Serengeti

The biologist Karen Sausman, of Kingsmark cattery in California, began crossing Bengals with Oriental Shorthairs in 1994. She wanted a cat that looked like the African serval but without using recent wild blood: the Bengals she used were already many generations away from their ancestor, the Asian leopard cat. The result is a spotted cat with very long legs, a long neck that runs into the head without narrowing and enormous, upright ears with rounded tips. TICA registers it and the breed is still being developed; outside the United States it is very rare. In character it is active, self-assured and quite talkative, and usually forms a strong bond with its people.

Easy coat: a mitt once a week. What it asks for is activity: tall, stable scratching posts, shelves to climb, daily hunting play with a wand toy and puzzle feeders. When bored, it invents its own games. It learns to walk on a harness and respond to a clicker. It is not the best choice if you are out for many hours and there is no other cat to play with.

It is considered a generally healthy cat; urinary crystals have been described. Because of its founding breeds, ask about hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and progressive retinal atrophy, which have tests in the Bengal and the Oriental. Ask for the parents' test results and an annual check-up.