Well, I finally went to visit the "problem" savannah cat last night. What a sweet kitty! He walked right up to me, rubbed and purred, then started digging through my purse to take inventory of everything in it (my Puck does this sometimes too). The owner is considering putting him up for adoption because she says that he chews everything around the house. I think the big boy is simply bored and trying to get attention! She showed me some of the "destruction"; I've seen an average puppy do far, far worse. She was worried about my purse, but I pulled items out of it and let him sniff and mouth each one of them (he didn't actually bite them), and she said "don't do that-you're encouraging bad behavior"! But I explained that his curiosity was natural, and once he was able to investigate everything, he wouldn't be obsessed with it. Sure enough, once he'd seen everything in the purse he left it alone for the rest of the evening. While we were talking I picked up one of his toys and played with he and his Jungle bob brother. They LOVED having someone to play with. "You're so good with them-maybe you should adopt him" she suggested.Tempting-but my home is a bit small for another giant cat (he's a little bigger than my Maine Coon Oberon). He needs space and LOTS of interaction.She kept saying "but I love on him all the time and it's not enough". Affection is great, but cats-especially young ones-crave playtime too. I told her that I thought more time interacting with him with his toys was what is needed-plus a large outdoor enclosure so that he can be entertained by the outdoors when she can't spend time with him.
It's just a shame that so many people think that cats should be SO low maintenance that when they act at all "dog-like", they consider them "problem' animals. A half wild cat is a very intelligent cat, and intelligent animals take effort (ask any border collie or African gray owner)!
I took these photos at night, so they aren't great. I'll try to get some during the day sometime: