- Joined
- Jan 7, 2025
- Messages
- 1
- Purraise
- 3
This is Ivan. My guy here is 16 pounds of pure muscle. His head is twice the size of any other cat I have had. He has super soft fur that changes texture every summer/winter; he looks like a different cat depending on the season.
His vocalizations include everything with the exception of anything sounding like a normal "meow" (i.e. trills, barks, raspy howls).
He just appeared one day. I suspect he may have been dumped at the end of the dirt road I lived on at the time and he was still quite young - about 6 or 7 months old, I would say. Took me 10 months to be able to pet him after I first saw him and then he decided to obsess over me after that. That was almost 5 years ago. I suspect he was someone's "covid kitten" and not feral because for about the first year I had him he would hiss at the words "hey" and "no" regardless of tone or context. One occasion he peed in my boot. I looked at him and asked him "Did you pee in my boot?" The word "pee" made his eyes bug, ears go straight back and then he ran away trilling a loud "Vooooo!" Hence his nickname, Vo. But clearly he had triggers from some bad experience with people. He has come a long way since then - completely unafraid and the best behaved cat I have ever had. A cat that listens! Crazy!
Never have I had a cat like him. And I have had many cat companions over the past 32 years.
Aside from his tapered tail shape and the broken stripe pattern of it, he shares nearly every feature of a European/Scottish wildcat in my opinion. He also has very unusual white fur patches on his throat and lower belly and also at the center of each paw that can only be seen when spread his toes out.
He acted a bit aggressive in way that was almost possessive of me before I decided to have him neutered. He would jump in my lap and anchor himself letting out these long, loud, raspy howls. If I tried standing up, he'd jump off my lap and bite my pant leg and yank hard. Kind of scary. Now he's just a big baby who loves to spoon!
He will still sometimes spray indoors if I don't routinely let him outside to do it. Also he is the only cat I have ever had that will poop outside without attempting to bury it. As far as his hunting and playing - "big cat" behavior comes to my mind.
Thoughts?
His vocalizations include everything with the exception of anything sounding like a normal "meow" (i.e. trills, barks, raspy howls).
He just appeared one day. I suspect he may have been dumped at the end of the dirt road I lived on at the time and he was still quite young - about 6 or 7 months old, I would say. Took me 10 months to be able to pet him after I first saw him and then he decided to obsess over me after that. That was almost 5 years ago. I suspect he was someone's "covid kitten" and not feral because for about the first year I had him he would hiss at the words "hey" and "no" regardless of tone or context. One occasion he peed in my boot. I looked at him and asked him "Did you pee in my boot?" The word "pee" made his eyes bug, ears go straight back and then he ran away trilling a loud "Vooooo!" Hence his nickname, Vo. But clearly he had triggers from some bad experience with people. He has come a long way since then - completely unafraid and the best behaved cat I have ever had. A cat that listens! Crazy!
Never have I had a cat like him. And I have had many cat companions over the past 32 years.
Aside from his tapered tail shape and the broken stripe pattern of it, he shares nearly every feature of a European/Scottish wildcat in my opinion. He also has very unusual white fur patches on his throat and lower belly and also at the center of each paw that can only be seen when spread his toes out.
He acted a bit aggressive in way that was almost possessive of me before I decided to have him neutered. He would jump in my lap and anchor himself letting out these long, loud, raspy howls. If I tried standing up, he'd jump off my lap and bite my pant leg and yank hard. Kind of scary. Now he's just a big baby who loves to spoon!
He will still sometimes spray indoors if I don't routinely let him outside to do it. Also he is the only cat I have ever had that will poop outside without attempting to bury it. As far as his hunting and playing - "big cat" behavior comes to my mind.
