30 August 2010, 10:45 am
Hello and thank you for taking the time to read my question(novel), any advice that you can contribute would be greatly appreciated. I have wanted a Ragdoll cat for the last 5 or so years and on a spur of the moment decision last week my partner finally agreed to let me have one. Naively I wasn't aware that these type of cats should be bought from registered owners with paperwork etc. I understand that this is my own fault. However, I had seen advertised on a popular advertisement website that there were Ragdoll kittens for sale at £250 nearby (West Lothian). My partner and I went to view the kittens and there were 3, I said that I was looking for a boy, the woman said she had two boys, picked one up and handed it to me whilst she talked about the characteristics of Ragdoll cats and showed me both the parents. Unfortunately on the way home in the car I noticed that the kitten had a slight deformity on his hind left leg. It is slightly shorter and has only two metatarsal bones which causes the kitten to limp slightly. I emailed the breeders the same night but they didn't respond, my partner tried phoning them but they wouldn't answer the phone. Today I took the the kitten to the vet who checked him over, I told the vet that the kitten will run and jump about and it doesn't seem to affect him at all and he is quite happy. The vet has said that he is healthy in every other way and as he gets older it may be in the kittens interest to amputate the leg due to him getting bigger and heavier it may be best but it's something he will assess in months to come. The vet has said that this operation may cost 200-300 pounds and that it was unfair and unlikely that the breeders had not noticed this deformity. He has said that I should amicably contact them and ask for a partial refund to help pay towards the vet bills or return him. The vet also took the breeders details and said to ask them to contact him at the surgery and he would verify this. Failing that he has said to report them to the trading standards. My partner managed to speak with the husband breeder today who was unhelpful and uncooperative (I'll refrain from typing what my partner actually said...) The breeder barely gave my partner a chance to explain the situation and basically said he would refuse to pay anything towards the operation and to take him back if we were not happy. Taking the kitten back is all fair and well but I'm not sure that I would trust these people to refund us properly and I don't believe that they would care for the kitten appropriately or may just try to fob it off on someone else. In hindsight these people aren't compassionate towards the kittens, they only see £££ signs. I'm sorry that I've warbled on, I'm almost done... I've had the kitten for 5 days now, I've affectionately named him Toulouse after Toulouse-Lautrec and he's snuggled up next to me. It is easy for others to say "it's just a cat, put things into perspective..." I appreciate that we all have different opinions and beliefs but I would like to think of myself as a responsible cat owner who has agreed to take responsibility for Toulouse, after all, he is oblivious to the upset and has done nothing wrong, would someone else let him limp about painfully when he is bigger or put him to sleep rather than forking out a vet bill. What a waste of a sweet life that would be. I'm very angry at the breeders, I think it is very unfair what they have done and they have handled it terribly. I've accepted that they wont give any money back but I feel that I should be doing something to get these breeders pulled up? Can I report them to trading standards? Or another similar body? Where do I stand? Do I have a case or is this just something that I will have to chalk up to experience and wait for Karma to take effect?... Read More »
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