July 5th 2007 1:45 pm
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We bought Leopold at a cat show - we did not plan to do this, but he just amoebaed his way into our possession...we went just to look at all the kitties. I didn't even know there would be cats there for sale. I had never been to a cat show before.

There were in fact a lot of cat breeders there with kittens for purchase. We had not done any homework before going - not planning on bringing any fuzziness home with us - so we thought we were thorough in our investigation. We asked the breeder a lot of questions, read over paper work, turned the kitten upside down and sideways, and finally dropped a wad of cash down - and off we went!

We had to sign papers promising to neuter our kitten within a certain time frame, and treat him well. We were given very stiff instructions about feeding him very high quality food mixed with a raw food diet. With so much concern, it seemed like the breeder was of high regard. So, after several months as it became clear that he was in considerable pain and was barely using his back legs, we had to decide what to do.

There was no question on our part that we would give him surgery if that was what was needed - and it was - but we wondered whether the breeder should have some responsibility in the matter. After all, it was a birth defect. We decided we would send the lady an email explaining everything in detail, and see what her response was. Well...there was no response. We went ahead with the surgery. Afterwards, we tried emailing one more time. Again, no response. We know she received the emails - the website continued to change. Soon after, the website stated, "There are no kittens available at this time", and the pictures of Leo and his siblings were taken down...

It seems that this bengal breeder decided to start breeding cats for a while and did so successfully - they had GC's - until maybe some of their litters started coming up with genetic issues. I think they panicked and just stopped breeding. They must have had more kittens than just ours that came out with issues. And in retrospect, this lady must have been thrilled to unload Leo on us at that cat show - she gave him to us at about $400 less than the usual going price for a pet quality bengal from more reputable breeders in the area.

So, be careful buying purebreds - if the breeder seems like they are trying a little too hard to give them away, i.e. the price is lower than standard, they may know something they aren't telling you. The money we saved buying our kitten was lost times two with the surgery costs. It is worth the extra time to do research, and worth it in the long run to go to a reputable breeder and pay the extra few bucks. Better yet - just use your local rescue, as we did with our next two fuzzers! ;3
Hope this might help a person and cat or two!
Oh, also, there is a Bengal Rescue Network. That's worth looking into. Can you believe people throw these cats away? ;-{