See the results of Khal’s Basepaws DNA test here.
Guesstimated date of birth: 5/12/14
Khal Drogo first showed up here around the end of 2015, as mentioned in this post. He was extremely skittish, and at that point neither of us was ever able to get close to him at all. He showed up for a while, and then disappeared, and we figured that he’d either gone back from whence he came, or had been gotten by a predator.
Some time in 2016 he showed up again, and Fred got serious about taming him, as mentioned in this post. It took him several months, but he was finally able to start petting him, and after that Khal (who we were calling Fancypants v2.0 because he reminded us so much of our late cat Fancypants) was pretty much here every day.
It took a few more months, but it finally got to the point where Fred could pick up Khal without him freaking out. So it was time to get him to the vet for testing and neutering. So one day Fred picked him up and put him into a carrier, and Khal FREAKED OUT. Which wouldn’t be a problem except that Fred hadn’t properly latched the top of the carrier, and Khal was able to get out of the carrier and flee.
It took another few months for him to start trusting Fred again, and we finally got him off to the vet. He was deemed “3 or 4 years old”, is otherwise healthy, but FIV positive. Which means he had to become a permanent resident. He’s been neutered, is up to date on his vaccinations, and has been ear-tipped so no one else will try to haul him off to the vet. (Which is a laugh, because he’s almost always within about 20 feet of the side stoop.)
Fred has gotten him to come inside pretty regularly as of the time of this writing (November 2017), and he’s even spent a few nights inside with no problems. He gets along well with the other cats (though Frankie doesn’t care for him), and can often be seen head-butting or grooming Jake. He loves Fred quite a bit (though can be skittish even with him), and is still pretty scared of me. If I want to pet him, I basically have to use Fred as a shield, slide up behind Fred, reach around him to pet Khal, and then slowly move closer.
He’s a very playful cat, and the times he’s spent inside, I can hear him playing tossing a toy around or playing with the track toy in the kitchen. He’s got very thick cottony-soft fur, and huge paws. I would love to snuggle him, but he’s not up for that yet. Hopefully in time he’ll come around.
3/16/21, edited to add: In the 3 1/2 years since I wrote this, Khal has turned into the biggest, bossiest, snuggliest brat ever. We moved to a new house in late 2017 and he continued to avoid me until the day I sat down in Fred’s chair. Khal jumped up into my lap almost immediately and then decided I was not so scary. When we watch TV in the evenings, he’ll come climb on me and squeak bossily at me if I stop petting him. He occasionally joins me at night, he nearly always joins me if I take a nap in the afternoon. He’s just a great big ol’ baby.
Someone sent us a Basepaws cat DNA test so we could find out his genetic makeup. I thought he’d be largely Maine Coon or Norwegian Forest Cat, but as it turns out…
Western
Maine Coon: 10.85%
American Shorthair: 8.92%
Russian Blue: 6.59%
Abyssinian: 3.16%
Siberian: 2.94%
Ragdoll: 1.98%
Broadly Western: 17.76%
Persian
Exotic Shorthair: 3.23%
Persian: 0.90%
Broadly Persian: 5.31%
Exotic
Egyptian Mau: 7.38%
Eastern
Peterbald: 5.10%
Oriental Shorthair: 1.52%
Polycat: 24.37%
You can read more about Polycats here – but if you don’t want to go read about it, this sums it up: Polycats are domestic cats of (yet) unknown origins.