Toyger
I can’t tell you how much I hate the name “Toyger.” It looks like Toyota and sounds like the name of a small dog. Also, I’d like to make it clear that I’m not for the genetic manipulation of animals (breeding, if you will). It’s strange and kind of cruel. That being said, I would give my right arm for a Toyger, or maybe I’d trade in my right arm for a right arm that doesn’t have wrist pain (via transplant) and then trade something a little less valuable for a Toyger, like a sweater or shoes or something. I’d trade in my social security card for a Toyger, or my laptop. On second thought, I wouldn’t trade any of those things for a Toyger. What would a fair trade be? Let me think about this for a second. I’d trade my printer and all of my CDs for a Toyger. I’d even throw in some DVDs, like a signed copy of Dodgeball (signed by Stuart Cornfeld, producer).
- Toyger breeding began in the 1980s with the aim of breeding a cat that looked like a little tiger, a “toy” tiger if you will.
- Judy Sudgen, the woman who came up with the idea, says that her intention was to make people want to care for and save wild tigers.
- I’m having a lot of trouble paraphrasing this for some reason, so I’m the next few bullet points are straight from wikipedia.
- “The breed began development in 1980 when Judy Sudgen, a breeder looking to clarify the mackerel markings in tabbies, noticed distinctive markings in two of her cats. These markings, occurring on the head, an area normally devoid of distinct pattern, first inspired the idea of a tiger-like tabby.”
- “After importing a tom from the streets of India with noticeable head markings, the quest to develop tiger-like, circular face markings in the cats began.” I’m going to comment on this bullet point: how funny is that - a cat from the streets of India was “imported” because it had something cats rarely have. Imagine the search for that one cat? Did someone scour the earth to find it or was it just a “happy coincidence” that it was even noticed?
- “The introduction of the Bengal breed into the gene pool was a move on Sudgen’s part to produce a ‘big cat body.’”
- The breed is far from being perfected. They hope, by 2010, to have rounder ears and a wider nose. Other traits are further off in the future.
I intended for this to be a short post and it is. I’m a little disappointed in the fact that my head was empty and I couldn’t paraphrase. Whatevs. I guess all I really wanted to do was put pictures of Toygers on my blog.
