Meet Sheikh Rajah: A Bengal Cat Living His Best Life in Abu Dhabi

1 hour ago

5 min read

Home is Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE). I open my eyes every morning to the sea, and little birds drop by my balcony to supervise (or torment, depending on who you ask). As for my age, I just turned 2 this past June!

How I Met My Pawrents

My humans are Elena and her boyfriend, and honestly, our story is the reason I believe in fate. It started with a photo on a UAE WhatsApp group: a stranger explaining that his cat had accidentally had four kittens, and he needed to find them homes. I was one of those four. Elena was just about to move to the UAE, and the moment she saw the picture, she turned to her boyfriend and said they had to go meet us. She already knew there was no version of that visit where they walked away empty-handed.

Here's the part that got them, though: I'd been sick as a tiny kitten and spent my first three weeks at the vet, which meant I grew slower and stayed noticeably smaller than my brothers. By the time I was back home, I wasn't the one wrestling and tumbling around with the litter. I was the quiet one, a little bullied by my brothers, mostly stuck to my mom's side or hiding altogether. And we were all squeezed into one small flat. The moment Elena and her boyfriend saw me like that, they knew: this kitten needed a bigger life, more space to grow into, and two people who'd give him all the attention he'd missed out on. So they took me home.

My Personality as a Bengal Cat

I'm playful, a little mischievous, and endlessly curious; the classic Bengal package. Every single morning, I march into my pawrents' room carrying my wand toy or my favourite dino toy, like I'm clocking in for the day. I love a good shower, a good play-fight, and I have a real weakness for ankle-biting, but for all my bravado, I've never once scratched or bitten anyone for real, even if you hold me up by the tail, which makes me great with kids. I'm actually the biggest softie you'll meet. And every night, without fail, I sleep tucked right up against Elena.

The Most Special Memory with My Pawrents

Our very first day together. I wouldn't stop meowing. I was scared, looking for my mom, and everything about this new place was unfamiliar. I spent hours hiding, unsure what to make of it all.

But that same evening, while my new pawrents were sitting down to dinner, something in me just... let go. I climbed up onto my new dad's lap and fell asleep right there, on day one. They still talk about that moment as the exact second they knew I was theirs, and they were mine.

Learning to Walk on a Harness and Exploring Outdoors

We took it slow, and if you're starting out with your own cat, here's what worked for us:

Start close to home (your garden if you have one, or, if you're in an apartment block, just downstairs, even if you don't have a perfect green space) so the first outings are short and low-stakes. Skip the car ride entirely; you want to be able to walk straight back inside the second things feel like too much.
Build up gradually. Begin with just a few minutes and end the session while your cat is still enjoying it, never after they've had enough.
Let your cat set the pace and lead the way — sniffing counts as stimulation too; it doesn't have to be non-stop movement.
Most importantly, reset your expectations. This will never look like a dog walk, and that's exactly the point.

Out there, my favourite things are chasing bugs, tearing full-speed through tall grass, and sniffing every single centimetre of ground like it's a crime scene.

Travelling with My Pawrents

I do have my own full travel kit: GPS tracker, carrier, travel bowl, etc. But international travel from the UAE is trickier than people assume, even to close neighbours like Oman. Nothing like hopping between countries in Europe. So it's rarely worth the money or the stress unless we're going away for a proper stretch of time, which means my next big trip probably won't be until summer 2027.

In the meantime, I'm keeping myself busy exploring closer to home; my current favourite mission is checking out pet-friendly cafes around the UAE. If I'm honest, there's still real progress to be made here: pets aren't allowed in a lot of spaces, green spaces to walk in are hard to come by, and even with all these beaches around us, most of them are off-limits to cats like me. So every pet-friendly spot we find feels like a small victory.

Meeting Other Animals: Cats, Dogs, Turtles and Hedgehogs

Close to home, I spend a good chunk of my day sniffing at the neighbour's door. They've got two dogs and two cats, and I consider myself very informed about their comings and goings. When they actually come out, though, I'm more cautious: I'll watch from about a metre away, and if everyone's calm, I might let them a little closer. But if a dog gets too excited, I'll hiss to make my boundaries very clear. Other cats, in general, not really my thing.

Travel, though, has introduced me to animals I never expected to fall for. In Spain, I met turtles for the first time (including some tiny baby ones!), and I was obsessed. I could genuinely sit and watch them for an entire day. I'll admit I did nudge a few onto their backs on purpose, purely out of curiosity. Don't judge me. And in France, I met hedgehogs and loved every second of it. Turns out my heart has room for a lot more than just cats.

Anything Else You Should Know About Bengal Cats?

Just — that more treats would be appreciated. That's really the whole ask.

But more seriously, I think a lot of people get drawn to Bengals without fully realising what they're signing up for. We're not a low-maintenance breed. You need real space for us to run and climb in, things to jump on and explore, and a lot of us are genuinely nocturnal chaos machines.

Personally, I don't do this. I only wake up when my pawrents do, and I sleep through the whole night curled up next to them. But that's not the Bengal norm, so don't count on it.

We can also be a lot more vocal than people expect, and we need serious daily playtime and mental stimulation, or we will find our own (usually less convenient) ways to get it. If you're ready for all of that, though, there's genuinely no more rewarding cat to share your life with.