Sorry about the watermark. If you got here from our Kittens page, then you already know that several of our photos have been stolen and are being used in a Portland, Oregon pets for sale ad. The scammer has Harvey as an F1 and at only 19 pounds. Almost 10 pounds off his true weight! Guess I should be glad they're not listing me for sale, too, since I'm in three of the four photos. So now you're all stuck with watermarks on photos as well as our AJSavannahs YouTube videos. I'll just need to remember to leave more border to not cover kittens when I add the logo.
Harvey is still stealing and dumping his huge ceramic water bowl at least four times a day. Jason made a copper band to hold it to the wall, similar to the clamps you use on a dryer vent. Harvey still manages to take the heavy crock out of the band and play hockey with it, dumping water everywhere. I think we're doing at least one additional load of laundry each day, just for the towels we use to clean up the water.
He's so big and clumsy, his coordination hasn't caught up to his size yet, that we can't let him dump water because his feet get wet. Then he slips when he tries to run or jump from the furniture to the floor. Dangerous for him. Nerve-wracking for me.
Next thing we're going to try is to invert a large plastic cooler and cut a hole in the bottom, the diameter of his ceramic water crock, just below the lip. We'll put a concrete block, maybe two in the bottom of the cooler and latch it, still upside down. Then we'll set his heavy ceramic crock into the hole we cut and resting on the lip. He shouldn't (ha!) be able to lift the crock out, or be able to push over the cooler since it will have concrete blocks in the bottom.
Shouldn't... but he's extremely intelligent and extremely large and does what he wants. He's still a kitten and plays like one. Just that his toys are larger than everyone else's.
We're surprised he hasn't taught the others to dump water. Everyone else puts toys in water, or stands with front feet in the dish and splashes water out. But no one dumps the water dish. And no one plays hockey with the heavy ceramic crocks. Just Harvey.
Jason just asked me to weigh a crock to give you an idea of Harvey's strength. Empty, the crock weighs 4 pounds 2 ounces. With water, 2/3 full, it weighs 6 pounds 12 ounces -- almost SEVEN pounds -- we should get him a bowling ball, but then he could do real damage. We've never caught him taking the crock out of the copper band, but we've sure cleaned up his spills!
The joys of living with an F2B Savannah... he's worth it, he's also rotten. And thank goodness he's better at creating mischief than he is at teaching our other Savannahs how to misbehave!!!
New movie of our F1 Gabatta and her sister Ayo's F2B Savannah kittens on YouTube, watch it on the AJSavannahs Kittens page.
Aaron is a wild thing and has to be in the middle of everything. He wound up in Jason's arms so the other kittens could play.
Olivia is still recovering from her spay surgery, so she's not in the movie.
Emmett is like his Aunt Gabatta and would talk his prey to death, always announcing his approach.
Vester can almost fly, throwing himself around and changing direction in midair.
Jericho prefers to stay back and watch for his opportunity to dash in and make off with the feather toy. He is very, very fast, using his paws like a prizefighter landing a series of punches on an unsuspecting opponent.
And Murray... who LOVES to run up, tap me on the leg, then take off full-blast before I can grab him... Murray was surprisingly low-key with the feather toy. He leapt like Vester, punched like Jericho, twisted like Aaron, and was very thoughtful in his play. Murray usually runs in with total abandon, then zooms around the room til someone, anyone, decides to chase him.
Murray is available and we expect him to look very much like his mother when he's mature. He certainly plays like her, with wild abandon. And he has her huge, gorgeous upright ears, sweet face, very long legs and short thick tail that's in a perpetual state of Happy Tail (fulled out like a bottle brush). Given the size of his feet, along with our history of very large F2B male kittens, we also expect Murray to be a large cat when fully grown at three years of age.
They were worn out after playing so hard, I don't think anyone moved til morning.
I still have another 10 minutes of video that I need to convert. Everyone but the kittens' new families will be totally bored. But if you're waiting for your baby to come home, then every second is absolutely riveting!
You were expecting kittens? Our F2B Harvey is only a few days over five months of age, so he IS a kitten. Just that he already weighs 17 pounds! Harvey will be staying with us. We had always intended to keep one of our big boys, we just thought we'd wait til the girls were ready to retire. But Harvey had other plans. Apparently, he bonded to me during our Stranded in Las Vegas adventure (blogged, if you'd like to read the details) a few days before Christmas. It was very obvious to Mike after two months of trying, that Harvey was always going to love me best... so I flew back to San Jose (didn't get stranded this time) and when Harvey heard my voice, he started chirping. He exploded out of his crate, threw himself into my arms and rubbed his face all over mine, purring so hard he almost choked. He's been pretty much glued to me ever since, he sleeps with his head on my shoulder or if I stretch out my arm he'll put one or both paws into my hand. I'm spoiling him badly and driving Jason crazy making him come "See what Harvey is doing". Kboo, Harvey's mother, is as bonded to me as her son. Harvey is going to dwarf his mother and she averages 21-23 pounds and can stand up against me and almost touch my collar bone -- Gabatta CAN reach that high. I'm barely 5' tall. All of our kittens have transitioned perfectly to their new homes and all live in multi-cat or multi-pet homes. It usually takes about 15 minutes before each kitten is running around playing with toys and exploring, then cuddling and bonding to his new family. Harvey was 12 weeks old when we got stranded. Even our kittens who go home at 12 or 13 months of age have bonded immediately. Check out Spencer, Kai, Audrey, Nissa, Brie, Lucy, Moja and Ellie, all on our Testimonials pages, to read about a typical transition. Since I fly with each kitten in-cabin and hand-deliver, there's very little stress associated with their move to a new home. Unless we get stranded in Las Vegas with the first snowstorm the city has had in 30 years! While we were stranded, Harvey spent every minute of each hour either in his carry bag tucked under my arm and against my side. Or he was with me in the hotel room, serval leaping from one bed to the other, then running up and patting me to chase him, then sliding across the desk, then playing in the bathtub while I tried to make new flight reservations, then kissing me just to make sure I was still there. In short (not!), he imprinted on me, big time, due to the sounds and smells and stress of being stranded. I just didn't know it when we met Mike because Harvey sat in his lap, purred, acted like all our kittens after we make a long coast-to-coast flight. But then he got home, woke up and I wasn't there, and decided he was not going to stay. And he didn't! We offer a lifetime buyback guarantee to insure our kittens are never given away, sold, traded, surrendered to a shelter or rescue organization, that they will always come back to us. This was the first time we've had it happen. We refunded Harvey's entire purchase price and paid for the airfare to retrieve him and he'll stay with us forever. He's made his choice. Mike waited almost two years for Harvey, for his Humongous Boy. To see some of our other gentle giants, please visit our Testimonials pages and see Konga, Oliver, Cary, Spencer, Moja, Izzy, Bruce, Jack, our beloved Dale and Ozzy... and Elwood and Calla are still growing. Our girls tend to give us very big boys (and girls!) who are extremely loving. But back to Mike -- he knows us and our kittens -- and knows this was a Las Vegas Snowstorm fluke... so he will likely take Jericho from Ayo and Wari. Depending on how Jericho matures. And we have at least three other AJSavannahs families who want Jericho, as well as Oliver's aunt, and four new families. Mike will break hearts if he decides on Jericho. And I'll get to make yet another 13-hour cross-country odyssey! But Harvey is home and he's MINE. And thankfully, he loves Jason, too. And as most of our readers (and all our AJSavannahs families) know, I am VERY bonded to all our kittens. But Harvey is special, mainly because he thinks I'M so special. So thanks for humoring me as I go on-and-on about MY "new" baby. I sound like all our new families. Isn't it GREAT???
Our F3B Savannah kittens Dale, Ellie, Max, and Meica have learned to practically stand on their heads on top of their SpongeBob scratching post. It's an old footstool that we took apart, recovered with carpet, then put back on at an angle to make it easier for our younger kittens to crawl up. We call it SpongeBob because it reminds of of the cartoon character by the same name. The kittens couldn't care less what we call it, they love to play on it.
When Ellie was little, she'd stand up on her hind feet, front feet on SpongeBob, then crawl up to the top and look down on Dale. Of course, Dale would just walk up at the same age, he's always been such a large kitten. He uses it to launch himself off to get a headstart on Meica when she's in one of her running fits. Dale and Meica are very bonded and it's precious to watch since there's such a huge size difference. Dale is three weeks older than Meica, but he's a horse (ClydesDALE), and Meica can almost walk under his tummy. She's not small, just that Dale is that large.
Meica, left, and Ellie right, each look exactly like their mothers. Meica is from F2B Savannah Cori, and Ellie is from Komari, Cori's sister. Our F1 Savannah cat Ayo is grandmother to both kittens.
Meica has her mother's huge, distinctly contrasting spots and expressive (and large) ears. Meica is a spitfire who absolutely loves to race around the room with ANYONE in trail. She loves to run and plays with reckless abandon. Ellie definitely inherited her mother Komari's extremely long legs and distinct spots. Ellie is elegant where Meica is exuberant. Ellie loves to be cuddled and loved and would rather be kissing Jason than chasing Meica. Meica runs and plays and wears herself out, then comes to us to be cuddled. Both girls are beautiful F3B Savannah kittens. We're most proud of their personalities and loving temperaments.
It's good that Dale is so huge, or he'd be in trouble between Ellie and Meica. Dale below, with Max in his favorite perch in the background.
