Ellisville's Strangest Pet Ain't No Chicken

At an Ellisville City Council meeting Wednesday, resident Jeff Anderson said a newly approved law forbids his unusual pet that he's owned for seven years.

Unlike fellow residents such as Jim Finney, whose chickens are among the Ellisville hens soon to become legal pets following a new ordinance this month, Anderson's pet is even more obscure—and significantly more fierce.

Anderson, 50, said he bought his African serval cat "Mia" seven years ago, in part to impress his girlfriend of 10 years.

Anderson, an employee at chemical company Nexio Solutions, said he first was exposed to exotic animals as pets years ago while working for Union Pacffic Railroad.

“And when we went to Alaska, it was (for) one of our big customers,” Anderson said of a delivery on the job. “We went into his house and he had two bobcats, sitting on the couch. And I went, ‘Wow. What are those things?’”

A few years after meeting his girlfriend, Nancy Sandroff, who originally had an aversion to cats, Anderson said he reached out to the Feline Conservation Federation, which directed him to an associated farm in Ohio which housed cougars and other exotic animals.

It was there Anderson found their cat, which Sandroff later chose to name Mia, a 30-pound serval that’s about 30 inches long.

The animal has an identification chip, receives regular care from Dr. Doug Pernikoff, an Ellisville veterinarian who used to specialize in exotic animal care, and is officially registered with St. Louis County.

In fact, Anderson said, he was told he has the only legally registered exotic animal in the county, but has heard from multiple sources that other exotic animals are housed in St. Louis County.

On Feb. 1, the Ellisville City Council approved an ordinance that outlined parameters permitting chickens, as well as caged birds, hamsters, aquarium animals and other common pets that previously technically weren’t allowed in the city. The ordinance did not specify the legality of exotic animals. 

Mayor Matt Pirrello, who suggested earlier this month that the ordinance on pets may be amended, told Anderson at the council meeting Wednesday that he was thankful for the resident's frank concern.

“It takes a big person to walk in here and expose yourself, and we appreciate you being honest with us, and we’re going to do everything we can to make this work out,” Pirrello said at the meeting. “This should not be an issue.”

Anderson said he was surprised that in the months leading up to the council’s vote on urban chickens, no one came forward identifying an exotic animal, particularly because so many friends and relatives have seen Mia. 

Most come to watch the cat eat, Anderson said, which involves a careful diet of raw meats, patties and nutritional supplements.

“She eats salmon every morning with formula on it to replace what’s out in the wild,” Anderson said. 

That’s usually followed by patties from Sam’s Club when Anderson comes home from work and typically raw chicken wings at night for dinner.

“And she gets a different kind of formula on that one,” Anderson said.

“It’s just us two now," he said of life with Sandroff. "Her daughter is in college and the other, her son, has moved. So it’s just us. And it’s sort of, I guess, our new child.” 

“But all (Mia) mainly does (when visitors come) is go up on her bookcase and hisses and growls,” Anderson said. “She sounds like a dog. She intimidates people, too.”

Anderson said other difficulties of raising such a rare animal include Mia’s tendency to bond exclusively with one person—a documented trait of servals in relation to their caregiver.

“And she bonds to my girlfriend, Nancy. I mean she will get mad at me and (Nancy) will put her finger right up to (Mia’s) mouth.”

The couple also has two domestic ”house” cats, one of which weighs in at a formidable 20 pounds and sometimes becomes aggressive with Mia, Anderson said.

Still, he said, he’s never had any “alarming” incident with the animal, which is insured as required by law for up to $100,000 — coverage that costs about $400 annually.

Anderson said he hopes to complete a sunroom addition that was made for Mia sometime in the next few months. The room already includes heated floors for the animal, and Anderson said he plans to install a waterfall.