$900 for a cat - would you do it?

dss62467

dss62467

Cathlete
While we were at the vet waiting for Kuzco on Saturday, we were looking through Cat Fancy and saw an article on Savannah cats. These are a cross breed between a serval and a dometic housecat. Beautiful cats. They're large and smart, loveable and are described as the "dogs" of the cats.

So, I saw that there was a breeder locally and sent an email to get information. They sell them for $900! That's NOT a typo! That's almost twice what I paid for my Pembroke Welsh Corgi.

While I really like the idea of having a cat like that, I can't imagine spending that kind of money on one. Especially since I can go to the SPCA and get a beautiful, healthy cat for the adoption fee of $75.

Maybe if I had a lot of extra cash hanging around...or not.

http://www.savannah-cats.net/photo.htm
 
Never Never Never! There are just too many kitties that need homes out there. Go to your local shelter and it will break you heart how many beautiful cats are in their cages waiting for a person to adopt them. Laura
 
Over two years ago for the first time in my life I "bought" a cat. She is a Bengal and I purchased her from a breeder in New Jersey. I paid a little more than what you are considering for a Savannah. I absolutely adore this kitty of mine. The reason I went for a Bengal is that they are also touted as the "dog" of cats. She certainly is! Well worth what I paid for her. She greets everyone at the door. She is ALWAYS in whatever room people are in. She never hides, is not one bit skittish and has never hissed or scratched me. She has all her claws yet nothing in my house shows ANY bit of "cat wear"! She also fetches - as many times as you wish her to! I have always been a rescuer of cats throughout my life. But I have to tell you I have never had a cat like this. I would not trade her for anything!:)
 
Donna-I would never pay that much for a cat. If I had that kind of money to spend on a cat I'd probably donate it to the SPCA, lol:)

However, I want to add (and PLEASE don't take any offense to this Rogue, I think anyone who opens their heart and home to a pet is doing something wonderful for themselves and their new family member), but I adopted a cat from the SPCA this fall and she fits your description of your Bengal cat perfectly. "She greets everyone at the door. She is ALWAYS in whatever room people are in. She never hides, is not one bit skittish and has never hissed or scratched me. She has all her claws yet nothing in my house shows ANY bit of "cat wear"! She also fetches - as many times as you wish her to!" She is amazing! Although, the way she plays sometimes I think she's some kind of weird cross between a squirrel, a lemur, a monkey, and a kangaroo. So I don't know if it totally counts ;-)

Don't you just love cats?

:7
Mattea

Edited for a couple of weird typos :)
 
When I worked as a vet tech 8 years ago I rescued three beautiful kittens. I think they are the most wonderful creatures that ever came into my life. Although the two males are pretty shy, my female on the other hand, is not. She runs to the door when someone is there and she's not afraid to jump in your lap. I let them all out back with me if i'm pulling weeds or reading and they all come back in the house when called. Two of them also fetch with their favorite ball. I think it's all in how you raise them. My cats are more like dogs than any i've ever seen. I don't know if having dogs all my life and then switching to cats had anything to do with it, but they aren't they snobby stand-offish cats I usually see. And there's so many to be rescued! Anyway, this is long enough. Good luck to you.

Barbara
 
>Never Never Never! There are just too many kitties that need
>homes out there. Go to your local shelter and it will break
>you heart how many beautiful cats are in their cages waiting
>for a person to adopt them. Laura


I COMPLETELY agree...Also, you DO NOT want to support puppy/kitty mills. Many of the them violate animal protection rules. PLEASE adopt a kitty from a shelter. I adopted 2 kitties and they were the love of my life (they passed after 11+ years)
 
>Donna-I would never pay that much for a cat. If I had that
>kind of money to spend on a cat I'd probably donate it to the
>SPCA, lol:)

Ditto that! No way would I spend that kind of money on a cat, when I could adopt a perfectly healthy and loveable kitty from the shelter for a fraction of the cost. All 3 of my cats are shelter cats and they have so much personality. :)
 
I would never spend that much to 'buy' a cat. I wouldn't even get a cat at a pet store. Not when there are so many cats waiting for good homes at animal shelters. My cats have either been adopted from the shelter or rescued from the streets.

The whole idea of 'buying' a pet (a living being) is repulsive to me.

I would, however, spend that much on vet bills for a beloved pet.;-)
 
>I would never spend that much to 'buy' a cat. I wouldn't even
>get a cat at a pet store. Not when there are so many cats
>waiting for good homes at animal shelters. My cats have either
>been adopted from the shelter or rescued from the streets.
>
>The whole idea of 'buying' a pet (a living being) is repulsive
>to me.
>
>I would, however, spend that much on vet bills for a beloved
>pet.;-)

What Kathryn said.

My neighbor went out & bought an $1100 shih tzu one week after her dog died. I was appalled. I was appalled b/the dog that died was her mother's & I couldn't believe she was so insensitive to her poor mom. I was appalled that she bought a dog at a pet store even though I begged her not to. And I was appalled that she paid such a ridiculous price for an animal when she could've saved a puppy's life for much less.
x(
 
OK - I just want to make it very clear that I stopped considering buying the cat when I saw the price. All of the cats I've had in my life have been rescues. Purrple and TC (the cats I have now) both came from the SPCA and I couldn't be happier with them. (Purrple is the one in my picturetrail shot). Kuzco was found in the engine of a coworker's neighbor's car and I took him. He was also a wonderfully loving kitty.

I really can't see spending money on a cat (other than the care of one). I want to take every one of them from the rescue groups home with me when I go to get supplies from PetSmart.

The kitty we got after Kuzco's funeral is a 10 week old from a litter that was born by a homeless cat. The mother fortunately had the litter in the hallway of an apartment building and one of the residents brought her in. Then quickly discovered she was allergic to cats, so took them to the rescue group.

I had intended to wait a few weeks, but it all happened so fast that it seemed it was a "meant to be". The kitty was very scared her first day and scratched me a few times. I was thinking, "uh oh...what sort of spawn of Satan did I bring into the house?" None of the other cats was like that when we brought them home. But none of them had Cricket there either. But yesterday morning, she warmed up and seems like she will be another fantastic member of our pack.
 
I don't have anything against buying a cat if you like a particular breed but make sure you are working with a reputable breeder. I am way too cheap to ever shell out that kind of money, but I know it's important to some people. My dad bought his maine coon for about $400. I considered buying a pure bread persian after my himalayan (who was a stray and adopted me) passed away. I looked at petfinder.com first for any private owners who be parting with their persians for any given reason. That is how I found my Pookie. He is pure bred and solid white and he cost the original owners about $500. I got him for free just because they wanted him to go to a good home, of course he is 10 years old but I prefer mature cats to kittens.
 
>
>
>The whole idea of 'buying' a pet (a living being) is repulsive
>to me.
>
I hope you don't really mean that, because to "rescue" a pet many times you have to "buy" a pet.

I have bought many dogs and a few cats and enjoyed all of them tremendously. I have bought Labradors and Golden retreivers that we used in field trials, I've bought Afghan Hounds that I have shown, I have bought Whippets that I used in Lure Courseing. I have bought siamese cats just for the love of the breed. The dog I have now I bought and I love her to death. You need to have papers on animals to do these activities and you don't get papers with a resued dog. Many people and the pets they 'bought' do very fun activities and also help and preserve the breed and participate in responsible breeding to try and prevent dogs ending up in rescue in the first place and they also help with the rescued dogs of these breeds. It's not all bad and *repulsive* to buy a pet. IMO.

PS. I have also helped rescue many cats, and many dogs includeing, muts, whippets, Goldens, Shepherds, daschunds, pugs and almost all were 'bought' from rescues and placed in good homes including my own.


http://www.thesmilies.com/smilies/sports/barbell.gif ~Dallys~

www.picturetrail.com/keeponthesunnyside
 
Buying from a pet store, or from a mill, angers me. But buying from a reputable breeder is nothing that bothers me. Many, many breeders love their pets very much.

While Duke is a mix adopted from the SPCA, Cricket is a pure bred that I bought from a breeder. I see the benefits of getting animals from each way.

What I would LOVE to do is adopt a greyhound. I don't know how that would work out for us. Definitely not something I could do at this point (with the zoo in my house already), but maybe down the road.

What do you think would happen if I took a greyhound out for a run while I was on my skates? Hmmmmm.....
 
>You need to have papers on animals to do these activities and
>you don't get papers with a resued dog.

That's not necessarily true. You can get a dog from a breed-specific rescue with AKC papers.
 
I am a fan of the "ASPCA Special" breed adopted from your local shelter or animal rescue. I found both my hella cool cat (rather, she found me) and my fuzzy hiking companion through rescues.
 
>>The whole idea of 'buying' a pet (a living being) is
>repulsive
>>to me.
>>
>I hope you don't really mean that, because to "rescue" a pet
>many times you have to "buy" a pet.

I absolutely mean that. Associating the term "to buy" with an animal, thinking of it in terms of 'buying," is what I find repulsive. Like 'buying' a baby. You don't 'buy' a living being, you 'adopt' it, no matter how much money is involved in the exchange.

And I can't seriously imagine any situation where spending $900 on an animal is 'rescuing' the animal.
 
>What I would LOVE to do is adopt a greyhound.

Yesterday, I met a women and her newly-adopted a greyhound. (I was trying to catch a stray dog I'd seen, and when the women came by, I thought her dog might attract the other dog to us). The dog was a mix with something else, so the breeder took him to a shelter. He was beautiful: greyhound body with a 'tortoise shell" (or whatever that's called on dogs: 'brindle'?) coat. Looked all greyhound to me, except for color.

I walked with them for a while, and the dog was very well behaved, sometimes nuzzliing me gently behind the knee.
 
I agree that rescueing is a great thing and it helps pets in need. In fact, I am volunteering for a rescue group in my area. I have adopted dogs and cats from rescue, however, my last three dogs I bought from a breeder.

The reason was it is a rare breed that I wanted to get, and that so far not one dog of that breed has been in a shelter or rescue here in Arizona. I tried to adopt through a rescue organisation for that breed but the only dogs they had were in GA, NH, and mainly on the East Coast. The fee to adopt one of those dogs runs between $ 250 and $ 350 plus I would have to fly out to the East Coast to see if that dog's temperament fits our family dynamic and gets along with the other dogs and pay for the transportation back to my home (another $ 300).

So I got my dogs from a reputable, local breeder. I spent a lot of money on them but I love them to pieces and I would do it again.

That being said, not all dogs (or cats) that are bought from a breeder are from a puppy mill. There actually are reputable breeders who breed their dogs for the love of the breed and to preserve and improve the breed. And as sunnyside said, there are people who do activities that you need papers on the dog.

My "first-hand" experience with dog breeding (when I bought my female, I agreed to 2 litters back to the breeder - and in fact she is pregnant and due this month) is, that it is enourmously expensive and time consuming. If you do it right, you don't get rich doing it.

Volunteering for a rescue group though, I see a lot of people who "adopt" because it's cheaper (you still have to pay for it though) and a few months later the dog/cat is back at rescue/shelter or even worse abandonned somewhere (because they have to pay money to surrender a pet to the local shelter).

Sorry, I am rambling on here, however, I am a little offended, actually hurt is more accurate. Not all of us who "buy" dogs are unwilling to help rescue dogs/cats or engage in "repulsive" practices of buying living beings.

I think there are valid points to be made for both, buying and adopting. It's not all black and white.

Carola
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Our Newsletter

Get awesome content delivered straight to your inbox.

Top