Hey- just saw your post (from March, and no replies?). Anyway I'm not sure how helpful this will be but here's my situation with some answered questions mixed in. I'm 32 and my wife is 31. We own 2 bengals... a 3 year old male and a 2 year old female. They are both show-quality in appearance and incredible pets. They cost $2,000 each. The main reason we decided to go this route was because we just wanted something different. A friend got one about a year before we did, and I had never seen one (or knew about them for that matter). I was hooked right away. The wild look and coat as soft as chinchilla sold me. I had to have one! They love to play fetch (you don't even have to train them), most like to go in the water (or at least don't mind it)... mine will try to come in the shower if we leave the door open. They are totally content walking on a leash like dogs, and are very social. They love to be around people and seem to have a much more sweet demeanor. They are just so loving.

They are very active. I'd say they spend at least 30 minutes a day chasing each other all over the house and playing. It might be frustrating at first, but you gotta let it happen because they can't handle being bottled up for too long. They also do pretty scandalous things. For example, the male steals pens, chapstick, etc. all the time and hides them under the couches or tv. The female knows where her toys are, and if she wants to play she goes into the cubbie hole and pulls all of them out and spreads them across the floor. She's also notorious for ripping up cardboard boxes by biting off 1000 pieces 1 at a time. Oh, and you can't leave jewelry out...lol.

We had the first one for a year, and didn't plan on getting a 2nd one until it became utterly obvious that he needed a friend. He was acting like an attention starved needy girlfriend all the time! lol but it was a good decision because both cats are happy to have a companion. They are the best of friends and it's great. It's hard to explain how amazing these cats are as pets. I wish you could experience for yourself. They are so much more intelligent and interesting than Felix from the shelter. We live in Charlotte, but our breeder is in Florida. Her name is Doreen from drinkwatercats.com. You should look at her website. Her cats are incredible. Our male looks like the one on her homepage.

-Kevin

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