Yes, kind of weird, but the thing is that I can’t have a pet now, I’m having a hard enough time taking care of myself. Plus there is the matter of my transient living. I rarely stay in one place too long. I am basically waiting for the day when I have a stable existence with an apartment on my own.
But I was always a dog person growing up. I never really got cats, but as I got older, my sister had a cat. He was the coolest cat around. He wad definitely a lap cat for me. I kind of have a weird thing with animals, they tend to like me for some reason.
When I lived in New York, I had a mouse problem. Unfortunately nobody else in my apartment wanted a cat. What a shame. How cool would it be to have a furry pet and a rabid killer of the evil mice?! I was really sad that I never could get one, but oh well.
But I was reading the other day about how people with larger cats, and I decided that’s the kind I’d like. I want a big cat! I dunno why. I don’t expect it to do much, but I’ve always liked bigger animals. I suppose the biggest one that I’d like would be a Maine Coon, but I’m not sure. Then I got to read about these Australian cats that are kind of large and such. What’s the deal with these hybrid cats? I read a bit of it on the internet from both sides, and I have to admit that it’s a shame there are so many problems with these Jungle Cat hybrids and such. Because they are pretty and all. I guess they’d only be suitable if you lived on a farm…
But what is the biggest cat that you can get that’s not some kind of wild liability. I’m not an idiot. I would never get one of those wolf/dog hybrids. It’s not about defense or anything. I don’t know, I’d just rather have the largest domesticated cat, I guess. Most cats seem to be a bit fragile to me. I would obviously never hurt a pet, but I’d like one that isn’t so delicate. What I mean is the difference between a very fragile poodle vs. your average golden retriever or something. Same basic size, but just a bit more substantial.
Well what do you guys think? What kind of house-cat would I want? I’d prefer short hair as well.
I don’t know about breeds that you would like. I don’t know about breeds at all. To me a cat is a cat.
I can comment on the short hair comment. You WANT a short hair. I inherited a long hair cat from a friend who was moving and had to get rid of the cat. Every year about this time she gets frequent horrible hair balls. Thank goodness she only throws them up on the floor instead of my bed or couch. I feed her special food for the hairballs and give her medicine when it gets bad, like every other day.
So if you have a choice get a short hair. There is nothing more fun than getting up in the middle of the night to pee and then stepping in some warm gooey pile and praying to yourself that it is a hairball and not crap.
http://www.heliweb.de/wiedehage/ (This appears to be a German breeder’s web page. I included it because the pictures give you a great idea of the cats’ size.)
Let me second the short hair part. I’ve got a cat from the humane society, that is probably a Turkish Angora. Hair hair and more hair. There is the potential for hairballs all year around, and when we take him outside for an intense brushing, it looks like it snowed in my front yard. I love him, but I’m forever chasing clumps of hair, cleaning off my clothing, and brushing the cat.
We had a Persian cat when I was growing up - we dealt with the fur (and summer heat) by shaving her every May. She was none too thrilled, but it helped a lot with fur issues.
When you’re ready to get a cat, I’d recommend just going to the animal shelter and looking among the adult cats for a big one. Ordinary alley cats can get just as big without having the huge price tag of those purebreds, and then you’re saving a life too.
Going to the shelter is how I ended up with my big fat cat. I’d estimate he’s at least 16 pounds now (twice the size of my other cat!). The downside of having a large cat is that he is totally obsessed with food (in the middle of typing this message I had to go out into the kitchen because he had knocked over my garbage can to try to eat the garbage :rolleyes: ). Oh, and big cats make more mess than the little ones from all that eating.
