Just over a year ago we adopted a shelter kitten. She was among a litter of five that had been turned in to the shelter, fostered out, and then returned as being adoptable. I liked her spunky personality, widespread ears, and unusual coloring–white paws, chest, flanks and chin, but the rest of her was covered in spots, golf-ball size rosettes, and marbling. When I brought her home the first thing my teen daughter was said: “mom, you bought a baby snow leopard!”

The kitten integrated well into our household and became a playmate to our 4-year old cat, who had lost her companion–a feral I had successfully rehabilitated. The kitten and cat played and had a great time.

However, we noticed some strange behavior with our new kitten, and as she grew older, the behavior became more severe, as opposed to less. She began chewing paper towels (on the roll) at night and shredded them to pieces. She ripped and tore with her teeth all the muslin lings under our box-spring mattresses, and climb inside. The linings were pulled up inside the box springs. She chewed on boxes and left piles of shredding all over the house. She would meow for hours, staring at the curtain rods (actually, poles) in our 10 foot ceilings. Sometimes she would jump and land precariously on top of the poles. On two occasions she climbed a corner shelf and stared at the ceiling fan and cried pitifully, wanting to lunge onto the blades.

Most of all, she grew. By the time she was 9 months old she weighed 13 pounds. The vet couldn’t figure out what was happening. She was scaring the willies out of our older, 5- pound female cat. Any surfaced that could be could be climbed on, anything that could be knocked over, would be knocked over. She follows us to the bathroom and tries to play with the (ehem) stuff in the toilet bowl.

Now she is 1 1/2 years old. She weighs 17 pounds and has an immense barrel chest, big torso, extremely long tail, and huge muscular (but short) legs. We have no idea when she will stop growing. Her facial features have never changed, and she still has the odd ears, wide eyes, and triangle shaped face. She is a very lovable cat in her own way, but there is something strange about her. She does not cover her (gigantic) poos, ever. She licks us incessantly and loves to eat anything shiny–ribbons on Christmas presents are a danger. She meows–yowls?–and chatters and clicks whenever she is bored, which is when she is not asleep. Last night as I sat in the recliner she leaped onto the back of it, then jumped from that onto our floor lamp, which came crashing down on the rug. She carries her favorite toys and from room to room and puts them in all sorts of odd places for us.

She is an entertaining cat but we know something is “off’ with her, and our other cat suspects it, too. I did a bit of online research and found a post that someone else in our area (Sarasota County) adopted a cat from a local shelter around the same time as us and her description was identical to ours.

My guess is that there are unscrupulous breeders in our area who are experimenting and dumping the rejects. I don’t know how this practice can be stopped. Don’t get me wrong: we loves our cats for who and what they are; it would just be helpful to know when you are adopting a cat that you are actually getting a domestic cat, and not some unpredictable hybrid that is going to grow to be as big as a house.