Toygers - have you seen these?

[Tragic Rabbit]

TOYGERS

[Tanuki Racoon]

I am greatly intrigued. I've been reading about them for at least two years. They are being continually bred over time to look more and more like little tigers.

[JamesSavik]

I want a tame, sweet 1,200 pound real tiger that I can ride to work and feed my enemies too. Boo the tabby would never come out from under the bed but Prince and Shorty would be great playmates.

[Tanuki Racoon]

I want a tame, sweet 1,200 pound real tiger

Me too. Nice kitty. ::pet::

[Trab]

I know this is a bit off the topic, but I know someone whose female cat was bred by a bobcat. The single baby offspring was huge. She had to give it up for adoption, as she lives in a small trailer and the cat was about 18 inches high at the shoulder.

[colinian]

Me too. Nice kitty. ::pet::

Or:

Probably more like Me too. Nice kitty. ::pet:: - ::CHOMP!;;;,,,,,,,.......

Colin

[Res Ipsa Loquitur]

Deleted

[Tragic Rabbit]

From what I remember my vet saying, you can tell if they are crossbreeds by their tail length and sometimes they have like breaks or kinks in their tails. I can't exactly remember, but I had a kitten that was a crossbreed when I was a kid. The kitten wasn't all that big though.

I had a cross-breed ASH/bobcat for many years. Banshee was black but shaped like a bobcat with high back legs and a kinked stub tail. Like RIL's kitten, he wasn't much larger than the average tomcat. He'd been a feral cat whose tribe of crook-tailed bobcat crossbreeds was being eradicated by our principal. I took home the one no one else wanted - he was ragged, wild eyed, tough looking, had tattered ears...and was an adult.

Banshee immediately warmed to housecat status, literally overnight, becoming a devoted companion to me and to my other black cat, JJ Flash, for two decades. He slept on my chest just below my chin, every night, while Flash slept along my neck and head.

With love and attention, Flash lived to be 21 and Banshee to 24. Both died in my arms at the fragile far end of old age, Flash at the vet office but Banshee at home -- by then, I'd learned to recognize the death symptoms that vets can't fight.

I still miss them, their ashes are in urns on a shelf here beside me.

Joey

[Trab]

(((( Joey ))))

They live such a short time compared to us, but they sure are wonderful life savers, not to mention life savourers.

[Tiger]

They're adorable. Sign me up! I want one now!

[Camy]

The Toyger is a designer cat. It is designed and bred with the demands of modern apartment life as a human companion foremost in mind. Glittered, pelted, dramatic pattern appeals to both the high-tech glamour and nature-loving, wild dreams of city-caught people while the laid back, easily trained character of these cats make them a joy to live with.

Doesn't anyone find this just a little bit worrying?

[Bruin Fisher]

Doesn't anyone find this just a little bit worrying?

Yup. Very. Designer children, anyone? Please Mr Geneticist can I have a son bigger and stronger than any of his schoolfriends? And with a dominant personality?

I know that's more than what's been done with these animals (was genetics involved at all, or just generations of breeding?) but I share Camy's worry.

Bruin

[JamesSavik]

From what I gather, all that has happened has been selective breeding for various attributes. This has been going on with other animals for centuries.

Now if they took house cat chromosones and spliced tiger chromosones, then you might have cause for worry. When the kitty stalks and pounces you, it's not the fun game it used to be.

Genetic engineering like I described is also going great guns- mostly in the various areas of agriculture. Designer organisms have been created. Bacteria that eats oil spills burps and dies, cows that resist cow diseases, sheep that yeild more wool. Now there are a number of cross-bred and cloned food animals in the food supply. Word is that they are working on a cow that only produces "good" cholesterol.

[JamesSavik]

OOps, double posted. Why I have no idea.

[Caylor]

I'm just kind of repulsed by genetic breeding and such just to get a prettier animal. Too often it turns out there are 'side effects' of the breeding that were not foreseen, and these animals end up with problems that are bigger than the reasons for the breeding.

But, um, sure, CUTE!

[Tragic Rabbit]

I'm just kind of repulsed by genetic breeding and such just to get a prettier animal. Too often it turns out there are 'side effects' of the breeding that were not foreseen, and these animals end up with problems that are bigger than the reasons for the breeding.

But, um, sure, CUTE!

It's not genetic manipulation, it's just breeding to specification. Same thing we've been doing since we took cats and dogs in out of the cold - or, in the case of cats, persuaded them to mouse indoors and adorn our homes. For dogs, that's maybe over 50, 000 years; cats not so long but still longer than recorded history.

Cat 'breeds' are just related pools of cathood with differing traits. A Persian, a Lilac Point Siamese, a Maine Coon, and a black housecat (ASH) are the same animal, the same species.

'Breed' is a human creation and perception, kind of like our concept of 'Time'. Neither has objective reality.

TR

[Tiger]

It's not genetic manipulation, it's just breeding to specification. Same thing we've been doing since we took cats and dogs in out of the cold - or, in the case of cats, persuaded them to mouse indoors and adorn our homes. For dogs, that's maybe over 50, 000 years; cats not so long but still longer than recorded history.

Cat 'breeds' are just related pools of cathood with differing traits. A Persian, a Lilac Point Siamese, a Maine Coon, and a black housecat (ASH) are the same animal, the same species.

'Breed' is a human creation and perception, kind of like our concept of 'Time'. Neither has objective reality.

TR

I agree. I see nothing wrong with it at all with the exception they are making by breeding cats with short legs and larger frames. I do not think they should do stuff like that, because it often causes problems with walking and jumping.

[Trab]

they are making ... cats with short legs and larger frames. I do not think they should do stuff like that, because it often causes problems with walking and jumping.

I can testify to that. I'm 6'2" and only have a leg length of only 31", and I have a very large frame, and I have a heck of a time walking and jumping.

[Res Ipsa Loquitur]

Deleted

[Camy]

It's not genetic manipulation, it's just breeding to specification. Same thing we've been doing since we took cats and dogs in out of the cold - or, in the case of cats, persuaded them to mouse indoors and adorn our homes. For dogs, that's maybe over 50, 000 years; cats not so long but still longer than recorded history.

Cat 'breeds' are just related pools of cathood with differing traits. A Persian, a Lilac Point Siamese, a Maine Coon, and a black housecat (ASH) are the same animal, the same species.

'Breed' is a human creation and perception, kind of like our concept of 'Time'. Neither has objective reality.

TR

Breeding to specification IS genetic manipulation. It's keeping queens (I'm talking cats here ) from mating with whomever they please, and manipulating their progeny for $$$. You don't think that cats really give a damn who they screw around with, do you? Ergo it's manipulation of their gene pool.