A good few years ago I was very.....nieve?
I looked on our very good friend pets4homes and found a siamese kitten, it was the colour I wanted and arranged to go view it.

I knew that I would leave with it because well, thats the way it goes.

I arrived at the house and walked to the door, the man opened the door and invited me in. I walked in to see 3 cats sat in the hall (as the front door faced the stairs) all the doors where shut and there was a litter tray for the cats. I noticed that all 3 cats had gunky eyes and seemed.....ill.

I walked into the front room where a large lady (I myself am large so no-one take offence) was sat on the sofa with a laptop on a table infront of her. The room covered in stuff, so much stuff that you couldnt move around the room. The carpet was dirty and the house smelt.

She sent her OH into the kitchen to get the kitten (I didnt see much of the kitchen except there was alot of paper on the floors) and I herd a good few dogs barking in the kitchen.

I liked the kitten, however it was thin...for a siamese it was thin. It clung to me with its claws. She swore it was 9 weeks old however I beg to differ. She said I couldnt meet mum as she had died during birth. I had seen dad and his not so well looking eyes and skin. I left with the kitten although I knew I wasnt doing myself any favours.

I got home and took it straight to the vet...who said it had cat flu and was very under-weight. The cat wasnt even drinking water I had to get milk in for it because it wouldnt eat or drink anything but milk.

He would only drink milk when we shringed it into his mouth.

After the vet advised me to keep it away from my cats until I had done a whole range of tests I decided that I would give it back to the breeder as I didnt want this small, delicate kitten locked away until tests came back.

I rang the breeder to have her shout rude words at me and call me saying I got the cat ill. Before I emailed her asking for her to take the kitten back or I would contact the relivent people. After exchaning many emails and only after I threatened to contact the GCCF she agree'd to take the cat back and give me my money back.

Because she didnt believe me I gave her my vet details for her to ring them with their findings of the kittens health the day we got him.

We had the poor thing for 3 days.

Given what I know now things would have been so different.

So yeah, anyone else had problems like this?

If she sold you a kitten that she told you was nine weeks old & it may have been younger then that alone is enough to contact the GCCF with if she is even bothering to that much.

Sounds horrendous & I think most people in your shoes would have taken the kitten away from such a nasty place.

I wanted to but didnt have the room at the time to keep it seperated from my other cats. And it was so small and needed feeding by hand every so many hours and guiding to the litter box, I couldnt do it if It was in a different room. I was in a very small house at the time and had to be very careful as I couldnt keep my 3 adult cats locked in a room.... I did contact the police and cat protection to go with them to take the cat but cat protection said they couldnt do anything.

At the time I was living in a small house and was training our GSD to get used to cats so had the cats and dogs seperated as it was...

Oh no, I mean the fact you took it to the vets etc.. I wasn't commenting about the fact you didn't keep the poor tyke.

I know its sounds awful but people need to Stop buying these types of kittens, it will stop these awful bloody people breeding them as a opening wont appear for another to be born into that awful place

I to was suckered in from a reg breeder many years back, was told it was a 100% pedigree, went over, clean house, only allowed in one room while the man went to fetch the kittens, he brought 2 in, very very very scared kittens, mum wasnt allowed to be seen, bu dad was held by the guy and he opened the door showed me him then took him back into the other room.

was told the kitten was breding an paperwork in the post, took the kitten, we drove 2hours to get her, go home she was so scared she screamed at every bit of noise you could think of, she had worms/ear mites and we then found out she was a persian cross ragdoll. Took her straight back and demanded our money back plus our vet fees.

Swore Id never take taken in again and did a hell of a lot more research.

No one should buy a kitten that they feel sorry for, itll only end up with more being born in its place as they can sell them

I dont know why these people dont d things properly, well, I do, it the money they save and pocket!! I have to do things perfect no matter what I do in y life and I have a conscience and love for animals I couldnt imagine what type of people these back yard breeders are.

Oh on a puppy note we got a pup a few years back, turned out to be 5 weeks old riddled with fleas/mites/worms had been beaten, god knows when it was taken from mum, we were totally taken in byt the person who bred kc reg ckcs, but then she also had random pedigree dogs that her 'friend' needed her to sell, found out a women a few doors down bought one from her the day after me. That poor dog had so many issues, we spent so much money trying to help him, poor thing

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I also get annoyed at Byb, cutting corners especially when their cats are supposedly Gccf Reg, they should get reported, the trouble is they dont get reported often enough.

People feel sorry for the kitten and rather than say no, they think they are saving the kitten.

I too wished they would say no more often and then the breeder would be stuck with kittens they can not sell.

Its sad, but you hear these stories far to often these Byb are everywhere.And they are not interested in Kitten/Cat welfare only the money they make. The biggest give away is the age at which they rehome, they want the kittens away as soon as possible.

Reputable breeders let their kittens go at 13 weeks old, in perfect health with Vet checks signed off, Fully vaccinated as standard, most reputable breeders then have extras, wormed, de-flead, microchipped,health insurance,registered, etc

Byb have excuses, paperworks in the post, Mum died,etc

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http://www.funkyfurballs.co.uk

Totally agree with both of you!!!

If people (buyers) walked away from these kittens and the breeders were left with litters of kittens they couldn't sell... the practice would die out fairly quickly. It's supply and demand - if we, "the cat loving public", keep buying these kittens - the fcuked up backyard breeders will keep churning out litter after litter.

People (buyers) have to realise that by helping/rescuing/buying one kitten from the greedy claws of a BYB, they may be "saving" that one kitten, but they are condemning generations more to a hideous life. The queens these BYB breed from often have a far worse life than the kittens they produce.

Yes it is and the worst of 'breeders' know exactly how to tug at the heartstrings. People who have pets are usually the type who need to nurture, need to be needed to whatever extent. Puppy and kitten farmers (because that is what they are) actually play on this. Basically they see the softie coming a mile off and the more sympathetic you are to the plight of the animals the more tenners they'll have off you. You've been told a price on the phone but when you get there the only one left is the 'rare' colour (sure it is) and costs more. I'll guarantee you'll have to make a decision there and then or lose your chance because they have someone else who really wants the kitten and is turning up in an hour, it's worse than dealing with Arthur Daley!

And yet they keep farming the poor animals because people will keep handing over the cash

Well I am going to tell my tale although it upsets me..Firstly I broke the first rule by booking 2 kittens without seeing them and paying a £200 deposit In my defence I hadn't found this forum and I didn't have any previous experience with pedigree cats I stupidly thought that the breeds I wanted (Devon and Cornish)were in high demand and that paying a deposit over the phone was normal practice
The breeder sounded very professional over the phone and her website looked great I was so excited about bringing my babies home
Originally I had booked a choc devon girl and a blue cornish boy.A couple of week later the breeder e-mailed me to say the blue boy had a hernia and I couldn't take him and I had to choose another kitten she had 2 lilac and white girls that would be ready the same time as the choc devon she sent pics and they were very similar.She said I had the choice of which one and whichever one I didn''t want she would keep for breeding.I had to nag her a lot to get pics of their progressand as it got nearer the time to pick them up I had a feeling she had picked which Lilac and white girls she wanted.I e-mailed her and she confirmed this saying she had picked the quiet one for "showing"..I let this go because they did look so similar anyway.The girls were meant to be chipped but she only had the Cornish chipped because the Devon was too small
2 days prior to us picking them up she e-mailed to say the cornish had been batted in the eye and she had taken her to the vet and there was no scratch or infection in the eye and she had been given cream to apply she said I could have delayed picking them up by 2 days but I thought 2 days wouldn't have made any difference anyway.Myself my hubby and my 2 teenagers excitedly made the 1hr and 30min drive to pick them up we were shocked the house was on the main road and the house was small and very very cluttered and dustyMy gut reaction was to turn around and walk straight back out again The room was filled with a few queens and a couple of kittens running about she said thats yours and pointed to our Cornish her eye looked worse than I imagined and I was shocked at how small she looked.All the cats seemed snuffly.She grabbed the little devon and she got her claws out and she wanted to go back on the floor.We saw their mothers but we weren't offered a look around the house or to see the dads.We weren't offered a drink or anything and felt like she couldn't wait to get us out of the house.Myself and my daughter asked if we could use the loo.Every step up to the bathroom was thick with dog hair I thought they would be ok once we got them home.
In the first week the Cornish developed the sniffles and so did the devon I took them to the vets and they were both diagnosed with cat flu And were given medication.The devons eye got infected and wouldn't respond to treatment The cornish got over the flu but sadly the devons eye got worse and we ended up seeing a specialist who diagnosed her with the herpes virus and she may lose her eyeI kept the breeder up to date and she said she had never had a problem like this before and she would take them back up to 6 months old and we could have replacement kittensWe felt that they had become part of the family by this point.I just plodded on with the treatment and then the cornish developed problems which turned out to be coronavirus again the breeder said she had never had this problem and she couldnt have got it from her houseSadly this mutated into fip and we lost her at 6 months The devon then got poorly and she was diagnosed with fip too we lost her at 7 months Oh and the vet said she had boy bits but they weren't in the right place Again the breeder seemed concerned but more about the kittens she had kept (and her reputation I suppose).I have never asked for money back apart from help with the specialist fee she said she would pay some towards the initial but that never appeared I dont want to name names and because I had already got a kitten 3 months prior to the girls arriving I cannot prove the herpes virus or coronavirus wasn't given to them from my kitten It's been such a mess financially (£1700) and emotionally I so wish I could turn back time
Angie x

this is terrible if only people could just walk away whenb they see places like this and not thinks its 'normal'

have you reported her? with your other kitten has she got the virus now? she CAN be tested and if she is neg you can take them to small claims court, it only costs £25, under the sales of good act

ILL PM YOU now.

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