07-14-2010, 09:32 AM
My husband and I took an hour-long drive out to see the raggie boy yesterday afternoon. When I walked up to the door I heard at least two dogs barking, so I knew that the kitten would be familiar with dogs, a necessity with our gang. The breeder took us outside and around to the back to enter a meet-and-greet room full of cat trees and baby toys. What impressed me immediately was that we had to leave our shoes outside and she squirted anti-bacterial soap on our hands before we sat down in two comfy upholstered chairs (which she pointed out were not ripped up by cat claws). She asked us lots of questions and I asked her many of mine before she brought the kitten into the room. The kitten is over 6 months old and she told me that she turned down at least three families that wanted to adopt him for one reason or another! There is currently one other family that has expressed an interest and she has been waiting for a call from them. Now, the kitten! I have never seen a live raggie before so I could hardly keep my eyes nor my hands off of him - when I could see him! He was all over that room, romping in and out among the many toys, under the chairs. His claws kept getting stuck in the toys and our pant legs because the breeder will not cut them until he has a new family. Then she demos how to trim their nails so that they will do it properly! His coat was just like Bun Bun's! Soooooooooooo soft. He is a seal mitted and has an "!" between his eyes and down his nose. He is quite big and fairly heavy. She said that he would be monstrously large when mature. I saw his dad in the Stud Hotel and he is huge. She told us that he is not afraid of anything and that Babs should not be a problem for him. I could see that in his behavior. We had brought Smidgen, our 3-lb Chi, along with us. Hubby held her while we were in the meet-and-greet room. The kitten kept eyeing her, with interest, but did not attempt to reach her. No fear at all. Smidgen was very cautious, and did not want to get too close. One very interesting thing that she told us was that she aways gets baby toys for her kittens and cats because the materials and appendages are safe, and the cats can not get hurt playing with them!!!! A fabulous idea! When we had about exhausted all of our questions I asked if she would like a deposit. She said that she wanted us to go home and talk about the kitten and email her with our decision. She did not want a deposit, and she obviously didn't want us to take the kitten with us. On the hour-long ride home I didn't talk to hubby about the kitten, but I thought about him. Something just was not there. I could not figure out why I felt such a thing, but it was an honest feeling. At home I asked hubby what he thought. He said that he felt that the kitten was just a bit too aggressive for our tiny dogs, and that we would have to be very, very watchful for a while. We definitely both felt that Babs would NOT be a problem for him - he would put her in her place and would not fear her hissing at all! Our Chi's are both very non-aggressive, altho Jasmine will occasionaly show some spunk. THe other problem hubby mentioned was our two-week vacation coming up at the end of August. We will be driving to Oregon with the dogs, but our neighbor will feed, water and clean litter boxes while we are gone except for the last three days when she will be out of town too. So, we have to find someone else to come in those days. We both feel that this would not be good for a new kitten. So, before you fall asleep, it ended up that I emailed the breeder to tell her our decision and why, and to ask her to keep us in mind for the litters she expects this fall. On another topic, I was looking at some raggie sites last night and saw pics of some seal colorpoint raggies. I love that pattern and color. Do any of you know if they are recessive or hard to breed? THe seal mitted is my second favorite, but I love the dark legs and paws of the colorpoint. Thanks for being there!
I hope that you find the seal colorpoint that you want! 