An Asian Leopard Cat (ALC)/Domestic Shorthair (DSH) hybrid, bred by Esmond Gay, is the world’s most expensive cat. Zeus, who is 90% ALC & 10% DSH has an asking price of £100,000.00.
We must now shift our attention to another cat called the Ashera. It comes with a price tag of around £12,000. It is billed as the world’s “largest, rarest and most exotic” domestic cat. The large pointed ears and eye-catching coat come from two wild bloodlines, the African serval and Asian leopard cat, crossed with an undisclosed domestic breed. It stands 4ft tall on its hind legs, lives for 25 years and weighs up to 30lb.
The modified moggy is similar to the average household cat in shape, and eats normal dried cat food. But it has the markings of its wild cousins and is bigger, standing four feet high on its hind legs. It can also grow up to weight a whopping 30 pounds. The Ashera was earlier owned by British internet entrepreneur Simon Brodie, whose Californian firm Lifestyle Pets used a team of geneticists to develop the ultimate designer pet.
Concerns have been expressed that the cat’s wild ancestry may emerge as hyperactive behaviour when it is kept as a domestic house pet. Bit in response to this, the developers have included ten years of sessions with a renowned animal behaviourist in the hefty price tag. The cost of the cat includes nail caps to stop the kitten destroying furniture, hand delivery to the owner’s home and a one-year guarantee.
Another cat which comes in the bracket of being one of the most expensive cats is the Savannah Cat. It is bred by mating the African Serval with a smaller domestic cat. The Savannah inherently has a much more difficult breeding process, because an African Serval is 40lbs and undomesticated and breeding it with a domestic house cat is problematic. Concurrently, the gestation periods between the two animals are different. Due to these factors, the Savannah is an expensive and rare breed of cat.
In the year 1998, a London, England resident purchased her second-generation Bengal cat for about £25,320. This expensive cat was listed in the Guiness’ number one spot for most expensive cat breed purchased. Bengals can cost anywhere from $970 – $4000.
The International Cat Association, recognizes the Bengal as a pedigree of cat, however the Cat Fanciers’ Association, the largest and oldest registry of cats, does not. This is because they have ‘wild’ or ‘non-domestic’ blood in their recent heritage. The second-generation Bengal in question was reportedly a hybrid of a wild Asian leopard cat bred with a domestic one.
Any cat may provide a (feline) lifetime of entertainment and companionship for their owners. But a question that comes to every mind is how many people are desirous of paying such huge sums of money for the mere companionship of a cat. Questions are also raised as to whether the price tag is for the qualities of the cat or merely to make the rich feel richer by owning one such cat.
