It is a pretty well known that Bengals are “fond” of water, or will at least tolerate it. There’s stories all over about people’s Bengals jumping in the shower with their owners, or playing in their water bowls.

And then there’s Sammie… not too fond of playing in her water bowl, and I don’t think she’s quite figured out what we humans are doing in the shower. But when it comes to bath time, she does NOT behave like a cat!

That’s right, Sammie tolerates taking a bath, just like a good Bengal would be expected to. No body armor needed, no scratching, or hissing, or fearing for my life. Once she’s in she just takes it for what it’s for. It’s after she gets out that she gets a little angry, mostly because she’ll have to spend the next 6 hours arranging her furs how she sees fit.

We use Hertz hairball shampoo on her, and scrunch her all up. I am sad I don’t have pictures of a soapy kitty I will have to get some in the future. Sammie gets a bath at least once a month, or perhaps a bit for often for entertainment purposes. Baths keep her nice and fluffy!

Tonight I had a huge breakthrough with Sammie and I am so proud of her! In the 5 months she’s been with us she’s never shown any interest in having a treat, or eating when she does not feel it’s her mealtime. Well, tonight I bought her some Feline Greenies to replace the treats I just bought but lost (dammit).

I sat on the kitchen floor, shook the pouch and asked Sammie to come over. When I ripped it open she came over and I asked “Sammie want a treat?” (Yes, I talk to her with the expectation she knows English, haha) and held out one piece. She sniffed it, gave it a few licks, and then ate it! I was beyond excited!

I decided to see if she would do it again, so I got out another one and left it in my palm to see if she would take it out of my palm (she ate the last one off of the floor). And she did!

Before this I just put a few treats in with her normal food to eat because she would not eat unless it was time for her to eat, and she only showed a liking to her dry food only. I know she couldn’t have been hungry tonight because there was food in her bowl and it wasn’t her normal dinner time, so I think she really just ate a treat from me!

So as a reward for finally showing a bit of “normal” in her, she got lots of playtime with Da Bird, which she got yesterday!

I just hope this is the beginning of a future of positive behavior improvement in Sammie. It saddens me a bit that I basically have to give her the proper socialization at age 2, that her original owners should’ve done as a kitten, but I am so happy that I am making some breakthroughs, especially when in the near future we are considering adding another furbaby to our family, but don’t want it until Sammie is a bit more socialized and less aggressive.

I think Da Bird shall arrive tomorrow… yay!

Or soon will be… I finally broke down. I had to. I couldn’t resist anymore! It is about time Sammie got spoiled with the best cat toy anyway!

http://cats.about.com/cs/playforcats/gr/dabird.htm

Got it with 4 attachments from Ebay. I sure hope it comes soon! I can’t wait to see the little hunter come out in Sammie, yipee!

Eeek, I am being a bit bad at updating this. Let’s see… I have been researching Sammie’s pedigree a bit, and hope to have that up here soon with information on some of her relatives. I figured out that she is an F6, and according to http://www.bengalpedigrees.com, is 12.5% ALC (”wild blood” for all of you non-bengal people), which is probably a low estimate since her extended pedigree is missing some kitties.

Sammie had a lazy Christmas, and just slept in her heated bed all day. Yes, she has a heated bed! She received a crinkle tunnel and some awesome (and cheap) plastic balls that she adores. Most of all she got to drink some bottled water… as Sammie is quite the Dasani addict and loves when she sees me take that blue bottle out of the fridge!

She will drink out of the bottle, but prefers if I fill the cap with the special treat, and then hold it for her while she enjoys. Now, if that doesn’t spell s-p-o-i-l-e-d I don’t know what does!

As for the heated bed I mentioned, Sammie took quite a liking to an old box from a grocery store. Gradual we added more and more to it for her comfort. It has a nice plushy cat bed on the bottom, and is topped off with a blanket that my mom handmade just for Sammie (even Grandma spoils Sammie). When the temperatures started getting colder, we got her a Pet Safe Universal Pet Bed Warmer, which is slipped under her blanket. Top it off with Sammie’s only treasured toy, which is her dirty bag of ‘nip, and you have a bed she can’t bear to leave!

Sammie says: “Shut up, it was a long night of Dasani drinking!”

Of course, that isn’t the end of the story. Sammie has discovered our 1000 thread count sheets, and now thinks that she has every right to lay in the human bed when the humans aren’t in it… including if one of them has just stepped out for a quick midnight bathroom stop! She has made making the bed quite impossible, too, with her desires to lay all over the feather bed, down comforter, and sheets when she has the chance.

Sammie say: “May I help you?”

Note in the picture a true spoiled cat heaven: heated cardboard box, Dasani water, and 1000 thread count sheets!

Anyways, this is all for now. I have so much to do to this site, and I hope to get the chance to make some progress soon!

-Sammie’s mommy, Heidi