In 2006, a message spread around the world that produced the effect of an exploding bomb in the animal lovers world: the American company Lifestyle Pets, as a result of synthetic crosses of the African serval genes , wild Asian and ordinary domestic cats, bred a new breed. Referring to the eastern origin of the new race, it was named after the Babylonian goddess Astarte (in English, Asher). Photos of these "divine" cats in the shortest time became leaders in the number of clicks on the Internet. First of all, the sizes of “pets” were striking: the average cat of the Asher breed reached a length of one meter and weighed about 14 kilograms. The dimensions of the large dog were complemented by the hefty fangs and leopard color.
The company that bred the largest domestic cat in the world stated that the representatives of this breed are the friendliest in nature: they like to rub on their feet
at the owner, purr, cute play with children and never bite the postman or guests at home. Lifestyle Pets claimed that the animal loves to walk on a leash, like a dog and, moreover, hypoallergenic, that is, it can be kept by people who have a physiological rejection of cat hair. For a long time, the whole world
went crazy for these pussies, and the price from 27 to 125 thousand dollars did not frighten away those who wanted to buy a real usher. According to the rules of the company, a cat could be purchased only after a deposit of $ six thousand was made, after which the owners pledged to deliver the animal only six months later.
The excitement lasted about two years, until in 2008 a certain Chris Shirk from Pennsylvania (USA), a breeder cultivating the Savannah breed, found out on the Internet a photo that allegedly depicted an asher cat, his pet. Chris said that a Lifestyle Pets employee bought this animal from him to fraudulently raise the price of Savannah. The latter breed is also quite large in size, because it was bred by crossing a serval and a domesticated Bengal cat (and this last one, in turn, is a descendant of the Bengal wild cat .
US Fish and Wildlife, contacted by Chris Shirk, has investigated DNA samples. At
two Savannahs from the Shirk nursery took blood samples and delivered to an independent court laboratory in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. A DNA lab test confirmed that the Asher Cat announced on the Internet is a direct descendant of these Pennsylvania Savannahs. The news that the new breed was just a fiction excited the felinologists, and especially those who already managed to pay for their acquisitions an amount equal to the cost of a new car.
Lifestyle Pets published a statement that the Shirk case was an extremely private one, caused by the fault of an unscrupulous employee of the company, and that the Asher cat really exists as an independent synthetic breed. However, prices for this race have fallen. Even for kittens of a very rare Royal variety, with orange leopard spots instead of black and caramel on the back, they give no more than 22 thousand dollars.
Be that as it may, whether it is an independent breed or especially large Savannahs, but the Asher cat also has its adherents. Agree, many would like to walk on a leash through the streets of this mini-leopard. The already mentioned Royal one is especially popular - since no more than four kittens are born in the world during the year, and the Snow (absolutely white) species of this synthetic race. Such animals are a sign not only of luxury, but of real prestige.