Meet Meeka

Topic of the day: My new kitten!!

     So after going through a horrific experience with the last breeder I restarted my search for a new kitten. I came across Rasta Ragdolls and saw a similar colored kitten as the last one but this one was a female! A blue mink bicolor ragdoll. What luck! Mink's are a rare color in the Ragdoll Breed. They have aqua colored eyes and a plusher fluffier coat and are simply beautiful!

http://www.rastaragdolls.com/

     I highly recommend Heidi from Rasta Ragdolls. She's super sweet and so helpful with everything it just made me feel like it was destiny meeting her. I think that there was a reason I had a horrible time with the last lady, Elina, so that I can meet Heidi. :)

     There wasn't a picture of her Papa but this is Meeka's Mama:

(Her Mama is a Blue Bicolor Mink)

I think Meeka will grow up to look just like her Mama!

She had a beautiful litter of five kittens!

Here are their pictures. So cute!

The top left is a Seal Sepia Bicolor Female, On the top right is a Seal Bicolor Male,

The bottom left a Blue Sepia Bicolor Female. And the bottom right is a Blue Bicolor Male.

I'm happy to say everything went smoothly in terms of working out an arrangement and payment methods for the kitten. Thank goodness! After the last breeder, this was a breath of fresh air! The problem arose with the airline. Never use United Airlines. My breeder would always use Continental but apparently they merged with United so this was her first time using them after they joined. She booked the flight for the 16th and dropped off the kitty at 5am that morning. I requested for a straight flight with no layovers. The told her the flight would land in 5 hours and I would receive my kitten at 2:55pm in the afternoon. I woke up early that and ran around to Target, Petsmart and Petco to gather last minute things for the kitten.

A few hours later I receive a call from Heidi saying that she received a call from the Airline and that there was a two hour delay because the plane was being worked on. The new departure time changed to 9am and she would arrive to me at 4:55pm. I thought okay, two hours is not so bad. She told me the attendants had given the kitten some food and water.

At 3 I'm over in Baltimore getting ready to leave for the airport (Dallas Virginia) when I receive yet ANOTHER call saying it has been delayed again, the flight was changed and the kitten was put on a new plane that should arrive at 9pm that night. Argh. This was frustrating. Not only are the flight delays messing up my plans (it was Father's Day) but I felt so bad for the kitten. 10 weeks old and in a cage for practically the whole day.

I receive yet another call from Heidi saying she just checked the status on the website of the flight and it seems the kitten is being delivered to a different airport!! I call the airline and speak with a very obnoxious stupid indian lady who has no information to give me, can't tell me anything about the flight because I'm not authorized to receive that information. I tell her I'm picking up the kitten from the airport I NEED to know where I'm picking her up otherwise she'll be stuck there forever! She's like sorry I cant help. So I call Heidi and let her know the situation she calls the lady and calls me back to tell me that the kitten is being delivered to Washington Regan Airport. Great. I reroute the GPS, as I'm driving down there Heidi gives me a call and lets me know she just spoke with someone that was on the Airline itself and that it is in fact landing at it's original location in Dallas Virginia. *sigh* This is never ending.

I arrive at the Airport and drive over to Cargo where Heidi tells me is the location I have to pick up the kitten. It's late it's dark I don't know where I'm going. I find some people chilling outside of cargo and ask them where I go to pick up my pet. They say go inside the Airport. I'm like no I was told to go to Cargo, they say I was given wrong information and I have to go inside the Airport. I'm confused so I drive a little further into Cargo and see another group of people and ask them the same question, they don't understand because they don't speak English but they just say Airport Parking Garage. So I'm like FINE. I park in the Parking Garage and realize I am so far from the Airport and there is a huge wall blocking our path. Like an idiot I climb over the wall (it was pretty difficult at least 12 ft high) walk through a thicket of trees and end up facing a huge highway that I have to cross to get to the Airport. I walk back, climb down the wall, park in the main parking area that's right in front of the Airport, walk inside and ask someone where I go to pick up my pet. I'm told to go to United Airlines for that information as that is the flight the kitten was on. United Airlines is clear across the whole Airport. I run to the other side only to find out I must pick up my kitty from CARGO.

Are you freaking kidding me? This is getting ridiculous.

After paying for parking TWICE I drive to Cargo past those ignorant fools who I wanted to hit with a water balloon for giving me misleading information and arrive at a half lit sign of United Airlines Cargo. As I walk in I see the receptionist has the kitten on the desk playing and being able to stretch. Aww, poor thing. Now she has to be shoved back in her cage for an hour and a half drive home. The receptionist said the kitten has been sneezing quite a lot and might have caught a cold. I know she got sick from the plane ride because she had just visited the vet the day before and was perfectly fine. Great now I have a sick kitty. Heidi was so sweet. It wasn't her fault the airline was getting screwed up but she kept apologizing. In the end the kitten was home safe with me at midnight although very under the weather. I took her to the vet two days later to treat her eye infection and cold.

According to my calculations this is the amount I've spent on her so far:

                                                                                                                                                    $750 - Kitten Price

                                                                                                                                                    $350 - Flight Ticket

                                                                                                                                        +          $181 - Petco Supplies

                                                                                                                                                    $160 - Vet Bill

                                                                                                                                                    $50 - Target

                                                                                                                                 _________________

                                                                                                                                                    $1500 

I guess that's expected when your buying a purebred animal. Whether it be a dog, cat, bird or exotic pet. Well hopefully now that I have the bulk of her necessities the future should hold less of a burden. I'm hoping that I can lower her needs down to $50 a month on cat litter and cat food. Maybe a new toy now and again. I'm sure you're waiting for updated pictures! :)

Supplies

I don't have any pictures of her coming home in her cage/carrier, it was depressing that she was shoved up in there for so long not to mention stinky. Her first "safe-haven" was the bathroom. I didn't have a lot of room to place the things that I bought her. I wanted her to get comfortable and used to her surroundings first. A little bit at a time so she doesn't get overwhelmed.



Now she's moved into a much larger space. What we call the "Japanese" room. We don't use the basement much aside from storage. So she has free run of one whole side of the basement. It's quite spacious and large. She loves running back and forth slipping and sliding on the hardwood floor. She has a few favorite spots she likes hanging around that she's claimed for herself.

The windowsill is where she loves hanging out, taking naps, watching birds on the lawn and enjoying the warm breeze that flows in. She came from California where they have amazing weather all year round. I'm sure she misses the beautiful weather because she gets so happy and excited whenever I open the window or open the door (that has a screen so she doesn't run out).

Whenever she wants to go outside she stands up on her little hind legs and looks wistfully to the great outdoors looking up at me and meowing. I've taken her onto this tiny patio we have and on the grass maybe two or three times. Now that she's used to her surroundings and comfortable she's starting to venture out. Of course I would never let her roam free, only under my watchful eye. When she's older I hope to get her used to a harness so I can take her for walks on our long driveway.

Look at her beautiful bushy fluffy tail.

I bought her a pretty pink collar with a bow.

She's eyeing some birds across the lawn.

With the natural sunlight her eyes look beautifully sky blue.

Not My Ragdoll

Topic of the day: Obstacles.

     We all come across problems in life. Obstacles blocking our path. As Rafiki once said in the movie The Lion King, "..the way I see it, you can either run from it or learn from it." And that is how I shall do it. Fight back. :) It's a good thing sometimes, yeah you may create an enemy but it means you stood up for something once in your life. You didn't let that person walk all over you.

Picture Courtesy of Google

     I've been researching and looking for Ragdoll Breeders for more than a year I should say. I contacted many breeders I found over the web all over the United States. From Maryland to California. I sent the same generic email with my information and what I'm looking for to each and every one. There were certain breeders that called me right away and provided me with all the information I desired. I highly recommend these breeders based off my experiences: 1. Rasta Ragdolls (where I got my kitten from), 2. Dollinska Ragdolls (where a friend got hers) and 3. Soulmate Ragdolls (where I almost adopted a kitten).

     Obviously it's only fair that I have opinions for people I do NOT recommend: AngelGirlRagdolls (I've been keeping tabs on them for years, they used to be good. Now it seems they are consumed by greed and from my evaluation visiting their home turned out to be very kitten mill like not to mention their prices were triple to that of other breeders) and ZelkovaRagdolls (which this blog post is about). This blog is lengthy but I had to get it all out there. This is MY review.

     Relating back to the topic. Most of the breeders I found did NOT have pretty looking websites. They looked like they were made by a 10 year old attempting web design. So naturally I was NOT drawn to any of these even though they had mucho grandees amount of information, not to mention they contacted me same day and spoke for over an hour at a time answering my questions. And yet I decided to ignore those breeders and the good feeling I had about them and instead go for the ONE and ONLY website that lacked all of that but had the one thing that the others did not. A professional website. It looked like this certain breeder invested time and money into it's design. Beautiful pictures of cats with shiny blue eyes, (clearly photo shopped now that I look at with open eyes). Yet, I still decided to go with this breeder.. because her website was pretty.

     I spoke with this breeder for over seven months. We never spoke on the phone. I gave my cell # up front in the same email I sent everybody else. She was the only one that strictly spoke with me through email and that's it. Granted I could have asked her for her number but I naively thought "maybe the reason she hasn't given it is because she's waiting to see if I'm a serious buyer". Five months whilst continuing to converse via email I placed a $200 deposit on a kitten. Still no number. Fast forward a few weeks after and I make a payment of $300. Still no number. I thought okay, maybe she's busy and doesn't have time to talk. I should have been more aggressive now that I look back. I'm paying a large amount of money on something that I can only see with pictures. She told me multiple times she would send a video - and did not. So I had nothing "live" to go by. I tried searching for testimonials on her, people who have previously bought kittens from her - found nothing. She has a waiting list on her website as well as a Facebook fan page. I tried to match up names from her waiting list on her Facebook friend list, I found only ONE person. A girl that bought one of her tabby kittens. But that was the only one. No others.

     The strangeness doesn't stop there. First off she only had one kitten in the litter. Odd. And second, she didn't get back to me as fast as I would expect. I would email her and get a reply a few days later sometimes up to a week. I know we're all busy in life but if you have ONE kitten to take care of when usually you have five or six and you promise to take professional photo shoots and videos of the kitten and then break that promise and take forever to get back to the person that is paying you $950 FOR YOUR KITTEN; well I would expect a little more professionalism and a lot more communication. Just saying.

     When the date drew nearer for the time I would be picking up the kitten she sends me an email and tells me that she moved from NY to NC. Okay. Not that it made a difference I guess, she never provided me with her NY address nor her NC nor a phone number for either. The distance was a six hour drive regardless of which state she chose. Then she tells me she'll meet me halfway in either Richmond VA or at Virginia Beach. Um why? Personally if I'm driving the distance I'd rather just drive straight to the breeder's house so I can see how she raises her cats. That wasn't an option however.

     I grew curious and decided to search around on the web for her. I came across the reason she moved from NC to NY back from NY to NC. Her husband. Of course her personal life is none of my business but for her to bring up MY personal life in a supposed counter attack against me in a later email (which I'll talk about as the story continues) well then of course I'm going to write about her in my blog. Yes it's a low level in which I'm stooping but this is my blog and I choose to talk about it.

    

 Then I found her husband on Facebook and saw some of his personal stuff made available to the public. So I guess her ex now back to hubby status went to NY and picked up his wifey. Even he can't handle her craziness. Why am I not surprised.

    A short time later I receive another email (this is probably the fifth time the date has changed) that she is NOT able to drive the distance to drop off the kitten but instead she's sending her "trusted family friend". She gives me his phone number and tells me to speak directly to him. Um no. YOU'RE the BREEDER. I think a professional person would have been the go between. He doesn't know me and I don't know him. What she SHOULD have done is spoken to the both of us separately, come to a conclusion on a date, time and location and then made all possible efforts to reassure me, the buyer, that this business transaction is strictly about the kitten and everything will be okay. But no. Instead she shares all information about me TO HIM. He finds me on Facebook sends multiple friend requests (after I reject the first - for a VALID REASON - I don't know this fool) and he begins to converse with me via Facebook. His grand idea is to meet up at a hotel to deliver the kitten. Would you trust a complete stranger who is a "trusted friend" of a breeder you have never spoken to on the phone where you are buying your supposed kitten from? I was naïve.

     The old man in the middle is the one that was messaging me. On top of that his other pictures were very odd as well. He wore a mask covering his face in most of them. Freaky. A friend of his commented on the picture above (which was his profile pic whilst he was talking to me) with the comment "nice legs....." Um yea. Not someone I wanna deal with who is setting up a meeting at a hotel to a deliver a kitten with a picture like that? NO THANKS. This had gone on far enough and enough was enough.

     Six months in she decides to give me her number, not to call, but to text me more pictures! Yay. She told me she tried to send a video but the file was too big. Not surprised, the amount of times she's let me down on that.

     This is the email I sent to her regarding my decision to back out of her deal. I had signed NO contract. There was nothing legally binding me to her and feeling as uncomfortable as I was, I chose to cancel but I did want a full refund. I had all files recorded. I thought it was fair due to the mysterious roller coaster ride she placed me on. Her website clearly stated she DOES refund deposits. Then on another page it says she doesn't. Her policy page was "coming soon". You can't have it both ways. This is where our argument began. I feel I was cordial in my email, compared to her. You be the judge.

     I sent that email while I was at work during some down time. Usually she replies to my normal emails within three four days. This time she obviously read my email in a heartbeat and decided to call me 30 seconds after I sent it. I could not reply I was at work and why should I anyways. NOW she chooses to give me a call when she had SEVEN months to do it?

That email lead to this accusatory email.

     She's accusing me of accusing HER. I asked her where in my email did I say such and such things she ignored my questions and chose to pinpoint me for something else. Her argument was invalid whichever way she tried to "fight" back. If you know your wrong, just admit it. There's no use beating around the bush or trying to point the finger at the other person.

     The emails went back and forth after that with her telling me I'm dishonest.. Yeah sure. After she refused to refund me my deposit I filed a complaint against her with the Better Business Bureau. I found her information of her address (thanks to her husband's name) from anywho.com. I was NOT going to let it go that easy. I don't like it when people walk all over me. If you're family, whatever. If you're a friend.. okay. If your a stranger, hell no.

     After a few days I think it was almost a week. The process to remove the complaint went through and I was refunded everything. Then a few weeks later she tries to send me a virus through email. One of those weird links that leads you to a shady website which gives you a virus. Haha. Nice try bitch. This is my way of payback. To warn others.

     If you're curious. Below is the kitten I was supposed to get. He was a blue mink bicolor boy. There's no doubt he was a cutie pie. The first pic shows him at a week old the second at three weeks and the third at eight weeks old. He pretty much looks the same as he gets older until his most recent picture began to appear on her website and Facebook page.

     This very last picture shows the breeder deceiving those around her. They weren't shown any of his baby pictures. Her website only holds his fake Caribbean blue eyed pictures being all cute. The pictures are adorable anybody would be mesmerized in wanting this kitten who was clearly photo shopped. But then all the pictures of her kittens are so what difference do they know? 

Here he is in all his glory.

The End.