Cat nap kidnap: Cats worth $12,000 are stolen as the Pasco breeder slept

Six exotic – and expensive – Bengal cats were stolen from a Pasco breeder while she slept.

Jennifer Lorene Edwards of Columbia River Bengals said she was asleep about 9 a.m. June 13 when she believes someone broke into her Road 88 home through a back window.

When she got up 10 minutes later, Edwards said she found her doors had been opened and the cats gone.

“Pathetic, isn’t it?” Edwards said.

The thief stole four kittens, a young female and a breeding female, Edwards said.

Bengals are a newer, valuable crossbreed between a wild Asian leopard cat and a domestic cat.

Altogether the cats were worth about $12,000, she said.

She’s already broken the news to several of the buyers who had put deposits down for the kittens.

One of her buyers saw an online post for a Bengal kitten and it turned out to be one of the missing ones, Edwards said.

Pasco police said they’ve assigned a detective to the case.

Edwards is particularly worried about her breeding female.

“Diva” is a first-generation offspring of a wild Asian leopard cat and a domestic cat. And Edwards said such new Bengal cats only bond with one person.