expect the F2 males to grow to be between 22-28 pounds, and the F2 females will grow to be 18 to 24 pounds.  I will know more a year from now…

I have posted twelve new photographs of the Caracats taken on Easter Sunday, and two of these photos have Romeo in them.  Please take a moment to look at these amazing creatures.

This is an incredibly exciting adventure!  In the words of Charles Fillmore, “I fairly sizzle with zeal and enthusiasm and spring forth with a mighty faith to do that which should be done by me.”  I am so very pleased with this beautiful new breed of cats.  Forgive my arrogance, but I did GOOD! 

Please write to me at abundant_joy@hotmail.com for more information.

With warm regards,
Joy

Hello All,

I have just uploaded new photos of Hillary, Jennifer and Monica, as well as a movie of Hillary and Jennifer bird-watching.  These sweet F1 Caracat females are little clowns with so very much of their father's personality in them.  As of January 2008, Hillary is nine months old, and Monica and Jennifer are three months old.  As you can see from the photos, Mandela has not yet gone to live with his new owner in Canada...perhaps sometime this month.  Miss Beverly, mother to the Caracats, went into season last month, but I kept her away from Mandela, as her little body needs a rest.  

I fully expect Miss Hillary to come into season soon, but I will not allow her to mate with her new husband, Romeo, until her second season.  She is still a kitten at heart, and needs more time to be a fully functional mother to F2 kittens.  Master Romeo is only five months old, so he will probably not have any interest in Hillary before the spring.  We may have F2 Caracat babies as early as the early summer, depending upon Miss Hillary's interest in Romeo.  Master Romeo is so very sweet...his even-tempered genes will help to create F2 Caracats with sweet, affectionate dispositions.  The F1 Caracats do come get in my lap every night, and they enjoy being scratched, but they hate to be picked up, like their father.

I have had an epiphany about declawing Caracat kittens before I send them to their new homes.  I cannot find a veterinarian who will declaw before 12 weeks, so the future parents of the Caracats will be responsible for the declawing of their babies, as well as spaying/neutering.  The prices for F2 Caracats remain at $4K for males and $8K for females.  Of course, the Caracat boys will be born sterile, and the sooner they are neutered the better.  The Caracat girls will be sold with breeding rights, and will quickly earn back the $8K with their first litter, if the future parents wish to breed F3 Caracats.  However, they will need a TICA-registered male to breed F3 Caracat kittens.  

I hope this newest blog entry finds all of you well and happy, and I hope that 2008 is a prosperous and healthy year for everyone!

Warmest regards,
Joy  

 

Hello All,

I am delighted to tell you that Master Jude has found his forever home with my friend Amy in Alexandria, VA.  He is deliriously happy in Amy's household and is blending in beautifully with her other cats.  I don't know whether I will get any more F1 kittens, as Mandela is moving to Canada in the next few weeks, and that will be the end of the F1 Caracats from me.  I will have F2 Caracats late in the spring or early summer.  Please send a post to abundant_joy@hotmail.com if you would like to be put on the waiting list for F2 kittens.

I hope each of you has a healthy and prosperous New Year!

Warmly,
Joy

Check this out: http://money.cnn.com/2007/11/01/lifestyle/designer_cats/index.htm?cnn=yes

Hello All,

Lots of folks have had difficulty opening the QuickTime movies.  If you have any trouble, please download the QuickTime movie player.  It's free, and you can see the movies of Mandela, Beverly, and Jude.  http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/

Cats are the sworn guardians of humanity against all supernatural threats

QuickTime Movies
I added five QuickTime Movies to the public folder section of this website. There are two movies of the baby boy that is available, two movies of his father, Mandela, and one movie of his mother, Beverly. Please write to me at abundant_joy@hotmail.com if you have any difficulty opening these movies, and I will send them to you individually. I also have two photo albums in the photos section of this website. These are photos of Mandela, Beverly, and Miss Hillary.

Warmly,
Joy

I added five QuickTime Movies to the public folder section of this website.  There are two movies of the baby boy that is available, two movies of his father, Mandela, and one movie of his mother, Beverly.  Please write to me at abundant_joy@hotmail.com if you have any difficulty opening these movies, and I will send them to you individually.  I also have two photo albums in the photos section of this website.  These are photos of Mandela, Beverly, and Miss Hillary. 

Warmly,
Joy

The Caracat -- a beautiful hybrid cross between a Caracal lynx and an Abyssinian domestic cat.  Finally, a hybrid cat without spots, stripes, or rosettes.  The F1 Caracat will grow to be 25 to 30 pounds, 12 to 14 inches high at the shoulder, and will look very much like a cougar with tufted ears.  The F2 Caracat will grow to be approximately 20 to 25 pounds, 10 to 12 inches high at the shoulder, and will also look like a miniature cougar, but will have a sweeter disposition than the F1 Caracat.

These two incredibly beautiful animals look so much alike, I am surprised nobody has done this before!  Like the Bengal (Asian Spotted Leopard Cat X Domestic Cat), the Savannah (African Serval X Domestic Cat), and the Chausie (African Jungle Cat X Domestic Cat), the Caracat will grow to be 25 to 30 pounds in weight, and 12” to 14” in height at the shoulder.  Please Google “Caracal photographs” and “Abyssinian photographs” to see what the parents of these kittens look like.  My photo albums show pictures of the mother and father, as well as the first Caracat, "Hillary."

I almost purchased a Chausie several years ago, but I was dismayed to find out that Chausies, Savannahs, and Bengals are hybrids whose mothers are any housecat who will tolerate the breeding procedure.  Most of these hybrids look like enormous housecats, usually with tabby stripes.  I was looking for an enormous cat with an even-toned coat like a mountain lion or a cougar.  I found that the Caracal lynx has an almost even-toned coat with only a few markings on his belly, arms, and legs.  The Caracal also has a cougar moustache and exotic ears with long tufts at the ends.  I knew that the Abyssinian cat has an even-toned coat with ticked fur, not unlike a sable mink.  I began my efforts to breed these two beautiful animals three years ago with a male Caracal kitten, Mandela, and two female Abyssinian kittens, Bonnie and Beverly.  Finally, last May, I had success -- Hillary was born to Beverly and Mandela.  I have not yet had any kittens produced by Bonnie.

The sire of these kittens, Mandela, is the Caracal.  The dam is Beverly, the Abyssinian.  The reason I chose the Abyssinian is that I wanted the offspring to have “ticked” fur, much like a mink.  Ticked fur has not less than four bands of color in each hair.  In addition, I wanted the offspring to have the larger size of the Caracal, as well as the tufted ears and the “cougar moustache.”  My first litter, born in May of 2007, was only two kittens.  Sadly, one of the kittens died.  Because the gestation period of the Caracal is 73 days and the gestation period of the Abyssinian is 63 days, it is inevitable that the babies will be born premature, and the mortality rate of the kittens is high.  The surviving kitten, Hillary, has all of the qualities I wanted.  She will not come into season until 2008, and I already have purchased her husband, Romeo, a sweet-tempered Abyssinian kitten. 

First generation (F1) Caracats do not make the best house pets.  They hiss at every moving object, like the Caracal, and they delight in knocking over every item on every horizontal surface in your home.  They have a screech rather than a meow.  You may prefer to wait for one of Hillary’s babies, as the F2 Caracats will be far more personable and domesticated.

When Hillary begins to produce kittens, the price of her little boys will be $4000, and the price of her little girls will be $8000.  All kittens will be TICA registered.  Because hybrid boys are born sterile for five generations (Haldane’s Rule), they will be neutered and declawed on all four paws.  This should eliminate spraying.  The girls will be sold with breeding rights, but the father of their babies must be a TICA-registered Abyssinian for the babies to be registered.  The girls will be declawed on all four paws as well.  For those who think this is an inhumane procedure, please keep in mind that scratches from a frightened 30-pound cat might be deadly.  Please write to me at abundant_joy@hotmail.com with any questions. 

These kittens will not be sold to any households with children under the age of 12.

Mandela will be moving to Canada with his new owner in November 2007, and this will end my supply of F1 Caracats.  Hillary has one little brother, the only F1 Caracat boy.  He will be ready to go to his new home by Christmas of 2007.  His price is $5000, and this price includes neutering and declawing.  Please write to me for photos of this little boy.

Warmest personal regards,
Joy