Cheetahsden's Hiro
Sire: Champion Cheetahsdan's Kai
Dam: Double Grand Champion Cheetahsden's Terza
Type of Bengal: Brown Spotted Tabby
Age: 1 1/2 year
Sex: Male

Full sibling (different litter obviously) to Double Grand Champion Cheetahsden's Illusion.

Hiro's favorite toy is a stuffed yellow canary that hangs from the doorway of my study. As soon as I open the drawer it's stored in, he comes running from wherever he is in the house looking for some action! He's become an expert at grabbing it on a single jump, even when it's 4 1/2 feet off the ground. He tugs and tugs at it, growling all the time. Play is supervised, however, as if I turn my back he'll chew threw the string and go running off with his hard-earned prize.

Very wild looking, and amazingly fit and coordinated. Hiro loves to play, and will chase anything that moves. At the same time, he craves attention and will follow you around the house to crawl into your lap when you have settled somewhere.

Hiro is featured in Bengal Cat Calendar 2002.

Cheetahsden's Ra
Sire: Champion Cheetahsdan's Kai
Dam: Double Grand Champion Cheetahsden's Terza
Type of Bengal: Brown Spotted Tabby
Age: 1 1/2 year
Sex: Male

Full sibling (different litter obviously) to Double Grand Champion Cheetahsden's Illusion.

From Cheetahsden: Ra was named because he's glittered and golden and looks like a sun god. Ra is very flashy and wild headed, and is perfect for someone looking for an "ahhhhh" cat. Ra is like his uncle, Supreme Grand Champion Cheetahsden's Sundancer in glitter and color. This boy is golden and glittered and rosetted with a nice head and flashy color. His rosettes are very good and his color excellent. His spotting pattern is more vertical behind the shoulders than Trouble's, but breaks into a random spotting pattern behind them and he has vibrant rosettes and lacey rosetted shoulder markings. He's a sweet and affectionate kitten, always purring and likes to sleep in laps when he's ready to sleep.

Ra is very, VERY affectionate. He still looks and acts like a kitty, and has very soft, glittered hair. He's needy, and cute, but can hold his own against his more athletic brother Hiro.

Ra is featured in Bengal Cat Calendar 2002.

Interation between Hiro and Ra:

Hiro and Ra are brothers from the same litter. They're best friends, and never leave one another's side. In fact, if one of them is closed off in another room, the other will sit outside the door, waiting patiently for his return. Much of their time is spent roughing around in my living room. They often look like two cartoon characters, fighting -- a big cloud of brown spots tumbling across the room (an imaginary grey cloud surrounding them), with an occasional limb flying out. Both Hiro and Ra are very vocal cats. If you establish eye contact with one of them and say his name, he'll meow right back at you and come over for some attention.

News/updates/etc.:

2001/07/25 - It occurred to me today that maybe Ra is just afraid to use his mouth to grab things (after splitting his palette). When he tries to grab things, he just bats them around and doesn't ever use his mouth. Oh, also... the Bengal Cat Calendar 2002 (featuring Hiro and Ra in two of the months!) is out.

2001/05/25 - They're shedding like CRAZY, and it's making my life an allergenic hell. I can't wait until they stop, but it seems likely that I will have to wait until Winter hits again. Hiro has grown up to be an amazing beautiful cat. He's very active, and can jump really high. He always grabs/bites whatever he's going for on the first try. Ra, on the other hand, seems to have lost that young predatory sense he used to have. He's utterly unable to grab/bite moving things (he paws at them frantically, but never latches on), and he seems weak when he playfights with Hiro. Maybe it's because his head stopped growing months ago...? I'm hoping that it wasn't the fall that caused this change in ability. Since the fall, he's been really cautious of new people (he runs at first sight). Poor Ra. :(

2001/03/04 - I finally caught Hiro pooping into the toilet with proper form. Before he could finish (cats are basically paralyzed once they start pooping), I ran to get my camera and snapped a couple of shots. :) Ra is perfectly behaved and always goes into the toilet. Hiro can be a pain, though -- he cries and cries, and I have to supervise him or he'll go somewhere else (the corner, the sink in the bathroom, the sink in the kitchen, etc.). It's ironic that Hiro was the one I managed to snap the photos of. Before you think I'm strange, read the rest of this page for some context. :)

2001/02/13 - Today Ra fell 25 feel down the center of my narrow (roughly spiral) stairwell, all the way to the slate floor in the basement level (!). I had people over installing some speakers today, so when Ra came shooting down the stairs and saw an unfamiliar face in the middle of the stairwell, he jumped to the left -- through the metal cabling -- and fell 2 1/2 stories. He must have hit his head somewhere, because there was blood everywhere. I rushed him to the vet... and luckily, he was ok. He split his palette and got a nasty bloody nose, but seems like he's doing ok (calm from shock, and hopped up on drugs, but still snorting out blood occasionally). Anyway.... it scared the crap out of me. I hope he recovers well! :(

Both kitties are growing fast. Ra is nine pounds now (twice his October weight), and Hiro probably is heavier. I wonder how big they'll get!

2001/01/30 - Hiro and Ra are at the stage now where they will go in the sitz bath regardless of whether there is litter in it or not, so I decided to start the transition to using no litter by drilling a 1" hole in the middle of the bowl for drainage. However, there was still some litter in the bowl last night. When I woke up, I discovered that they had gotten to the water in the toilet through the little hole (drilling through plastic often causes fractures. in my case, it gave them enough room to reach all the way through the hole to the water. i've since reinforced the cracks with duct tape underneath so they can't exploit them anymore). Unfortunatey, this meant that they effectively coated themselves with wet clumping litter (!), which ended up ALL OVER MY HOUSE, and on my new grand piano. argh. I have to do something about this Bengal cat affinity to water. Pam suggested that I put their water dish in a tray (Ra splashes it around everywhere every time he drinks), which I will do as soon as I can go buy one. As for not playing in the toilet... well, I think I may just have to wait for them to get older and less hyper...?

2000/12/17 - A few of my friends bought me a big toy leopard from FAO Schwartz. It looks very much like Hiro and Ra. I thought they could be friends, but it turns out that my cats are deathly afraid of it. I've never heard Ra hiss with such fear -- I took the stuffed cat and pretended to stalk Ra with it, and he took off, running frantically!

2000/12/08 - OK, so I'm getting consistent peeing and pooping in the sitz bath now (I had to cut off the raised plastic part in the back of it so I could lower the toilet seat). I still have to use a few cups of litter in it to get them to go in it, but it seems to be working. However, it's a little stressful because it's not that much room for them to go in, and the cats don't like to use it if one of the other cats has already gone. The problem is further exacerbated by them not being able to effectively cover up their poop with litter since it's recessed in the bowl. I also haven't been home much lately, so they've been craving attention (they soiled two rugs last night). Every day one of the cats is waiting to go when I come home -- I clean out the bowl and praise them when they use it afterwards.

2000/11/26 - I'm much more calm now. :) I should point out that I never, never take out my stress on my cats. Cleaning stool sucks, but... it's not a big deal. After all, it's me who is disrupting their crapping habits. Through a cat toilet training mailing list, I may have found the support to continue my mission towards a litter-free house! (this means I'm going to keep trying).

2000/11/15 - I'm giving up. Bengals always play in the water when the toilet bowl is open, and refuse to use the metal bowl when there's not litter in it. Today, I found a crusty pile of shit on my black leather couch, which really made me angry. I also found stool in the bathroom sink, and on the floor. *sigh* Part of their behavior may have been attributed to my contractor, who accidentally locked Hiro in the closet for most of the day. I found him in there when I got home from work. :(

2000/11/12 - I'm stuck! I can't seem to get kitties to balance on the toilet seat with all four legs. They both stand with their front two paws on the seat and their rear legs in the bowl, which obviously won't work once I remove the bowl. They've also discovered my paper towl dispenser, which is up on my kitchen counter. They're not supposed to be up there, but I can't seem to find a way to stop them from unrolling the paper towl spool and shredding the entire thing. Oh, and Ra no longer runs to the scratching post when I scratch it myself, so I guess our little morning ritual is no longer. These kitties are so unpredictable!

2000/11/02 - Both kitties are consistently going into a metal bowl in the toilet now! I placed a shallow litter on top of the toilet for about a week, so they could get used to being on the toilet itself before switching to a bowl. Ra keeps only two feet in the bowl, but Hiro puts all four feet in, so he's going to be harder to train. I'm wondering whether this is going to work. I mean, my Bengals like to play around in water (including toilet water), so... well, we'll see.

2000/10/19 - I think I went too fast with the toilet training exercise, because today either Hiro or Ra (I'm not sure which one) decided that he had enough, and peed on my beanbag (!). The other one decided to go on the bathroom floor. Luckily, the beanbag is a cheap one, which I'll probably just throw out. There doesn't appear to be a good way to clean the 1000 little styrofoam balls that were inevitably soaked in the urination process. *sigh* Time to back up a bit! Oh, and by "plastic bowl" (below), I mean a little $10 toilet-training form-fitted plastic bowl. It works fine (will never fall in the toilet because it's fitted to it), but I think a metal bowl would be better, and probably cheaper. I get stressed when kitty pees where he's not supposed to, because then I imagine that he might decide to go on my couch, or tv (or something else). :(

2000/10/17 - Kitties are now pooping consistently into a little plastic bowl in the toilet (with litter in it)! This is all very exciting. Unfortunately, they've discovered my nice cloth lamp from Crate & Barrel, which they like to drag to the floor every day before I get home from wor. It's now been quarantined in my "no cats allowed" bedroom.

2000/10/09 - I am now trying to toilet train my kitties. It backfired today, and Hiro peed in my recycling box, but I'm going to stick it out.

2000/09/28 - I heard the distinct Bengal growl for the first time today. I hung up a fuzzy (rabbit fur, I think) little toy mouse from the door frame, and as soon as Ra grabbed it, he started growling! I recorded the sound, but am not sure when I'll have time to post it on this site. Today was the first day they were out in the main living area without looking scared. Ra still runs downstairs and starts crying because he can't see me or his brother. How cute!

2000/09/26 - Acquired Hiro and Ra. I picked up two bengal kittens at the San Francisco airport on September 26, 2000 (purchased from Pam Knowles, at Cheetahsden -- see below for more info). They were purring by the time I put them in my car, and were racing around my house immediately after being let out of the crate! I can't believe how much energy they have. I've named them "Ra" and "Hiro". Even though they're from the same litter, Ra's smaller and is glittered (he has a golden sheen).

Notes from Pam Knowles, at Cheetahsden:

Both of these boys are out of Double Grand Champion Cheetahsden's Terza by Champion Cheetahsden's Kai. They are full siblings (different litter obviously) to Double Grand Champion Cheetahsden's Illusion

"Trouble"(now "Hiro" -Eric) - He has a feral looking head, long muscular body and a very wild pattern of black rosettes on a tawny background. Trouble (so named because he's into EVERYTHING!) is my wildest looking boy currently

"Ra" - Ra (so named because he's glittered and golden and looks like a sun god), is also available. Ra is very flashy and wild headed, and is perfect for someone looking for an "ahhhhh" cat. Ra is like his uncle, Supreme Grand Champion Cheetahsden's Sundancer in glitter and color. This boy is golden and glittered and rosetted with a nice head and flashy color. His rosettes are very good and his color excellent. His spotting pattern is more vertical behind the shoulders than Trouble's, but breaks into a random spotting pattern behind them and he has vibrant rosettes and lacey rosetted shoulder markings. He's a sweet and affectionate kitten, always purring and likes to sleep in laps when he's ready to sleep.

The main difference between Ra and Trouble are the spotting patterns and colors. In terms of head and body types, they are both similar. Trouble is not glittered while Ra is, both have lovely rosettes, but Trouble's pattern is more what a breeder would like out of a stud cat. I never sell more than one stud cat out of a litter (if that) and Trouble is my choice.