Pantherette History

      This is a brief introduction to this new breed called the Pantherette, the Pantherette breed is still in the early stage of development as is their history.

    The name Pantherette, was chosen only to describe what the look of the breed should look like, it has nothing to do with any of the genetics of these cats. In other wards, there is no Panther (Black Leopard) used in their breeding or development.

    While breeding Bengals successfully over the years, Mike and Marie Bloodgood obtained a Black F2 (second generation) Domestic Bengal named Mica and was amazed at her close resemblance to a miniature Black Panther. Every time people saw her they were amazed at how beautiful she was and many wanted a cat just like her.

Mica of Bamboo Cattery an  F2 Bengal female

    Because of the complications of breeding the solid (non-agouti) colors within the Bengal Breed, and the over welming prejudice against the breeding of Black Bengals within the TICA breed section members, Mike and Marie felt it would be best to start a new breed using Melanistic (Black) Bengals as one of the foundation breeds.

    Through several years of careful selection and test breeding the Pantherette breed was finally developed by Mike & Marie Bloodgood of Bamboo Cattery.

    They are the creating founders of the Pantherette Breed. The Pantherette is a new breed and  are registered in the International Progressive Cat Breeders Alliance (IPCBA).

The Pantherette is a recognized BREED in development and is a protected Trademark Name that the founders OWN. Black Bengals are NOT Pantherettes nor can they EVER be Pantherettes. In order to create a new breed an unallowable out-cross must be made. A BREED cannot be developed by simply calling it another NAME.

It is actually illegal for anyone to use the Pantherette Trademark name for any cat breed including Bengals, regardless what color they are. The Pantherette breed is still being developed and NONE have been sold to the public. The founders have done many test out-crosses with mixed results. They are currently using Smoke Mojave Desert Cats in the Pantherette program and are really impressed with their possibilities and are hopeful we have found the right out-cross now.

Creating a breed correctly, takes years of dedication, sacrifice, investment, and research. The founders are not only trying to replicate the look of a large muscular Panther into a good size house cat, but they want it to be clean of any inherited genetic faults and weaknesses.

For anyone to simply call a Black (melanistic) Bengal a Pantherette is illegal and wrong. People who do this, are either trying to capitalize on the Pantherette's popularity or are showing their ignorance on what is and what is not a BREED.

There are some here in the USA that have done the same and some have even said that Bamboo are calling their Black Bengals Pantherettes. But these people are simply wrong and we have a history of documentation and witnesses to prove it!

We actually found a Bengal breeder who put up a webpage in the Netherlands who copied our text word for word from our Pantherette website and put their names in place of our names proclaiming to be the founders of the Pantherette breed and had one Black Bengal male they called a Pantherete. It even named and described our cats and reasons why we started the breed. We contacted the authorities and cat sites to remove their links and they did. It is amazing what people will claim if they think they can make money or capitalized on someone else's ideas.

Calling a Bengal a Pantherette is like calling an American Shorthair a Bengal, they were used in their development of the breeds, but are not the BREED.

The people who are working in the development of the Pantherette are not in any hurry to market them. When they are ready for the public, it will be obvious to EVERYONE that they are NOT Black Bengals registered as something else, but a unique BREED of cat called a Pantherette!