1.  Seven is one surprise after another, you guys. For a long time I worried there was something wrong with him because – and I know this sounds ridiculous – he’s such a loud breather.

2.  I don’t have a lot of experience with kitten rescue so when you’ve got one who sounds all raspy it just seemed like maybe his lungs weren’t okay. I dunno, I’m not a vet, and after each monthly checkup they’d give him a glowing report so I wrote it off to kitten oddities.

3.  But instead of getting quieter as he grew this little fella got louder. And louder. And louder still. His purr sounds like a rumbling train. And he chirps. No, I can’t describe it any better than that, he chirps. Weirdo.

4.  Then I spoke with the vet last month and things became a lot clearer. She was updating me on Seven’s procedure and asked how he came to us. Here’s a short but sweet version (back when we thought he was a she) which pretty much boils down to the scrappy guy got lucky.

5.  Well, the vet’s convinced Seven is an ocicat. She said they have several clients who own the breed and he looks exactly like them. Off I went to google for some kitty knowledge and boy, was it fascinating!

6.  I’ll link wikipedia here even though I know, wikipedia, but I swear I found all this stuff on other sites too. The wiki gods just made it extremely user friendly. Let’s roll with that.

7.  The ocicat resulted from breeding Siamese and Abyssinians cats. As someone who grew up with a Siamese I adore seeing some of those traits in our Seven. One of them developed out of that loud breathing I talked about.

Seven squeaks just like this guy.

He also tracks birds flying among the trees behind our house and chirps exactly like this fella. When the hawk is active or crows make an appearance Seven can talk nonstop for a good twenty minutes.

8.  Plus this cat – I swear to it – actually comes when you call him. BrightSide will back me up on this. It’s the damndest thing but when Bear calls out “c’mon, lil’ bug, it’s time for bed” he’ll take off running to catch her at the stairs.

9.  Wiki knowledge says some ocicats even take easily to water which would sure explain why if I’m at the kitchen sink Mia will run for the hills but Seven jumps the bar top to reach me.

10.  I love this crazy hodgepodge of a house. We’ve got Phoebe, a dog so catlike she tiptoes across the grass in the backyard like a delicate flower. Now we’ve got Seven, this “dog in a cat’s body” who barrels across the room and bounces off furniture like a big cat on the hunt. It’s wild and nutty and just the right amount of sweet.