Bengal Mania

Hagrid is in love with MiniBlinks. We didn't know that's what it is, but with more watching him, we think that is true.

It started last year. He would follow her around, stalking her and when he got close enough, he would pounce on her. Now, she's a big girl, but Hagrid... he's enormous. He's a huge black panther and he just *looks* scary too. So of course, when he would pounce on her, oftentimes without her seeing it was coming, she would flip over, scream, try to get away, and fight. Of course, he would fight back and she would end up getting hurt, usually with a bite to her rump or leg. Most times, those bites then get infected and cause abscesses, which cause a trip to the vet. She's gone to the vet for abscesses caused by Hagrid 6 times this past year!

So every time he starts stalking her, we tell him "No!" It was obvious to us that he just wanted to play. He wasn't stalking in an aggressive way, and when she would run, he would job along behind her, juuuuust fast enough for her to keep away. If he was truly being mean and aggressive, he would have tackled her right off, chased her down and really mauled her, but he doesn't. Hmmm..... We've been trying to get him to play with some of the other kids - Moonlight is big enough, and still a kitten. He'd LOVE to wrestle. Clawed is beefy and loves to wrestle... but no.... Hagrid wanted MiniBlinks.

Then last night I watched him..... Mini was laying down in her wicker basket, which is down by my knees when I'm sitting down watching tv. Hagrid was up on the top perch of a kitty tower. He was staring at her, and purring. Every few minutes, he would let out a little "Brrrrrrrff?" purring meow question. His ears were up, his arms outstretched and he was just staring at her with wide, calm eyes. Finally, he couldn't stand it and jumped down. She was snoozing. He went creeping up behind her. We were ready to yell at him if he did anything bad, but he just started sniffing her back. She turned and looked at him and out of the side of his mouth, he made little Om Nom Nom pretend nibbling on her rump. It was honestly one of the dearest things I've seen. He then looked up at me and saw I was watching him. I guess he figured he would be in trouble, so he wandered off, but it was really telling. We are now convinced that he has a serious crush on her and just doesn't know how to work with that. He's so big and scary that once another kitty starts running and fighting, he fights back, but we've noticed that he always looks confused and upset about it.

He came to us as a wild kitten, all by himself. We think he just doesn't know how to express himself. When we got Toothless, Toothless had a big crush on The Admiral, but Admiral would whap and bite him, so we started saying "Licking! Admiral! Licking!!" and Admiral would lick Toot's head instead. This worked well for him, so we're going to try teaching Hagrid this. He likes to clean Clawed, Toothless, Moonlight, and Watson, so we're going to teach him "Licking!!" when he cleans them and then when he goes towards Mini and we say "Licking!", perhaps he'll get the idea and they can be cleaning buddies. I think he would love that, and she would certainly love not being sick and going to the vet every few weeks!

Posted by: Joy Alyssa Dayunder rescue

More from “Bengal Mania”