[MillysMom]

Just wondering if anyone else on the forum owns these short-legged cuties! My family has had 3 (we have 2 now), and while we have loved them to pieces, I doubt we'd ever purchase them again.

One of our cats (Muggins) is 15 (we bought him as a tiny little kitten), and just was diagnosed with a mild heart murmur (the vet said that's normal in cats his age). He has been a wonderful, sweet cat, but he has suffered some psychological issues and is on kitty prozac.

Two years after we bought Muggins we bought Nibs, and she was a sickly cat her whole life. Chronic upper respiratory infections, skin allergies, and a very weak immune system. This is when we learned all of the problems associated with Munchkins. She was put down at 7 years old.

My senior year of college I adopted a Munchkin from a high kill shelter in NC - I really wasn't planning on keeping him, but new he had to get out of the shelter, get healthy and then get a home. After I helped him gain weight (he was 5 years old and under 4 pounds when I adopted him; he's now 12.4 pounds). He was declawed when I adopted him and he has always been very standoffish (I think because of this and the shelter he was in), but when he comes out of his shell he is a giant love bug. I named him Norman, but my parents hated the name, and changed it to Tally Ho "Tally" for short. He has much shorter legs than any of our other munchkins ever have had.

My aunt had two Munchkins as well, one she returned to the breeder as a kitten, because of poor health. Her other is 16 and named Cajun, but he too has psychological problems, and likes to pee and poop all over the house. She says she'd never buy another, because of the poor breeding practices out there, and the health issues.

It seems they've gotten very popular on-line and lots of catmills are producing them. Anyone else have one? I'm at my parents house right now, and I just love these little guys to death! They're more people like than long legged cats, and soooo affectionate.

 

[janine]

We have never owned a munchkin cat but I have always thought they were really cute. I didn't know they had soon many health problems, my biggest worry was that they couldn't get away from the dogs fast enough with those short legs.

 

[MillysMom]

We had that worry for the longest time too. The first ten years of owning Muggins he was a strictly indoor kitty, but then we realized just how much happier he would be if he could go outside. He stays very close the house all the time, and I wonder if this is because of his short little legs. Tally goes outside now too, but he's less excited about it - he pretty much stays on the porch when outside, or suns himself on the porch steps.

They are FAST cats, so the running away from predators isn't a problem, but they can't jump as high as full legged cats, and can't climb trees so we always keep that in the back of our minds.

 

[Ruby'smom]

I have never heard of a munchkin cat
do you have any photos

 

[Phillyfisher]

How about some pic's of your munchkins?

 

[BeauShel]

Here are some pictures of some munchkin cats.

http://www.munchkins.com/

 

[MillysMom]

Here are photos of Tally and Muggins. I just took some really cute ones of Tally curled up under the covers, but you can't see his little legs in it. I need to get it off of the digital camera.

The one of Tally is from before I adopted him when he was still at the shelter... he's a lot happier looking now, and is super fat. This photo was actually before he got really sick in the shelter, he was the most miserable and emaciated looking cat I've ever seen when I adopted him. Basically a walking skeleton. He was so dehydrated when I adopted him that it started to cause some kidney problems, and now he's on a prescription diet and a side effect was lots of weight gain.