Arthur can wear those adorable ears with pride.

[wnylib]

He is not alone. Kittens with large ears.


https://pin.it/7g1cwUH

https://www.freepik.com/premium-photo/abyssinian-kitten_29562784.htm#query=abyssinian%20kitten&position=17&from_view=keyword

https://images.app.goo.gl/SPxc9JN6TvoxGETq6

https://www.facebook.com/EgyptianMauCats/photos/a.1024274530988377/5321014921314295/?type=3

https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-five-siamese-kittens-10-weeks-old-sitting-in-cat-bed-in-front-of-white-31522464.html

[niyad]

1. What an adorable collection. Thank you!

[wnylib]

3. My cat, Ember, had huge ears like that

when she was a kitten. They dwarfed her face. But she grew into them. She is 6 years old now. Her ears are only a little larger than the average cat and are in proportion now to her overall size.

(Sorry that I don't have pics to show. I lost some great pics of her in a phone meltdown and very foolishly did not have them backed up. )

[niyad]

4. I am so sorry that you lost all those pics.

[Siwsan]

2. Cute kitten overload!!

Arthur is fast asleep and curled up on my lap. I think yesterday's play time with his sister wore him out!

[wnylib]

5. His cute little kitten face under those big ears

remind me so much of when Ember was his age that I went searching for kittens with big ears.

[SheltieLover]

15. Have you seen the pix of Purina Mau?

Facial features very similar to Arthur's handsome face!

[Siwsan]

16. I haven't.

The world can't have enough kitten cuteness, that's for sure.

[SheltieLover]

17. Omg you must see it!

Tried to get link but couldn't.

Google purina mau breed & look at that sweet Arthurian face! 😱

I agree, we cannot have to much kitten & puppy cuteness & sweetness!

[wnylib]

19. The cat on Purina packaging

that is a Mau is the silver cat with black spots. It is on the front of the Purina One packaging.

There is a cute cat on the Purina Complete packaging that looks like Arthur's coloring, but I do not think that it is a Mau. Too much white on that Purina cat for a Mau.

[SheltieLover]

6. Ty so much for this adorable collection!

I love Arthur's radar cones!

Likely quite an advantage for a predator, btw!

[wnylib]

7. Also likely an indication of a big eared cat breed

in the background somewhere. Siamese (and breeds derived from them) and Abyssinians are popular breeds known for their big ears. Both breeds are used in developing other breeds through crosses that don't always produce the desired effect. So the "out takes" from those litters can end up as someone's pet, spreading their genes in the general cat population.

I once had a tabby kitten from the Humane Society who startled the vet on his first visit with a very loud Siamese meow out of his little tabby mouth. The vet checked out his other features - length, face shape, height, etc. and told us he was half Siamese. As he grew, he showed very typical Siamese behaviors.

My current cat has a tortoiseshell tabby coat. As a kitten she had BIG ears and a few unusual traits for a cat. She wags her tail like a dog when she is happy. It's not the twitching that cats due when agitated. It's a happy, swaying tail. When she is excitedly anticipating something, her tail goes straight up in the air and vibrates from tip to rump. So I searched online for cats like this and found that the ONLY breed that does the "wiggle tail" when excited is the Egyptian Mau. Maus also wag their tails when playing. They are not common and are expensive so I tried to find out how Ember ended up with one in her mixed background. I learned that there had been a Bengal breeder in my county who lost cat association approval and went out of business due to complaints of not following professional standards. Bengal breeders use Egyptian Maus, Abyssinians, and domestic shorthairs in cross breeding with the Asian wild cat to produce the domesticated Bengal cat.

Turned out that the woman who owns Ember's mother got her from a friend of the former Bengal breeder. Ember's mother has all the Mau physical traits except for the spotted coat ( her coat is calico). Mystery solved.

[SheltieLover]

8. Wow!

Fascinating!

I love Siamese. I've had a couple over the years with giant ears.

I can jusgmt imagine your vet's response to teeny kitten's Siamese yowl.

I'd never heard of Mau breed. Ember sounds gorgeous & very special! Pix??

Ty so much for sharing!!

[wnylib]

9. I had never heard of the Mau breed, either, before Ember.

They are very striking looking cats with naturally spotted coats. Lithe, graceful bodies, very playful throughout their lives, mischievous, and very clever. Behavior trait descriptions include "a definite sense of humor" which is true of Ember. She loves to prank me.

They are used in advertising. For example, they are pictured on some Purina cat products. The Purina One Indoor cat food bag of dry kibbles has one pictured on the side panels.

Unfortunately, I lost my pics of Ember when my old phone had a melt down and I did not have them backed up. I need to get new ones and then learn how to post them. But I can never reproduce the kitten ones since she is now 6 years old. Among the ones lost were: 1) 2 Christmas pictures at 1 year old of Ember sizing up, in two different poses, which ornament she would knock down; 2) Ember sitting in a lounge chair across from the TV watching a Harry Potter movie; 3) Ember on my bed in just the right lighting to capture a small circle of white ticked fur just below the top of her head so that it looked like a slipped halo.

Pics and descriptions of Egyptian Maus. They are fairly rare and expensive, average around $1500 (which might be why they are rare).

https://images.app.goo.gl/DF3fAGSiqbwnyGSa7

https://images.app.goo.gl/YT7mWZutLtLAP15q8

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_Mau

[SheltieLover]

11. So sorry to hear you lost all your pix.

My phone decided to update itself a few yrs ago & wiped all pix, contacts, etc.

Ember sounds so amazing! I've not yet known a cat with a sense of humor!

Ty for links. Going to admire Ember's breed!

[wnylib]

18. Well, it's not actually Ember's breed because

she is a mix and so was her mother. But she still has some of the Mau physical traits and a LOT of the behavioral traits. She is about 1/4 Mau.

Sense of humor. It's hard to describe, but Ember sometimes does nonsensical things in a pranking sort of way, then does this quick little bouncing about face and runs off, like "ha, ha." She also knows what buttons to push with me and will pose herself to do something that I don't like. As soon as she sees that I am looking, she abandons the pose without doing the forbidden thing and prances off in a light, playful step, like "Ha, ha. Made ya look." It really is very funny. And it is definitely a deliberate ploy without intention of actually doing what she pretends she will do. It is all for my reaction and her satisfaction at fooling me.

I used to think that I was imagining her intent until I read about the Mau sense of humor.

[wnylib]

20. For good examples of what Egyptian Maus

look like, go to the middle link in the OP and scroll down. The link only shows the silver Mau color, which is the most popular for Maus. There are also two other colors for them, bronze and smoke.

Regardless of color, a "purebred" Mau has the following appearance: the tabby M on the forehead; stripes on the front and back legs and tail, a single, long stripe the full length of the back; and the rest of the coat is dark spots on a lighter background. The eyes are a glowing green color, called gooseberry green. The ears are pointed and size varies from medium to large. (Very large as kittens.)

[SheltieLover]

12. Arthur's facial features look just like the Purina Mau!

Imo anyway.

[wnylib]

13. Arthur's face and ears remind me a lot

of what Ember looked like at his age. The Mau adult pix that I posted do not show how large the ears can be because the kittens grow into their ears as they mature. The breed description for adults says that the ears are "moderate to large" and can vary between cats. Ember's ears now are slightly larger than average.

[SheltieLover]

14. I keep teasing Siwsan that if he grows into ears & feet, he will be a giant.

Now I want to mnow one of these amazing kitties in person!

Pls givd Ember a hug from my pack!

Ty so much for sharing about sweet Ember!

[wnylib]

21. The Purina cat that looks like Arthur and

has his coloring is not a Mau. The Purina Mau is a silver cat with black spots.

If I were to guess about the source of Arthur's big ears, I would say Abyssinian or Siamese. Siamese mixes are more common than Abyssinian mixes, but Arthur reminds me of an Abyssinian except, of course, for the coat. Abys do not have any bar stripes. Their coat is "ticked," with darker tips on the ends of their hairs, like a rabbit's fur.

[Rebl2]

10. What

I find interesting is when they are first born, and for a few weeks, their ears look like they are on the side of their head. I did’t know that until we got two kittens when they were born. The breeder kept them the first three months, but we visited them once a week. After they passed we never got a cat from a breeder again. Only from shelters from then on.