i remember in 9th grade after katrina, one of the kids that joined the class from New Orleans said she saw a dead cheetah in the water at one point, i didn’t know whether to take her seriously when she said it, but here we go.

Same thing is happening now with Servals and their hybrids. Add to this the rocky economy and I fear we will see more stories about Servals that are running loose being caught or killed. I really like the spotted cats, but not for $100k and a hosed down house – its bad enough when a regular house cat does that just once or twice

You’re right Kittenz. The best cats are the freebies and there are plenty of those little guys that need homes.

I agree – the Asheras are beautiful, but they aren’t $$thousands worth of beautiful! Personally, I think that anyone who would pay $125K for a housepet of any kind has more money than sense. But it’s their money so I guess they can spend it however they want.

The Ashera cats also may not be entirely as represented. I mean, they definitely are serval hybrids, but they may be nothing more exotic than Savannah cats. According to news reports, some people have been duped into paying for Ashera cats, and subsequent DNA testing proved the cats to be “ordinary” Savannahs. So it’s “buyer beware”. And even though they come with a “one-year guaranteee”, I wonder how many of those gigantic tabbies end up in shelters, given away, or just plain dumped? That’s a lot of cat. I see people every day who can’t handle even an eight pound DSH. They get a cute kitten and six months later they want to be rid of it because it acts like a cat. People fall in love with the exotic appearance of hybrids, forgetting that the exotic appearance comes with exotic behavior as well.

All of the most wonderful cats I have ever had have been freebies

The other breed that you are probably thinking of, that is partially derived from a serval cross, is the Ashera. Here’s a link… http://www.lifestylepets.com/cats.html
they sound too good to be true. I’ve never met one but they certainly are beautiful.

Without seeing a real picture of the animal captured, it would be hard to tell whether it is a full Serval or one of the crosses. It’s possible that this is one of the crossbred cats who was never offered as a pet because the wildness was just not bred out.

I always thought that the cat that was seen on the U Maryland campus outside DC a few years ago was a Savannah. It disdn’t have the characteristic small rounded ears but when crossbreeding, you get what you get.

I hope this poor animal is sent to some place where he will be able to live a reasonably comfortable life, in the sunshine, not in some breeder’s basement.

I also think there’s a new breed out there which is supposed to be a more refined Savannah but I can’t remember what it was called.