# House cat/big cat crossbreed?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-cat-big-cat-crossbreed/386796>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 5, 2007, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-cat-big-cat-crossbreed/386796 "2007-01-05T07:54:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\
**Post date:** [January 7, 2007, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-cat-big-cat-crossbreed/386796/41 "2007-01-07T16:16:10Z")

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[QUOTE=Gaudere]  
Not as an actual crossbreed; but [Manx cats](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manx_cat) are sometimes thought to be “cabbits” since 1) they have big hind legs 2)small/non-existant/stumpy tails and 3) they kind of hop when they walk or run. It’s just an adaptation to the lack of a tail. There are no known true cat/rabbit crosses, and the prospect seems pretty unlikely.  
[/QUOTE]

As **Gaudere** alludes to here, the “hopping” gait is a compensation for relative taillessness. We had a pet once, ironically named “Bunny” for the rabbit-shaped marking on her back as a kitten, who for the first eight months of her life had a beautiful luxuriant tail. Then she came off second-best in an encounter with a motorcycle, and her tail was hanging by a flap of skin when she was brought back to our door. The vet had to amputate, of course, and she had a 4-cm stub thereafter – and a gait that reminded one irresistably of a rabbit hopping.

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