All,
Chris and Carolyn here. We're Ziggy's new slaves. An introduction and Ziggy update.
I've been lurking on SV Rescue for a couple of years. We fostered a "Savannah" last spring, Oni, who I'm certain is at least mostly a Bengal. It was an emergency situation and all that was known as a couple of pictures from the shelter and her induction papers.
Oni turns out to be the best, most beautiful, complex, funny, and loving cat I think I've ever served. And our family has served cats since I was 2 or so. Even if she's a Bengal! And, yes, we're keeping her, or, I should say, she's keeping us! Oni will be 4 soon.
We recently adopted a medium hair with a Siamese background. Jax was born in the wild and nursed back to health by my brother. He's a laid back kind of guy and turned 1 a few weeks ago. Oni and Jax are still getting to know each other, and it's going well.
When I saw the message from SV Rescue about Ziggy, I had to reply. Fortunately, Carolyn agreed. Oni was sent to the shelter because of issues with a baby in the house, so similar issues to what Ziggy's situation was. SV Rescue agreed and I picked up Ziggy Friday. We took a quick trip to the vet to get him up to date on his rabies vaccine and I had my first experience trying to wedge a Savannah back in our (used to seem) large carrier. The trick of propping the carrier door up and lowering Ziggy down rear feet first actually worked!
He's now been at our house for 5 days, and things are going well. We're seeing occasional moments of playful aggression, but nothing like what was reported earlier.
It helps that he has a large 10x20 room to himself, with a "den" (large box with cat bed and a towel inside, taped to just leave 1/4 of the front open) and a "fort" (large blanket on couch creating a soft dark space), climbing structure, scratching things, etc. And we can come and go. It's glass on all 4 sides, with one long side having two 8' sliding doors to the rest of the house.
We put up cardboard and pulled the drapes, but the cats conspired to spy on each other. Oni is enthralled. She stared for well over 20 minutes solid. I told Brigitte I thought she was thinking "They make them that big???"!
We can come and go, giving him time to get bored and want our company. If he gets over stimulated, especially with Carolyn, he will smack our gloved hand and/or lightly bite. He has lightly bitten Carolyn on the back of the leg--neither time hard. I think he's playing, and we are working with him to help him trust us as we are working to trust him. He has settled down with us on the couch and slept with my hand on him.
I'd say so far, so good. We have a long ways to go to properly earn his trust, and I'm confident that we're on the way.
The attached photo shows all three cats. Ziggy had just seen Jax and has his back up a bit. That came down soon after I took the photo.
View attachment 12617
Advice gratefully accepted.
Chris.
P.S. While I'm mostly new to Savannahs, I have volunteered at Carolina Tigers, where I've been able to interact with all sizes of carnivores. I'm not an expert, but I think my experience there, working with good, caring folks, helps.
