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Glenn Garritano is nervous that someone will shoot his
house cat, mistaking it for a jungle beast. His fear is not
unwarranted.
Zarathustra is an extraordinary feline, a Savannah cat
as exotic as her name suggests. I met Glenn and “Zara”
on a Sunday afternoon at Mount Pleasant’s Dog & Duck,
where Zara was lounging in a patch of sunlight on the
sidewalk, demurely ignoring the small crowd of brunchers
hovering around her with their iPhones.
“They said she’d be afraid of people,” laughed Garritano,
who adopted Zara from a breeder two years ago, “right
after she came out of her mama” as he put it.
“She goes everywhere with me,” said Garritano. “She rides
in my truck. Hell, she goes on my motorcycle with me!”
He’s even designing a customized sidecar for his Can-
Am motorcycle to give Zara a smooth ride.
Zara saunters away from the mother-daughter duo
cooing over her and jumps onto the hood of my Prius,
hungrily eyeing the Porsche next to it. She is leashed to a
tree, and Garritano keeps a close eye on her. Strapped to
the back of her neon green harness, a mini GPS tracker
transmits her whereabouts 24/7 to an app on Garritano’s
smartphone.
Savannahs are a hybrid of African servals and domestic
cats, a cross popularized in the 1980s and lusted after by
wealthy pet owners for its cheetah-like markings. Known
for their dog-like qualities, Savannahs are loyal, playful,
highly curious and social. They also cost tens of thousands
of dollars. Domestic Savannahs are ranked by their serval
lineage – basically, how close to wild they are, with F6 being
the furthest removed and F1 the closest and most elusive.
By Enid Spitz
This Cat’s
OUT OF
THE BAG
Meet Mount Pleasant's
EXOTIC
FELINE
PETS 18
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