Our first CHAMPION!! CH Mr. Big Spot is a very extroverted, affectionate SBT, F-7 leopard spotted Bengal; the son of Foothill Felines Malarki and AlmaDen Hot Shot. CH Mr. Big Spot is the grandson of two very different, very awe-inspiring male Bengals...SGC Heritage Kimo, and Gogees Maverick. Born on May 3, 1998, we are very excited about this boy not only for what he represents (the results of our breeding work to date), but even more importantly, what he will contribute to our Foothill Felines Bengal breeding program in the years to come. As you can see from his photos, this young SBT male really looks a lot like an F-1 or an F-2 Foundation Bengal!! He has a very "typey" look which comes from the overall strength of his presence...from his wild, strong head and face, to his unbelievably muscled, long and graceful body, and of course, those HUGE ROSETTED SPOTS in such a random, unusual pattern!!
 
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| Above, meet Mr. Big Spot's parents - right is Almaden Hot Shot (Mr. Big Spot's sire), a SGC Heritage Kimo son; left is Foothill Felines Malarki (Mr. Big Spot's dam), a Foothill Felines Marissa and Gogees Maverick daughter.
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We decided to see
where this unusual (and in our opinion,spectacula) male would take us in our breeding program.
While many breeders were concentrating on such traits as "glitter",
and hot colored coats, we recognized the fact that Asian Leopard
Cats do not have glitter, and many of them tend to have softer
coloring that is more effective at providing camoflouge to leopard
cats in their natural environments!! At Foothill Felines, we also have glittered cats with very black spots in our breeding program (and many of those cats are in CH Mr. Big Spot's pedigree), but from the beginning, there was just something very special about CH Mr. Big Spot...something that captured not only our eye, but all the reasons we love Bengals in the first place!!
CH Foothill Felines Mr. Big Spot has a wonderful face, with huge, round, nocturnal eyes that have always been very dark in color, even when he was a baby. His ears have always stayed small and round, and set perfectly on his head. His spots are spectacular...they are HUGE (hence, his name!!) and EXTREMELY rosetted, with all types of rosetting on this one cat, including pawprint and arrowhead rosettes. His body type is very long, and his tail is full, and of medium length. His coloring is very warm and soft, with delicious shades of chocolate contrasted against a "champagne" colored background, and his purr-sonality could NOT be any sweeter
or more friendly, perhaps due in part to the fact that he was
bottle-fed, and is very used to being held and handled. Another big strength is that he has is an extremely short, soft pelt. BELOW: Here is our handsome, "teen-aged" CH Mr. Big Spot at 4 1/2 months old!
We felt that CH Mr. Big Spot was one of the newer generations of SBT Bengals...SBT's that are exhibiting some of the most lovely and most difficult-to-maintain markings coming through genetically directly from their Asian Leopard Cat ancestors. One of the things that make the Bengal so exciting is that our Breed Standard calls for us to breed for cats that have the exotic beauty of their wild Asian Leopard Cat ancestors (and/or the F-1 hybrid cross); yet with a reliable, loving and domestic temperament. Leopard Cats are physically very diverse in their natural habitats, and kittens/cats like CH Mr. Big Spot serve as a reminder to us breeders never to lose sight of that wonderful diversity!!
CH Mr. Big Spot became a Champion in his very first TICA show, where he was competing against 20 gorgeous adult Bengals, including a SGC, a QGC, two TGC's and several CH's!!
He was the youngest in his class, also, being eligible to be shown as an adult by only 5 days!! BELOW: CH Mr. Big Spot at 6 months old!
BELOW: CH Mr. Big Spot at 9 months old! PHOTO CREDITS: ©Jim Brown, Pheline Photography. Click below for CH Mr. Big Spot's pedigree.
FOOTHILL FELINES BENGALS & SAVANNAHS
P.O. Box 418104, Sacramento, CA 95841-8104, U.S.A.
(916) 481-CATS Phone/Fax; E-mail: holly@hdw-inc.com |
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