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CNN LIVE AT DAYBREAK
A Wild Cat in a Compact Package
Aired November 4, 2003 - 05:57 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Remember the guy who had a full grown tiger in his New York apartment? Well, breeders now have a new pet for people like him, a wild cat in a compact package.
Jeanne Moos has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Here kitty, kitty. Here's what you get when you take this wild cat and breed it with your average feline.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, this is going to be the next big pet.
MOOS: A cat they say even dog lovers will love. A big cat men might fall for, just like these puppies have.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's not a regular cat, is it?
MOOS (on camera): No.
(voice-over): Able to leap tall fences in a single bound, her name is Uma, as in Uma Thurmond. And like her namesake, Uma has been turning heads...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, god.
MOOS: ... at Le Petit Puppy pet shop in Greenwich Village. Uma is a new breed known as the Savannah. Breeders use native African wildcats called servils, like the one on the left, to produce the house cat on your right.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's really cool looking.
MOOS: And then there's the Savannah's personality, frisky but sweet, not savage.
(on camera): So you're saying Uma kind of acts like a dog?
MIKE BALL, LE PETIT PUPPY: Exactly. Or the dogs think they're cats. I don't know.
They're more dog like and they're so intelligent.
MOOS (voice-over): Savannahs are ranked by how close they are to the wildcat. An F1 is half wild. Uma is an F2.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll get the F3 without all the options.
MOOS: An F3 might cost you 2,000 bucks through breeders like exoticcats.com. But watch your spelling, or you'll end up on a Web site for porn rather than pussy cats. Believe it or not, Uma is only three months old.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would never have a cat like that in the house. This is like Ming, the tiger.
MOOS: Ming is that tiger recently removed from a Harlem apartment. But Savannahs only grow to be two and half times the size of a normal cat. Chew on that.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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