Bagheera Bengal kittens are raised in our home and treated as members of our family. This assures that they make exceptionally nice pets!

Check out the Bagheera kitten's page.

My good friend Nancy at Savannah River Bengals has some exceptional kittens that are ready to go today.

Check out Savannah River's kitten's page.

If you are looking for a beautiful brown spotted Bengal kitten for immediate delivery, or just in time for Christmas?

See Ryan Creek Bengals kittens here.

Our friend Debbie in New Hampshire also has kittens.

You can see Mom Dukes Bengals here

The declawing of domestic cats in the United States and Canada is quite common. In contrast, officials in many countries consider declawing a cat to be a cruel form of mutilation that is considered cruelty to animals and is, therefore, illegal.

In these countries you would be hard-pressed to find a veterinarian who would agree to do the operation. Although there are many veterinarians in the U.S. and Canada that readily suggest other options to the owners, sadly it's quite easy to locate a veterinarian that will declaw a cat even in the absence of any behavioral problem.

Cat owners who have had their cat declawed can cite numerous reasons for doing so, with the one most frequently voiced is to prevent damage to their furniture and carpet. Many also assert that declawing does nothing to harm the cat.

Well! Consider this! The technical name for declawing is Onychectomy, which fits the dictionary definition of mutilation. Words such as deform, disfigure, disjoint, and dismember all apply to this surgery. The declawing procedure involves the partial or complete digital amputation. The most severe of these involves the complete removal of the third bone of the toe including the claw.

This is synonymous to a human having their finger amputated to the first joint. Cathy and I believe that declawing is inhumane, or infeline. Although, scientifically, there have been no decisive long-term studies to research the behavioral effects, declawing represents a clear and undisputable risk to the cat. No one has the right to mutilate another, for their own personal gain

I can neither support nor condone a surgical procedure which is described as "mutilation" by many veterinarians, and which is almost never done for the benefit of the cat.

We have some wonderful news! We have placed a Bagheera Bengal kitten with a very famous celebrity! Needless to say, we have been very excited about being chosen to provide this kitten for such wonderful and famous people. We hope to be able to reveal the complete story very soon.

Heather wrote that she has built a MySpace page for Bagheera Bengal, Maya. In doing so she found Maya's brother, Binx, who lives with Shirley in CA. You can see Maya's MySpace page here.

Marja & Curtis shared the following about the two Bagheera Bengal kittens they adopted.

They are so wonderful - they drive us crazy every day with all of the attention that they crave but we wouldn't trade them in for anything. They've grown so much since we've had them!! I can't believe how big they are getting. The boy was named Vladimir but we call him Vlad and the little girl was named Camanae but we just call her Cama or CamaBear (like Panda Bear!). Vlad is SO affectionate and loving - he sleeps with us every night, hogging as many pillows as he can spread himself onto. Cama is so curious and into everything - she loves to watch TV and is nothing but trouble. She's still smaller than Vlad but she wrestles with him like she's invincible. Thank you both SO very much for letting us have two of your wonderful kittens - they are the most wonderful things that Curtis and I have ever had. They rule our roost and our hearts!

Q: Why does my cat jump on the counters all the time?

A: Cats love to jump. You would too, it you were a cat! They also like high places where they can view their territory from relative security. Cats are naturally curious, and there are a lot of interesting things on counter tops, including food. A one-time discovery of a food tidbit will become a powerful reinforcer for dozens of future explorations.

Your presence can affect a behavioral change if your cat insists on jumping on counters, cars, and furniture. When you are not at home, the only way to keep her from jumping on these things is to booby trap the place or to isolate her. The bottom line is: If you own a cat, you must accept and live with the fact that she will occasionally jump up on things.

Q: What is catnip?

A: Catnip (Nepeta cataria) is an herb which contains the active ingredient cis-trans- nepetalactone which may be an hallucinogenic drug. Only about half the cats exposed to catnip react to it and this reaction appears to be influenced by genetics.

Q: Why does my cat insist on waking me up way before the alarm goes off?

A: Cats are notorious for waking their owners up at oh-dark-thirty. If you wish to stop this, there are several steps to take.

The cat may simply be hungry and demanding its food. By feeding it when it wakes you up at an ungodly hour, you are simply reinforcing its behavior. If this is why it's waking you up, you can handle this either by filling the bowl just before you go to sleep so it will not be empty in the morning, or by ignoring the cat's wakeups and feeding it at the exact same time convenient to you every morning. The cat will adjust fairly quickly to the second.

There are other reasons and strategies for dealing with this behavior, but we do not have the space to cover them all here.

Q: Why does my cat like to tip the water dish and empty it all over the kitchen floor?

A: Cats should always have a source of fresh water (except for pre-op surgery or prior to a car ride), so removing it while you are not at home is an unsatisfactory solution. You can try placing it on a small rug, but that will probably only help with the clean-up. Try a large pyramid-shaped dish that can’t be tipped, although that will not address the splashing.

Q: Is it dangerous for a pregnant woman to own a cat?

A: Toxoplasmosis is a disease that can be contacted when handling contaminated raw meat, or the feces produced after ingestion of such meat. The disease will severely damage the fetus. Even though there is no proven case of human toxoplasmosis contracted from a cat many doctors still recommend getting rid of cats when the woman is pregnant.

FACT # 1: A cat can spend five or more hours a day grooming himself.

FACT # 2: A cat that bites you for rubbing his stomach is often biting from pleasure, not anger.

FACT # 3: A cat's tail held high means happiness. A twitching tail is a warning sign, and a tail tucked in close to the body is a sure sign of insecurity.

FACT # 4: A steady diet of dog food may cause serious health problems in your cat because, among other things, it lacks taurine.

FACT # 5: Abraham Lincoln loved cats. He had four of them while he lived in the White House.

FACT # 6: After being handled, cats lick themselves to smooth their fur and get rid of the "human" smell. Licking is also thought to produce a calming effect.

FACT # 7: Instincts inherited from their wild ancestors compel cats to bury their feces to cover their trails from predators.

When I am at home (which is most often), I have the privilege of latrine duty! The A-1 pooper scooper. Cathy will quickly let me know if I should “forget” to do the chore. I find it best to just go ahead and get ‘er done.

Then comes the time to wash the boxes and put in fresh litter. Our sweet kitties will let me know if I have waited too long to take care of this by leaving me a little present outside the box.

They are always interested in this task, almost always coming over and watching – no supervising. They want to be sure it is done just right, and completely.

Then when I am done at least one of them will jump in and begin scratching in one of the boxes. I suppose the scooping gives them the idea, or maybe they have just been patiently waiting for me to scoop the boxes before using them. Maybe it is their way of telling me they appreciate my efforts to keep things fresh and clean.

This information was sent to me by a reader of the newsletter and asked that I share it with you.

Although there are tens of millions of feral cats living in the U.S., most people don't realize there is a sensible way to manage and reduce their numbers: Trap, Neuter, and Return or TNR. Tragically, this lack of information leads to millions of cats being killed in shelters every year because they are not tame and therefore unadoptable

A stray cat is not a feral cat. A stray is a cat who has been abandoned or who has strayed from home and become lost. Stray cats can usually be re- socialized and adopted.

A feral cat is an unsocialized cat. Either he was born outside and never lived with a human family, or he is a house cat who has strayed from home and over time has thrown off the effects of domestication and reverted to a wild state.

Feral cats should not be taken to local shelters. Feral cats are not pet cats, and they will be killed at most shelters. Because they're considered unadoptable, they sometimes don't even make it to the shelter but are killed in the animal control truck. Even no-kill shelters are not able to place feral cats in homes.

Feral kittens can be adopted. Feral kittens can often be tamed and placed in homes, but they must be tamed in their first weeks of life. This is a critical window, and if they aren't handled in time, they will remain feral and unadoptable.

Trap and Remove does NOT work. Not only would you have to continue to remove cats, this process is extremely costly to communities. What's more, other cats move in to take advantage of the available resources and they breed prolifically, quickly forming a new colony. This "vacuum effect" is well documented.

Trap, Neuter, and Return DOES work.No more kittens. Their numbers gradually go down. The annoying behaviors of mating cats, such as yowling or fighting, stop. The cats are vaccinated, and they are fed on a regular schedule. This ongoing care creates a safety net for both the cats and the community.