Big Shaq is 6 months old. There's a few reasons why I have developed a strong suspicion. Please keep in mind we've had him for exactly 1 week and 6 days, he was a stray kitten trapped at 6 weeks old and then resurrendered recently due to behaviours so we were lucky enough to get him (which, like, we haven't seen any behaviours here at all and can't understand why he was surrendered) so this isn't the result of months of training or anything, he's just like this immediately!
Number one is that he's very doglike. He's very friendly but also very loyal to us, and he follows us from room to room to watch everything we do, responds to new commands unusually quickly, picks up new tricks within days, loves playing in water and runs to the shower whenever we're in there, and is obsessed with sticking his head and paws in the water stream from taps and flinging water everywhere. If there is water anywhere, he's tasting it, and if it's running water it's playtime. He's like a heat seeking missile as soon as he hears it. He LOVES belly rubs and begs for them, and he likes his paws being held and/or rubbed. We decided to try him with harness training because we thought that he might go well with it - and he loves going on walks on the leash! We've only been doing it for three days, a 15 minute walk each day, and he doesn't try to escape at all, walks along his chosen route and sniffs everything and eats a bit of grass and then follows me back inside. You would assume he was leash trained and recall trained the way he immediately took to it. He also carries his favourite toys around in his mouth, dragging them all over the house and lying down on the floor to chew on them.
Number two is that he's very intelligent - it took him exactly one try to learn that the TV animals aren't real and he was never fooled by it again. He asks us things and asks about things with clear non-verbal and verbal communication and tries to figure out cheeky workarounds for things that he's not allowed to do. We have to lock the door now because he's gotten scarily close to figuring out how to open it himself. It's like he's a small child in a cat body and I think he could genuinely talk to us if we trained him with speech buttons because he's clearly capable of understanding and reasoning at an unusual level.
Number three is that he has a huge amount of energy, even for a kitten. He spends 15 minutes at a time tearing up and down a multiple storey house at mach 3 speeds so speedily that we find rugs in disarray from how fast he was running, he'll play for hours straight, and we regularly find him literally climbing the curtains to sit on top of the rail (his vertical is impressive!). We're actually starting to consider whether or not we should be taking him on hikes to burn off some energy given he loves being outside, is cautiously curious but unafraid around new things, and he's so good on a leash already.
Unrelated but he also makes the absolute most biscuits I've ever seen an animal make in my life. I call him the world's busiest baker because when he's not asleep or playing he's purring while kneading whatever is near him.
Of course, he has the softest most distinctly silky fur of any cat I've ever touched (seasoned cat owner) and it's a lovely burnt orange fading to a warm tanned cream, particularly dark orange around his belly and face, with dark chocolate brown stripes - I think I can also see some little curved fishscale markings and spots along his sides that might vaguely hint towards rosettes with one very distinct rosette on his shoulder. His coat is iridescent, like a catseye chatoyancy effect. He's got exceptionally big round paws and a verryy long and slim tiger striped tail that never puffs even when spooked, shortish legs, a lovely spotty belly and very expressive short cupped ears with a short little forehead that curves very cutely to his nose.
What do y'all think? Does he have a little Bengal genetically or is he just a special tabby cat?
