Anyway, I found this website and was thrilled. I e-mailed the breeder to first ask if they had Bi-colors - ant color but Torti. And I immediately got a reply. WOW, she was online at the same time. Although this wasn't odd, over the next few weeks, every time I got online I found that she was also - even at midnight. So I should have been suspicious. But I thought I was lucky. So we talked for awhile and we agreed to trade bloodlines - one of my best show quality kittens for one of hers. I'd send mine and, since her kittens weren't old enough yet, she'd send hers in 4 weeks.
On the day I sent my kitten, I called to make sure she knew all of the flight information. He went in a new carrier, frozen water (so it wouldn't spill), food, a toy and an ample ammount of bedding to hide in just in case he got scared. He had a health check-up the day before so I knew for certain he was healthy. As soon as he was off I rushed home to call her and asked her to call me as soon as he arrived.
She never called.
I called her later that night and she said he had arrived but he was sick. SICK! I panicked. I asked her if she took him to the Vet and she said she hadn't yet. WHY? I asked. Well, she and her kids were outside parting and she's do it tomorrow. I asked what was wrong with him and she said he had a runny nose. She said she had antibiotics there and would administer some, and keep him caged away from her other cats to quarentine him. She had antibiotics there? I thought to myself - were her cats sick?
And Yes, I said caged. I didn't know it then, but the bad breeders keep their cats caged! 24/7. I'm not talking about kept in a room, or comfortably caging a Stud cat white your female is in heat. I'm talking about caging them all of the time. I found out then that she did this because she lived in an apartment and had so many cats. And yes, my heart dropped. I knew not only would my kitten be in a bad place, but the one I was going to get from her was most likely born and raised in a cage.
Well, over the next few days I urged her to take my kitty to the Vet and 5 days later she did. By then she said she let him play with her othe cats, and I questioned why she did that. I found out why when she came home from the Vet and told me that my kitten was SO sick, had all of these diseases, ear mites, fleas (I have never seen a flea!) etc.. that it cost her over $300 at the vet. I cried. She complained to me back and forth how much this kitten would cost in vet care, and how poor she was, and that she was on the loosing end if she sent me a healthy kitten. I asked for her Vet's name and phone number, but she refused to give it to me. When I asked why, she said she didn't want someone harassing her Vet. She hinted that she wanted some additional money to pay the Vet bills. But instead of that, I did the opposite. I told her to send me my kitten back. I'd pay for the shipping. Just send him back.
Strangely, I didn't hear back form her for 3 days.
When I did hear from her, she sent me this "oh pitty me" letter saying she SOLD my kitten to someone else! Placed him out as a pet because she couldn't afford the Vet Bills and needed the money for rent. But she wouldn't tell me to whom, no matter how much I begged. But I did one thing smart in the beginning - I held his papers until I got my kitten sent to me, so she didn't have them. And now, she needed them - the new owner was on her back to get them. And I refused.
She complained, cussed me out, cried to me, told me how rough her life was, how sick she was getting from the stress of this guy harassing her for the papers - everything. But I wouldn't bulge. I wanted the new owners name and phone number - and then a photo of my kitten with him (I breed pixie faced Ragdolls and their look is unique, so I knew I'd know him when I saw him.) But she wouldn't give. Then a few weeks later, the kitten she was supposed to send me in trade "just wasn't good enough" and without asking me MY opinion, she sold it.
Nearly 4 months later, she started to send me pictures of a kitten. All of this time,I had pretended to "understand" and be her friend, but I had been doing a lot of investigation online. She had done this same scam to hundreds of people. Not only the trade bloodlines one, where the other person NEVER got their kitten because the one they sent was "deathly ill" the medical costs were so high she had to "pet it out" to break even, but others where she sold kittens so ill they died within days and she wouldn't refund money, or kittens she sold "to the highest bidder" even after she had taken someone's money for it, or the kitten would mysteriously run away, or die, or ? Others bought "retired breeders" as pets to receive them and have them be so sickly the Vet determined they had been bred EVERY SINGLE HEAT (ie: Bred to death) and were nearly dead at 3 or 4 years of age. Or the people suspected the cat just looked like a ragdoll and instead it was one she rescued from the local pound and sold for the pet price of $500 and up. The things I heard from others online made me sick to my stomach. So I didn't put much faith in her, 4 months later, sending me photos of a kitten she said was "perfect" and "a show quality BiColor".
Well, as the weeks passed, she said she was going to send the kitten. I played it up, saying I was so excited, but by this time I knew she was a liar and a thief. But lo and behold, the 4th time she said she would send it (after she asked me for additional money for the crate and for gas - which I refused) she sent the kitten.
I went immediately from the airport to the Vet.
(Continued)
