Introducing Chica
04 December 2012 | Mazatlan
Taya
We had not planned to have any cats for a while. The pain of losing a loved pet is so deep. Unexpectedly, we were offered a 4 1/2 month old kitten from Ron Sevier, a cruising friend from s/v Calliope. They just found out their daughter is allergic to cats and it came down to a choice between the two.
She is a pure breed Bengal, we have named Chica (young girl in Spanish). She is very lively, dominant and very affectionate.
We hope Chica will help alleviate the pain we still feel at the loss of Pacha on August 30th.
We had forgotten how lively and energetic kittens are. Napoleon and Pacha were respectively 17 and 18 years old when they died and they were sleeping a lot.
So Chica has taken over our boat and thoroughly inspecting everything and every corners on Taya. The Bengal began as a hybrid breed, created by crossing the Asian Leopard Cat with the domestic cat. The first "pet leopard" is traced back to Japan in the early 1940s, but the first appearance of Bengals in the United States was in the 1970s.
She has adopted the built-in seat in the forward head which she regards as her bed. On her first night with us, she was very well behaved. She got up when we did. She is a little fat and so we placed her on a mild diet for a while.
Next time we go to town we will look for a bed and a "Sitz Bath" to place over the toilet seat so we can start training her right away to pee and poup there. The liter box is always smelly and a mess throughout the boat.
We have additional pictures in our gallery.