This week I again ventured into the mysterious, exotic world of Cats: I interviewed two 7-month-old, sibling Savannah cats. Since they were from Savannah, I figured they’d have Southern Accents. But I was wrong. WAY wrong. Wait’ll you hear their story!
My Assistant knocked and a lady opened the door holding a cat with a looong body, looong legs, looong tail and the biggest ears I’d EVER seen on a cat: pointy and side-by-side on the top of his head, sticking straight up. They looked like sails. And he could flip them around like airplane wings. His coat was light gold with dark spots, sorta like a leopard, and he was wearing a denim Harley-Davidson hoodie vest. All in all, a VERY impressive fellow.
“Jambo, Bwana Bonzo! My name is Bartley-Zeus. Call me Bartley. This is our Mama, Suzette. Our Dad’s Don. You’ll meet my sister Athena-Grace shortly. Please make yourself comfortable.”
Intrigued, I thought, “Bwana Bonzo? Jambo? No trace of a Southern accent, and unusually well-spoken for bein’ so young.”
He jumped onto the table, walked over to my Assistant and stared, nose-to-nose. I opened my notebook. “Thank you. It’s my pleasure. You have very striking looks. I understand you’re from Georgia.”
Bartley laughed. “Because we’re Savannah cats, right?”
I nodded.
“A common mistake. You see, although my sister and I were born in North Carolina, our grandfather was a Serval …”
“A what?”
“Servals are wild cats,” Bartley explained. “They live on the Savannahs (tropical grasslands) in Africa. Thus, our breed name.”
“Woof!” I blurted. “Wild cats? Africa? But you don’t seem, er, I mean, you’re not scary or anything.”
“Of course not. Our grandmother was a Maine Coon. We are bred to have just the right combination of exotic African beauty and totally civilized behavior. It’s all very precise, as you can see. We do like to maintain some of our African heritage. Not the fearless-hunter-striking-terror-into-small-mammals. Mostly just some of the language.”
“Good to know,” I said. Bartley sat up very straight and, I hafta say, he was one seriously good looking feline. Great posture. Reminded me of a picture I saw once of Bastet, a very important cat in ancient Egypt. I noticed the backs of Barkley’s ears had a narrow white border all around and a big white spot in the middle. I asked him about it.
“That’s from our African heritage,” he explained. “It looks like we have eyes in the back, to scare anything sneaking up on us. Clever, right? Oh, here’s Athena-Grace.”
Their Mom was carrying a smaller cat, whom she deposited on the table. She had the same markings as her brother. Then I saw she was wearing a T-shirt that said, “I ‘heart’ my BONZO!”
“Jambo, Bwana Bonzo,” she said in a charming, purry voice. “Do you like my shirt? Mama made it special in honor of your visit.”
I was touched. “It’s lovely! I’m honored! And I’m eager to hear about your lives.”
“All nine?”
“Well, this one, for sure,” I replied.
“Mama and Dad love Savannah Cats. They had Zynna-Spyce, but she got sick and went to Cat Heaven. After a while, Mama wanted another Savannah, so she called a breeder friend, but she was temporarily out of kittens. Anyway, Mama was busy studying to get certified as a Braille translator when … ”
“A what?”
“Braille. It’s a bunch of bumpy dots and things. It’s for blind people, so they can read stuff by feeling the bumpy dots with their paws – I mean – fingers. We’re real proud of her. So, she was studying for this Big Test when the cat lady called and said she had a new litter. That was us! So Mama drove up and chose me. My brother’d already been sold but, guess what? Sometimes humans can’t tell if we’re boys or girls when we’re teeny kittens. The people who bought him thought he was a girl. When they found out he was a boy, they returned him.”
“Talk about embarrassing,” Bartley said. “I knew I was a boy. But everything turned out great, because Dad decided he wanted me. So he went up and got me and brought me home.”
“Me and Mama stayed in North Carolina for a family reunion,” Athena-Grace said. “I met my big Human family. It was lovely. They all said I was adorable and beautiful, which, of course, I AM.
“But, guess what? When I got here, Bartley was mean to me. He hissed and spit. HE says it’s cuz, when we were kittens, I was learning to wear my harness, and I was flopping around and knocked him off the stairs. HE says it was on PURpose but it WASn’t. It was on ACcident.”
“Was not,” sniffed Bartley.
“Was so. PLUS, I didn’t know he was gonna be my Forever Brother. But now we’re best friends.”
“True,” admitted Bartley, and he began grooming her softly.
“We go for leash walks,” said Athena-Grace. “And we have a double-decker stroller, with a Florida license plate that says, ‘Got Savannahs?’”
“We have more brothers and sisters,” said Bartley. “Look.” He pointed to two big aquariums, with a bunch of fish swimmin’ around.
“We lean our paws on the glass, and stare at ‘em Real Close. We used to splash in the little opening at the top ‘til Mom taped it up. Somehow, she knew we were fishing.”
I couldn’t believe an hour’d passed. Heading home, I was wondering how many generations back I’d have to go to get to my own wild roots … stalking caribou, perhaps?
Till next time,
The Bonz
