Hi there, I'm new to this forum so I figured I should probably introduce myself & my pets as my first post. We do not have our Bengal yet, but we are waiting for him to be ready to come home. He is an adorable little brown rosetted boy, about 7 weeks old right now. So he should be ready to come home by the first week of April - the wait is tough, but it's so exciting!

A little bit about our family... My boyfriend (of 7 years) and I have 6 cats - Neo, Nala, Baby Girl, Anakin, Oni, and Eevee - and an Australian Shepherd named Acer. All of our current cats are what you would call "rescues", either being found as strays, taken from people who did not want them, or adopted from a shelter. Our dog came from a family who decided he was "useless" after they realized he wasn't good enough at agility, and their female Aussie didn't want to breed with him so they said they had no use for him anymore. Their loss, because he is the most amazing dog I have ever known! I'm really not even a dog person, but Acer is quiet, gentle, respectful, doesn't bark, doesn't chew on things, doesn't need a leash because he listens to voice commands, loves EVERY person and animal he's ever met, and never has 'accidents'. He's like the *perfect* dog!

Anyway, as you can imagine I've been doing lots of research before our new Bengal baby comes home, which is partially what led me to this forum. Luckily because I already have pets (and because I'm a vet tech at the animal hospital/shelter I work at and have had many years of experience working and volunteering with animals), I'm pretty familiar with most things but we are excited to add a new type of family member to the group, and I'm sure it will be a fun new learning experience. We are very excited about our new boy, and already falling in love with him.

I'll make a separate thread in the Bengal Gallery for pictures of our new boy, but for now here are some pictures to introduce my other pets...


Acer
Australian Shepherd - He came from a family who had originally bought him from a breeder so that their teenage daughter could train him in agility. Apparently he wasn't very good, and they complained that he "couldn't stay focused", saying that he would run off to say hi to people rather than focus on the course. They tried to breed him with their female Aussie, I assume just to try and make some easy money off of him (these weren't very good people) but their female wouldn't let him. And that's how I ended up with him; he couldn't have been a more perfect dog! He is fantastic with the cats and any foster kittens we've had, and is just an all around great boy.



Anakin
Snowshoe mix - Someone found him alone in the street when he was about 4 weeks old and brought him to the shelter where I work... I immediately fell in love; he went home with me that day and he's been my baby ever since. He literally sleeps in my arms every night, and he prefers not to let anyone else other than my boyfriend touch him, unless I'm holding him. Out of all of our cats Anakin has been through the most, having had an FHO surgery after injuring his leg/hip when he was younger, and having a random seizure once, which just about killed me. He is doing wonderfully now though, thank goodness.



Oni
Savannah/Siamese/Bengal-type mix? Not really sure - He was also found as a tiny baby with no mom, at around 3 weeks old. The shelter manager at the time literally begged me to take him home *just to foster* because he needed 'round the clock care, so like Anakin he too came home with me that day... But he and my dog Acer became so attached, I couldn't stand to bring him back to work and separate them. He's a fantastic little cat; extremely vocal and energetic, and LOVES Acer and the other cats, always wanting to play. He also has quite the spotted coat, which got much darker as he aged.



Neo
Manx mix - He, along with his sisters Nala and Baby Girl, were our first three cats. They came from a lady who had a Manx cat that she didn't bother to get spayed, or KEEP INSIDE, so you do the math... There were only three in the litter, and the lady claimed that if she couldn't find homes for them right away, she would have to take them to animal control, so of course we couldn't say no. Neo is mainly my boyfriends cat, they are so gay for each other! lol. He loves to lay on my boyfriend's desk and be with him while he's on the computer.



Nala
Manx mix - Sibling to Neo and Baby Girl. This is our psycho cat, and we have been working on her bad attitude for years. She's on Fluoxetine (kitty Prozac) but unfortunately it's like a roller coaster with her, and we just try to do the best we can. Really she's just a grumpy cat who for some reason is just always angry. She can be a sweet cat at times, but only when she wants to. Despite growing up in a multi-cat household, she just doesn't like other cats...



Baby Girl
Manx mix - Sibling to Neo and Nala. When we first went to see these three kittens at just 6 weeks old, we had only planned on taking one home with us, and Baby Girl is the one we chose. After realizing just how tiny and alone she looked, sitting on our giant couch all by her little self, we knew we had to go back to the lady and bring home one of her siblings... Well, that idea didn't work out too well since we couldn't decide which one, and that's how we ended up with all three haha. Baby Girl is just that - a total baby girl. She's very dainty, girly, and quiet. Everything she does seems so feminine.



Eevee
Domestic shorthair - When we moved into our new house about 2 years ago, this girl was a kitten left behind (along with a few other cats) by a jerk owner who decided to up and move without taking their cats with them. We really had no intentions of adding anymore cats to the family at that point, so we thought the best we could do for her (and the others) was get them spayed/neutered and vaccinated and feed and look out for them. This went fine for a while, until one day Eevee had somehow gotten a puncture wound which turned into a nasty abscess and I put my foot down. We get her proper medical treatment and that was the last day she'd be forced to live outdoors. Knowing what I know about the dangers of it, I should have expected that something bad would happen to her and just taken her in sooner. But at least she is healthy and happy now, and luckily, our other cats had no problems accepting her!

loved reading about your cats & dog, some awful people out there, glad they found you to love them

Thanks! We are happy to have them in our lives, for sure.

wow! Must be amazing to have so many babies in the house!!!:))). The max i ever has was two, but always wanted more. Some day i hope can have 3 or 4 kitties!

Looks like a great fun family! Sorry to hear about your troubles with Nala. But Fluoxetine isn't just kitty Prozac, I was on it a few years ago and I have to say I felt like a rollercoaster all the time too. I'd say it made my depression worse not better and wouldn't recommend it to anyone!

You officially have a houseful! Does the dog think he is a cat at this point?
Love all the photos!

Totally understand the frustrations with Nala. I have one of those too. My Dexter grew up in a busy breeders house until 4.5 months old, and then with my two other cats. So you would THINK he would be fine with other cats. From the moment I got him there was some pee issues, and then a few months in there was fighting. He seems to be chronically obsessed with his 'territory', rubbing on things, herding other cats away from humans, etc. If we leave town the peeing starts up again.

He is 14 now and we have been through everything. I do a lot of clicker training with the crew and it has helped take the edge off him, but only to a degree. We have tried prozac as well (no effect). He does slightly better with the pheromones. I finally moved to the pheromone collar after going broke with the plugins and sprays. He still has some issues and I keep him in his own room/territory at night or when I leave for several hours. Being consistent with all of this has kept things semi peaceful and pee free for awhile now (knock on wood). Heck, the other day I actually caught him playing chase with my young bengal. As soon as he saw me he hissed at her and sulked off....of course!

Cannot wait to meet your new one!

Love your pictures and reading about your pet family. Your new Bengal kitten is amazing! Love his huge spots. May I ask you which breeder you're adopting him from?

Thanks very much RomeoRagan. We decided to go with Darkmoon Bengals. It's gonna be a far drive for us when he's ready to be picked up, but it'll be worth it. I really didn't want to have to ship a kitten in from somewhere else the idea of that just scares me.

DarkMoon has truly exquisite Bengals! My breeder has a couple lines going back to Legacie. She has a lovely charcoal from this line.
My kitten's sire came from a line leading to Gogee's.