Safe travels sweet boy, things aren’t the same without you here…

Boss

Boss

Putting each loss we suffer into words has happened too many times and it breaks my heart to let you know we lost Boss Man 😢 An emergency vet visit showed severe gastroenteritis caused by a foreign body. Somewhere between the evacuation and coming home Boss had ingested something that he couldn’t pass. We still aren’t clear exactly what it was but possibly a toy that he had been playing with. Cats are such stoic creatures that by the time he was acting sick, it was too late 😢

In running a sanctuary we aren’t supposed to have favorites, but Boss was definitely one of mine. He was bold and loud, full of himself and a complete character. His original owner contacted me in 2009 to tell me he had an F1 Chausie (Jungle Cat(Felis chaus)/Domestic cat cross) that he had bought and now at a year old was too much to handle and wanted him gone. We learned that Boss had Microphalmia, a hereditary condition where one of the eyes don’t develop. That made him even more endearing to us. He had the most unique sound and made me laugh hearing it. I would talk to him trying to get him to answer to the point that I annoyed him and he’d let me know!
It seems so quiet out in Hybrid Haven without him and I still can’t believe he’s gone. I miss his voice and his pushy character and there will never be another cat like him. He was a special boy and gone too soon. Safe travels Boss, things aren’t the same without you here 😢


Boss’ Story

Boss is an F1 Chausie, which is a hybrid cat created by breeding an Asian Jungle Cat (Felis chaus) with a domestic cat. Boss came to us from a private owner in California in 2009 who found our website. The following is what he wrote: “We need a new home for our Chausie cat. We bought him from a breeder and realized that we can’t provide a proper home for such a wild animal. We are shocked that these cats are sold as pets.”

We agreed to take him and made arrangements to fly him to the sanctuary. Boss was born with Microphthalmia, which means he is blind in one eye that is much smaller than normal. This condition happens when the mother cat carries Feline herpes virus and the kittens contract it in the womb. A simple test can be done to determine whether a female is a carrier of this, but, sadly, breeders are more concerned about selling and making money than about the health of the kittens they sell.

Boss, is a high energy cat, he can be timid or pushy, depending on his mood, but we find him endearing since he’s a special needs boy. He is very vocal with a wonderful rawk sound that makes us laugh every time we hear him!

Posted by Cheryl Tuller