ABOUT US

My name is Dayna, aka Binx, Loki, Cruiser, Chaz and Bella's mommy! I am a Sales Support Specialist by day and a Content Creator, Video Editor and Gamer by night. I am married to the best hubby anyone could ask for and I have three boys. I have always been an animal lover and have had cats my entire life. I have been through the good, the bad and the ugly and animals have always been therapy for me. Cats will always be my favorite! Originally from Georgia, (hence the southern twang in my videos) I live in Michigan on 37 acres of beautiful property with my husband and youngest son.

My main social media account is TikTok. It was created when I got Binx (my first Maine Coon!) earlier this year. People from all over the world have fallen in love with him, followed by his half brother, Loki, that we got in May of this year. Our F4 Savannah Cat, Cruiser is also loved by many, as well as Chaz, our domestic longhaired rescue. So, let's get into the good stuff here and talk a little bit about each of our furbabies!

Let's start with Chaz since he was here first! Chaz is a domestic longhair kitty whom I rescued in April 2020. He was approximately 6 months old when he came to live with us. Chaz caught my attention when I was reading over his profile and the little cute marking next to his nose reminded me of the mark my cat Taz had that passed away in 2018. I also named Chaz after Taz. I visited Chaz and he was a thin and shy kitty. He was very loving but loud noises would scare him away briefly. He would come right back up to me. I was able to pick him up a couple days later and he has lived with us since. He gained weight overtime and has turned into a huge floofball. Chaz is very playful and loves to sit up by walls and doors like a little human. He is still shy around new people and will hide when visitors come around. He still does not like loud noises but has adapted to our home very well in the last couple of years. He is now approximately 3 years old and is very healthy.

Cruiser is an F4 Savannah cat, meaning he is 4th generation down from the wild serval. He is a serval x siamese. Cruiser was born in October 2016. We got Cruiser on May 15, 2020. He was 3 years old and we found him through Savannah Cat Rehoming: By Owner Facebook Page. Cruiser is now 5 years old and will be 6 in October of this year. He was rehomed due to picking on his previous owner's elderly cat and his desire to run out of the door when kids would open it. He spent up to a week at a time running round Drummond Island in the Upper Peninsula here in Michigan, thus why he was put up for rehoming. Cruiser is very vocal. His meow echoes around our house and you always know where he is. He has a strong desire to be outdoors and due to the "wild serval" in him, he needs a lot of attention or can become destructive and even develop a habit of chewing on things. In November of 2020, Cruiser had an emergency surgery where they found a piece of my son's foam alphabet letter stuck in his intestine! $4000 later we made sure to be very careful of what things were laying around and threw away all things foam that were laying around. Literally 3 months later in February of 2021, he had another emergency surgery (another $4000) where they found a small piece of a rubber dinosaur eraser that was in my son's Valentine's Day bag from school. He was not diagnosed with pica (an obsession of chewing) but was just considered a freak accident. So far to this day (fingers crossed!) he has been a year and a half with no issues. We are very careful with what is laying around our house! Cruiser is now enjoying the Catio that we built where he can enjoy the nature outdoors without being in harms way. He also enjoys walks out on the leash.

Binx is a purebred red tabby Maine Coon. If you are familiar with our BigKittyBinx TikTok account, then you know that Binx is the star and was my motivation for creating the account. I have always wanted a Maine Coon and Binx is my first! My cat Taz that passed in 2018 was very dear to me and literally broke me down when he passed away from chronic renal failure. He was a red/white Turkish Van mix. Since I wanted a Maine Coon, also known as gentle giants in the cat world, I knew for sure that I wanted a red baby. After doing my research on Maine Coons, I began looking for breeders. Please know that I always support rescues and I have had many rescues in the past, including Chaz, but I wanted a purebred Maine Coon as a pet only. I do not breed, nor would I ever consider becoming a breeder. I began looking online for breeders here in Michigan and states surrounding me. While I did find some Maine Coon kittens, I was not finding a red. Finally one day I was searching on Hoobly, and a few photos popped up that were red babies!! They were located in Ohio, and I immediately fell in love with Binx. I sent a message to the breeder to see if he was available and he was! I asked questions about the parents health etc. and after a long chat with the breeder, I placed my deposit and was sent pictures and videos daily until the day came where we brought Binx home.

Binx was born November 8, 2021 and is the biggest sweetheart I have ever seen. He is very laid back, but also very playful. I began my TikTok account, BigKittyBinx, starring Binx and people grew to love him. I also started adding in videos with Cruiser and Chaz and we are growing close to 50k followers now! Binx loves to sit on my lap and loves to be brushed with a toothbrush over his face. His most popular video on TikTok is of him shown being brushed with a toothbrush. Our account is branded to show love and support for our furbabies and our followers' furbabies.

Binx loves to play and is very energetic, but here recently I found him acting lethargic and after finding many spots of vomit in our basement, we took him to the ER vet. After completing tests and a radiograph, he was shown to have a large impaction near his colon. They did not detect any foreign objects, so they gave him an enema and gave me instructions using Miralax and medications to help him pass the stool. I tried all day long the following day and his situation became worse. I thought I was about to lose my 9 month old baby. We rushed him back to the ER vet where they did another radiograph and this time found an even larger impaction. So we opted for a major surgery where they found 8 inches of necrotic intestine that they had to surgically remove. It was called Intussusception. We spent over $4500 at the ER vet for him, but I was not going to sit there and let him die. Binx's TikTok followers pitched in and raised over $1500 to help towards his medical expenses. His breeder also helped with a large portion of the vet bill. Binx is healing up and is doing great. We do not know what caused this other than at some point he must have swallowed something that caused an obstruction which caused his intestine to "telescope" into the adjacent intestine near his colon. While performing his surgery, the ER surgeon made a shocking discovery. Binx has no left kidney! (Left Renal Agenesis) He was born with only his right kidney. When I found out the news in the early morning hours of August 9, 2022, I was immediately in tears because all I could think of was Taz, my boy I lost in 2018 due to kidney failure. It is high priority for me to make sure to keep Binx's right kidney as healthy as possible. He currently has no issues with the right-side kidney, and with only being 9 months old when we found out the shocking news, we have a high chance of keeping him healthy enough to live a long full life. Please note that the left kidney agenesis has nothing to do with the Breeder or Binx's parents or grandparents. It is simply a congenital issue unfortunately, but we are happy it was caught early so that we can give him the best care possible!

If you feel in your heart to do so, we could always use Chewy e-Gift cards to be donated to help with the costs of his new food, as well as links to donate towards Binx's Kidney Fund. See the "Binx's Kidney Fund" page in our menu for more info!

Loki is a purebred red/white bi-color Maine Coon. He is the half brother of Binx! They share the same dad, but have different moms. Loki was born on February 10, 2022. I love Binx so much that I wanted at least 1 more Maine Coon. I fell in love with Loki as soon as I saw him. Loki is just 3 months younger than Binx, so having him in our home has been huge for Binx. They play and cuddle and love to be around each other. Since Cruiser and Chaz hardly played with Binx, having Loki was perfect timing for us. Loki and Binx are complete opposites. Loki is like the little class clown around here. He is always doing something silly and making us laugh. He is a fireball, very energetic, but is also a huge loverboy. He loves to cuddle but does not like to be carried around as much. When we found out that his half brother Binx was born with no left kidney, we had an ultrasound done on Loki just to check his. Loki is completely healthy and has both of his kidneys. Loki is very vocal and comes in second place next to Cruiser when it comes to loudness. He enjoys playing in the catio and spends a large portion of the day out watching and listening to nature. It is hard to know just yet if Loki will be larger than Binx. While they both share the same very large dad, Loki's mom was a bit smaller in size than Binx's mom. Loki was the biggest in his litter and he currently weighs almost 13lbs at 6 months old.

While having 4 cats is a blast and huge therapy for me, we finally decided on finding the perfect family dog! It has been hard having a dog due to my son being autistic and his sensory issues. Most dogs are too hyper for him and cause him distress. We did a lot of research and found that Bernese Mountain Dogs are one of the top breeds for children with autism. They are known as gentle giants (just like Maine Coons) and are very laid back and gentle when it comes to children. The only sad part is due to the size of the breed, they only have a lifespan of 6-8 years. So we started looking for mixed breeds, and came across Bernese Mountain Dogs mixed with Australian Shepherds! Some call them Bernaussies, others call them Australian Mountain Dogs. We visited 4 families of pups that were 8 weeks to 12 weeks and each puppy was very laid back and not hyper. My son did well around them all. We figured now would be a great time to take a puppy home and grow up with him. I have always loved Australian Shepherds, especially blue and red merles. It is hard to find this Bernese/Aussie cross, but I got super lucky and found a female blue merle bernese/aussie puppy! She was 4 weeks old when I first saw her and placed my deposit. We picked her up August 6, 2022. She is the perfect puppy for us. She is so laid back and super smart. She is beautiful and currently has blue eyes which I am hoping she keeps. Bella can also be seen in some of our TikTok videos.