small life, slow life

Remember that time last week when I said we met a Bengal we fell in love with but that the universe had other plans for him?

Well. Yeah. Not so much.

Meet Rolo, OUR bow-legged Bengal.

The whole night AFTER we met Rolo for the first time (his name was Benny then), C and I tried to tell ourselves why it was a good thing we hadn’t gotten him. We said things like,

“Our bathroom is too small for a litter box.”
“There would have been hair everywhere.”
“It’s not good to get a pet right before a wedding.”
“He would’ve destroyed our furniture.”

So get this: 24 hours later I’m having lunch with my BFF D and C’s mom, showing them pictures of the cat but explaining why it was good that we didn’t get the cat, all while having a super weird feeling about it. Whatever, I thought, and put my phone away. You know, to be present and stuff.

Cut to two hours later when I’m leaving the restaurant and C’s mom calls me to say C has been calling everyone looking for me, that it was kind of urgent but not bad-urgent, and I realize:

Oh my God, we got the cat. 

For whatever reason, the woman who was going to take the cat backed out at the last moment, and boom — within 24 hours, we were now the owners of this sort of strange, slightly exotic, a little bit weird cat.

No really, he’s weird. Look:

A little cross-eyed and a lot bow-legged.

He’s been with us nine days now and though I had a bit of a hard time at first, it’s already tough to imagine life without him.

I didn’t know the first thing about Bengals. I knew they were considered exotic and that people spend a lot of money on them (like, between $600-$1200 a lot). So I did some research:

– Bengals are usually the fourth generation of the breeding of a house cat and an Asian leopard
– They are usually gentle and cat-like in temperament
– Some Bengals get along with other cats and some HATE other cats; most Bengals love dogs and are good with children
– Bengals can jump like, super high
– Bengals can TOTALLY be trained to walk on a leash(!)
– Bengal breeders often feed them ground up RAW chicken, with the bones!
– They like a LOT of attention (much more than a house cat) and need a TON of exercise.

So I don’t know about most Bengals, but here is what I’ve learned about Rolo:

1. His purring seriously helps me sleep better. That’s once he’s gotten into bed and stopped jumping on the dresser, scratching the walls and swishing the window curtains of course.
2. He’s super well-behaved and does not scratch furniture. (Just walls. Why?! I do not know.)
3. He fetches. I guess this is a Bengal thing. I didn’t know!
4. He drools, like a LOT, when you pet him. Especially in the mornings.
5. His full name is “Rolo Tony Brown Town” after this Tim & Eric skit.
6. C bought him a lot of toys but his favorite (by far) is the strips of luon I brought home from work that we tied together. He fetches them, carries them from room to room like a baby, will jump six feet in the air to get them, etc.

These are strips of luon. They send the headbands bundled with them at my work. I brought some home for Rolo and ta-da — his favorite toy ever. (The one next to him in this photo is all wet because he chewed half of it and I had to pull it out of his mouth – blech!)

7. He’s not really a lap-cat but he loves to be close. He DOES sleep on my legs at night or spooned super close against me. When not sleeping, he likes to be as close to us as possible and if we are in different rooms, he will lay in the doorway to be in close proximity to both of us.

Sitting as close as possible to E without actually physically touching her.

8. Because he’s so bow-legged, he often sleeps with one of his paws up in the air!

9. Rolo happens to be quiet Paleo-ish and will only eat one flavor of Fancy Feast wet food and refuses all kibble of any kind. We do trick him into eating sardines sometimes. C is seriously considering buying a high-powered meat grinder to feed him ground up chicken. #thisisthemanIamMarrying

10. I love Rolo. And there are some moments where I less-than-love him (like when he decided to try to scale the curtains at 2am). But mostly, mostly love. C is so ridiculously in love; they are like the Lost Boys. We’re very happy with our little trio.

Those spots!

I will keep you updated with all of Rolo’s adventures.

And I’ll be back soon with the wedding invitation post too!

xoxo,

Jen and Rolo