Vlad the Impaler.

For those interested, this is our newest rescue, Vlad the Impaler. He is an Asian Leopard Cat, we will try to tame him as we search for a proper home for the cat. He is already being socialized with our other cats, but must be crated as he is from the wild. We are doing as much research on caring for them as possible. It was captured (sadly) and put up for sale on Facebook. We were terrified of the outcome, so we swooped in to save him from God knows what kind of life.

Sadly, even the animal shelters and zoos in the Philippines, are horrible places for any animals to be held in captivity. I hope we can find a proper reserve for him, but until such time, he is in loving safe hands.

Meet Vlad.

He could probably return to the wild, but chances are he would only be captured again. There is little habitat left for them here in the Philippines, and since they are not considered endangered, there is little care for them here. Many people in the Philippines bet on fighting *****, and hold their fighters in high regard. Since these cats often kill their fighters, they are targets for capture of kill by the people, as they are considered a nuisance.

We are weighing our options carefully, but for now, at least he is safe with us. I hope we can figure out the best place for him to be, what ever gives him the longest, unthreatened life possible.

Thekittykeepers said:

He could probably return to the wild, but chances are he would only be captured again. There is little habitat left for them here in the Philippines, and since they are not considered endangered, there is little care for them here. Many people in the Philippines bet on fighting *****, and hold their fighters in high regard. Since these cats often kill their fighters, they are targets for capture of kill by the people, as they are considered a nuisance.

We are weighing our options carefully, but for now, at least he is safe with us. I hope we can figure out the best place for him to be, what ever gives him the longest, unthreatened life possible.

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He's a beautiful animal.  Do you have to keep him caged all the time or can you let him out.  You say he gets along with your other cats so he must be out.  Does have make a scary little roar when he snarls?  (Like his first picture depicts, looks a little intimidating)

He is magnificent!  As in the US, "shelters" and ACCs range from caring, true shelters to nightmarish hellholes.  *PRAYERS* for Vlad and praise for you -- thanks to the wealth of information on the internet, you have a better set of options than ever before!  Learn all you can about him. I just checked on http://www.animals24-7.org, an excellent resource for international animal-related news, and there is nothing specific on Asian leopard cats, but they are a weath of information you may want to bookmark and use.  

He has only been with us for just over 24hrs, so he is remaining in the cage. He arrived in a tiny, makeshift bucket, after spending his time inside a chicken coop before coming to our home. Pretty sure he is already happier. Yes, he seems to handle our other cats just fine. One of our newest rescues, a marbled grey kitten seems to have a crush on Vlad. The 3 newest kitten rescues are caged together, while they integrate into the house. Nebula, the marble tabby, keeps reaching into Vlad cage, and trying to touch him. He seems not to be bothered by the attention he gets, which is a good sign.

Vlad does not attack, or even hiss when we reach into his pen to change his water, or his food. He even is already eating out of our hands. Everything we have learned so far, is they don't make great pets, and we have doubts about taming him, which is why we are looking for other options to place him into a proper habitat. But while he is with us, we will continue to try and get him to become part of the extended family we have. I wish we could let him out into the house, but there are just too many variables we don't understand this soon after bringing him home.

Wishing you all the best with little Vlad.. how wonderful that you found him.

Progress being made with our new amazing kitty. He is estimated to be a year old, and we got him just one week ago. Today, he allowed my wife to show him chin love, and he appeared to really enjoy it. She began hand feeding him a few days ago, and this is real progress for such a wild, seasoned outdoorsman. We look forward to getting him completely comfortable in our house of cats, where I think it is obvious that he will become the ruler of the kitty clan.

A grumpy Kitty

To a mushy pile of gooey kitten joy....

Thanks, we have made significant progress, today, he allowed my wife to pet his face and seemed to really enjoy it.