K-Day

The Panzer has arrived! At 10:30am my wife and I drove over an hour to pick up our new friend Panzer. He's a Savannah cat which is a hybrid between an African Serval and a domestic hybrid (brown spotted tabby & Serval). After a visit to the vet he weighed in at 6oz and was found to be in great health. No mites, no bugs and in good spirits. He stands about 6-7 inches from shoulder to foot and weights a whopping 6 lbs, but he is only 12 weeks old. To give you and idea of how big that is my Ninja cat is 8 lbs at three years. Panzer is a bit clumsy for a cat, but his legs are very long and his paws are huge in comparison to his little body. It's also good to note that he is strong for his size and age. He can jump at least 2.5 feet high with little effort. Compared to a normal cat he is much faster when playing with teaser toys and such. Most of the time he catches the toy and then carries it off to his hiding spot. If you don't let go he will start a tug-o-war contest that he intends to win. Even at 12 week old this little guy has claws that bite if your not quick to move out of the way.

His diet today consists of Royal Canin 36 kitten dry food in a bowl for grazing, and high protein wet food that is 95% turkey with no wheat or corn filler twice a day. It's something we found that was for wild breeds, and will be replaced by raw chicken as soon as we get some ground. For those of you that are wondering about the chicken thing... you have to grind up the bones with the meat for calcium. They have a different diet than a normal cat, but similar tastes.

For a hybrid he's very affectionate and vocal. When he talks it's not really a cat's meow, rather it reminds me of a squeak mixed in with some cat like growl. He barked like a dog twice which was odd, but I think that was just a really loud squeak gone wrong.

Within a few hours of being home he's eaten a meal, napped 3 times, played chase the string and made friends with my wife and I. His nemesis *The Blue Rat* has followed him here from up north. They are at constant war, battling for the cat tree. It's good to note that the rat toy is really a squeaky dog toy. It's actually larger and heavier than he is because it has a huge rope and knot on its butt. That doesn't seem to stop him from tossing it around like a rag doll, showing him who's the boss.

He's just full of energy and I can't imagine what kind of trouble he'll get into when he's 20+ lbs. I hope he spares my TV's and gaming systems from his wrath of head butting and jumping around.