Harvey's Daily Hat Trick

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!!!

More Harvey, 10 Months of Age

He's a big baby... already 25+ pounds at 10 months of age and as loving as when he was tiny. I can barely hold him but he doesn't understand and still jumps into my arms or onto my shoulder. Except most of the time now, he goes right over because I can't stay upright. His newest game is to jump to the sofa table, then leap OVER my head and land about six feet beyond me. He's very proud of that achievement, but it doesn't have quite the same effect as when he did it the first time!

AJSavannahs F2B Harvey Helps with the Folding

Harvey is from our F1 Kboo and F6A Mbau. He's not even 10 months old and weighs over 24 pounds. Our F2B kittens tend to be huge, lots of photos on our AJSavannahs Testimonials pages, but Harvey is a Gigantor among giants!



Hard to remember he's just a kitten.



Harvey tried to help fold dishtowels this afternoon. The side table is 34 inches tall and his shoulders are at least five inches above it when he stands up on his hind feet.



We're hoping for F2B kittens in September, please review our Pre-Screening Questionnaire on our AJSavannahs Kittens page for an idea of our placement requirements. And don't miss our AJSavannahs YouTube channel for videos of our early generation Savannah cats and kittens.

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Harvey

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???