Have you ever been faced with the prospect of saying "no" to a potential buyer? Here are some guidelines to help you select the right home for your precious kittens. Always be ready to say NO at any time during the screening process.

Breeders must give serious thought to placing kittens in new homes. All breeders suffer doubts when they are approached by prospective buyers for a kitten. These concerns are very real for the committed breeder. Ask yourself, "Is this HOME really the home I would choose for my kitten?"

Many first impressions can be gained when enquiries are made by telephone if you ask the right questions at the outset. Here are ten points to help you decide.

• Why are they interested in my particular breed?

• If you are a longhaired breeder, do they realise that daily grooming is part of the maintenance and care of their cat?

• What is their attitude to declawing?

• What sort of neighbourhood do they live in? Is it a house, town house or high-rise flat etc. and whether the house or town house is close to a busy street?

• Do they have dogs?

• Do they have young children and what their ages are?

• What sex and colour kitten do they want?

• Explain the necessity of spaying and neutering the kitten when the time comes.

• Are they intending to show or breed?

• State your price and advise the buyer of routine inoculation and deworming already given.

If the answer to the first question is that they have recently lost an elderly, loved cat, of the same breed, you can be fairly confident that they will be suitable new owners. And, particularly if the breed chosen happens to be of the Persian variety, they will be conscious of the need for regular grooming. This can be a boring, arduous task and a burden to some.

All too often, people declaw their cats to "protect" their furnishings. Many vets are blackmailed into performing this surgery with the threat that "if the cat is not declawed, they will have no alternative but to put it down." Children are just as destructive, and sometimes far worse, but do we ever suggest that their hands should be amputated? It is not that difficult to train cats to use scratching posts. Cats are so intelligent, they con us into believing that they cannot be trained!

It is far better to explain and to show prospective owners how clipping of claws is done. I once had a buyer, who during discussion asked me what was the appropriate age to declaw a cat. You can imagine my reply! I dare not repeat it here, as I know that this is a family publication!

The location of their residence is also very important, particularly if you breed shorthairs. Burmese are known to have a penchant for wandering and often come to a sticky end, either by being run over or by having neighbour's dog turning it into an "unconsidered trifle." Therefore, a home in a busy suburban street is not the best environment for an adventurous Burmese.

Most garden walls present no great obstacle to cats because of their agility. Would the new owner be prepared to 'cat-proof' their property? Or keep it as an indoor cat and allow it out under supervision only? Cats that have never had the opportunity to roam do not miss it! Millions of cats around the world spend their entire lives indoors.

Think twice, too, if the other resident pets include dogs of the Terrier group. American Pit Bulls, Bull Terriers and Staffordshire Terriers are known to be 'cat-haters'; the list is much too long to enumerate completely here, for there are many other breeds where one needs to be careful. We are all aware of many people who do have dogs of the breeds mentioned and do not have any trouble, but these dogs have invariably been brought up in a household where there have always been cats. But a word of caution, with a new kitten, the dog may forget its good manners and the buyer could end up with a very expensive, dead new kitten.

The matter of children is not dissimilar in many ways. It is better that parents and their children all come to see the 'new kitten' together. Are the children boisterous and how do they react to being told to behave? This is the only way you probably can Assess whether the kitten could cope with the children. You will have to judge for yourself, too, how the children handle a kitten. It is never advisable to leave young animals in the company of toddlers without supervision. If you find the behaviour of the children objectionable and unresponsive to their parents' discipline, it may well result in you having to take the kitten back when it starts attacking them in self defence. The poor kitten would be a highly disturbed and neurotic cat which you may never be able to place satisfactorily.

It is always wise to establish how the children's mother feels about an 'addition' to the family. Most mothers are the ones who usually have to care for new pets. As we all know, children will promise to care for their kitten, but as it matures and the novelty wears off, they may neglect the cat, and if the cat is a longhair, the results can be catastrophic!

People who really love cats, seldom worry about the sex of their kitten if it is bought as a pet. Occasionally, a buyer may insist on a female kitten, and when asked why, their response is usually that females don't spray or wander. Very few 'lay' people realise that female cats do spray too. The objection that male cats spray is pretty valid. However, if the cat is neutered at the appropriate age, this habit will not be a problem. Cats that have been neutered may start spraying if their 'territory' is being invaded by strange entire toms or if there is overcrowding of the resident feline population. As for wandering, a cat that has not been neutered, will at some time in its life go looking for companionship of the opposite sex. And, sometimes with disastrous results.

If the buyer has approached you for a kitten and they intend breeding and showing, the technique is obviously very different.

It is amazing how many people who buy a kitten and on their way home often start calculating what "profit" the breeder must be making and are possibly lured into thinking that they too, can make a quick buck! All they saw of the litter was a bunch of happy, healthy, frolicking kittens. They do not know of the hours of dedicated effort needed to produce healthy kittens, or of the past heartbreaks. Possibly an emergency caesarian that had to be done in the middle of the night or the fact that you lost the entire litter afterwards; or persistent diarrhoea that eluded the best efforts of your vet; or, of the occasion when an adventuresome kitten fell from the pelmet and broke it's back and had to be euthanased? Very few breeders ever tell of these tragedies unless it is to their closest buddies.

Calamities apart, you will have established by now that the buyer wishes to breed and hopefully to show. You are going to have to be very patient when you explain the good points and the faults of your breed. Also, the necessity of participating in shows for breed assessment. And why the kitten you do have available is not a suitable breed or show quality specimen. It is very difficult to persuade an excited and determined buyer to wait for a better cat. They always want it now! There are seldom top quality 'instant kittens' immediately obtainable from successful breeders as most breeders will have either selected them for their own breeding programmes or will have placed the best first. Few hold back their finest for last unless they have ulterior motives.

Further explanations will be needed about why it is better to start with a female kitten rather than a male, and to rationalize why it is best to leave stud work to those who have experience. Again most 'laymen' are unaware that a stud tom has to be confined and that he needs at least five brood queens to keep him happy. Again, the campaigning of their stud cat will be necessary, both as an advertising strategy and to assess his worthiness. Most breeders prefer to select a stud with a title as it is an indication of the cat's excellence. Many first time owners of queens have moggie litters of kittens as they lack experience. Far too many ask when they can expect their cat to come into season. Not even vets can figure out when any queen can be expected to call. Some shorthaired queens can be extremely precocious, starting as early as four months, when she herself is still a kitten. The longhaired cats are usually 'lazy' and may only call when they are over a year old.

All litters of kittens, no matter whether they are sired by a top stud or the local tom cat, cost the same to raise. Very few 'laymen' realise that breeders tend to spend a great deal of time in a vet's consulting rooms, far more than an ordinary pet owner. Most novice breeders are unaware of just how expensive a hobby breeding is.

I have made it my policy to register most of my kittens not for breeding (NFB) since this option became available to breeders. This has not affected the sale of kittens at all. Bona fide breeders who want to buy a kitten from me, pay the same price as the person who buys a pet. However, I do draw the pet buyer's attention to the fact that the kitten has been registered not for breeding, and tell them that if they decide they want to breed later, I need to see the cat and reserve the right to lift the restriction or not. They are also told that if the restriction is lifted, they will be liable to a further fee of R500.00! I have yet to lift any NFB on any kitten registered in this way or purchased under these conditions.

Finally, PRICE! If the purchaser finds the initial cost of the kitten too high, you can be pretty certain that they cannot really afford to have a cat at all! The cheapest part of acquiring a pedigreed kitten is the purchase price. After all, the kitten will need its booster vaccination, regular deworming (more so if they have young children) and annual boosters each year. There may be other veterinary costs: an abscess, teeth cleaning or other essential medical treatment. We all know that veterinary care does not come cheap.

Quality diet is also pretty expensive these days. If they are truly caring owners, they will need to board their cat when they take their annual holiday. Unfortunately, the total after care of a kitten is expensive.

If after your exhaustive enquiries, you have any shred of doubt, it is best not to sell the kitten. Trust your instincts. You are under absolutely no obligation to sell just because they have made the effort to come and see you.

The kittens you breed are your responsibility. You have given much of yourself, with endless hours of love and care, to raise healthy, bouncy babies. Take as much interest in the prospective buyer as an adoption agency would over a human child. You would not like to see any of them harmed just because you were unable to say no and all that interested you, was to make a sale!

But, there is an ultimate question each breeder needs to answer honestly in the present tough economic climate: "If I am unable to sell my kittens, can I afford to keep them myself?" If the answer is NO, then they should not be breeding!

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