Still No Home For Kensey And AnnElise

Now, I know I've still got five and a half weeks till they are ready to go. That's over a month... loads of time. And I know that it's a 'good' time of year to have kittens available, before the inevitable kitten season descends. AND I even have a back up plan in case one or both of them end up staying for a little longer, which is to poke my toes into the world of showing.

So why am I worried? Dunno, really!

Over the past few weeks I've had five or six people expressing an interest in a kitten... and each one has come to nothing. So frustrating! Yesterday I was waiting in for a visit, and they called last minute to say they'd chosen someone else's kitten (another Tonk, so fair enough) and wouldn't be over after all. Which is fine, they wanted a kitten ASAP and the one they chose would be ready next week. Frustrating for me though... ah well, at least the house got tidied!

I've had a couple of other disappointments as well, a few emails that didn't go anywhere, and another approach from someone wanting a kitten on the active register, who like the last one didn't reply to my email asking a few questions about their plans/ setup for breeding, and no response. Now this annoys me- for one thing it's rude. I'm a bit old fashioned I'm afraid, and manners cost nothing! For another, surely one would expect questions to be asked! Breeding is a lot of fun, but it's also Hard Work for the breeder, it's hard on Mama cat, and things can go wrong. It's not just a question of sticking a box under the bed and leaving mama cat to it, selling them off a few weeks later to anyone who will take one! And thirdly, presumably the lack of response means they have actually found a breeder, somewhere, who will give them a kitten on the active register with no questions asked... very, very worrying indeed.

Oops, that turned into a bit of a rant didn't it? Sorry! But Indigo's breeders asked me a shedload of questions, and then they discussed it with another breeder and were totally honest with me about their own experiences with Indigo's litter- one kitten stillborn, one kitten not finding a home, so they kept her... and several emails and a visit later, they decided to let me have Indigo. But it wasn't 'easy'... although they were very nice about it.

And breathe...