Briar Glen Farms

Breeders of Ragalong Ragdoll Kittens and Cats
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Monday, November 15, 2010

Bad news, good news,

We're just back from the Richmond show and it was, for me a rather interesting and enlightening show. I think just about all of my blogs have been very positive and reflect the way we like to look at life. Thank the Good Lord, we have never had to start with a "bad news" segment. It was obvious to many people at the show that there was "something" going on and I was asked by several people, just what "it" was. So, for those who want to follow up on the drama, here it is. I had presold a lovely blue mitted female kitten to a lady in Vancouver. We had communicated for quite some time and agreed that she could pick her kitten up after the Litter Match, that the kitten was entered in to on Sat. afternoon.
I guess a lot of people are aware of the "other" drama that occured with the Cat Fanciers of BC Club where two members were recently expelled from the Club. One was Becky Player of Izzadorable Ragdolls, for disruptive and basically, in my opinion, nasty behaviour. Prior to the recent expulsions I had asked the CF of BC show manager for a reference on a party who had asked to join our Garden City Club. The Show Manager stated that though she had had trouble with this party at her shows, the party in question worked hard and she thought Garden City should give her a chance. (which we did) and which also elevated the CF of BC show manager in my eyes for being able to put her differences aside and give someone a fair chance.
The situation, however had caused a lot of pain for many people, some seniors who had worked for decades in the Club and the whole thing was really getting out of hand. I am not a CF of BC club member, and basically, it was none of my business, but I felt moved to try and get everyone, including the CF of BC Club members to just take a step back, take a deep breath and let things settle down a bit. At a show in Tukwilla, I approached the members who were causing the problems and gave them all a hug and asked what the problems were. In my opinion, it seemed that the new members really had no idea how one of the oldest and most respected Clubs in TICA got that way from the hard work of its pioneers. Yes, changes were always required and welcomed, but they needed to be done with time and respect for the older founding members. If they were not able to do the changes they wanted slowly and in a timely, respectful manner, then they should start their own Club and could do what ever they wanted and I would be one of the first to enter their show. Becky listed off a group of complaints which any Show Manager has heard dozens of times over. While we may look like we are standing around doing nothing, there are forest fires all over the hall being put out, while we are smiling pleasantly and looking like everything is going wonderfully. So, I advised Becky that they might want to reconsider their course and just let things cool off a bit. Unfortunately, everyone kept headlong into their course and resulted in the aformentioned expulsions, finally. Very sad and very unescessary for everyone.
So.......where does this leave me????? Back to the dear lady who was so excited and enthusiastic about meeting her kitten at the show and being able to come back and pick it up following the Kitten Match. Our kittens did very well in the kitten match, they had been previously spayed, microchipped and still had their ID collars on for the match. Our nice lady did not come back and I did not think much about it, but at the end of the show decided to call her to ask when she was coming in. She then, in tears, launched into the following scenario. She had had a good time at the show on Friday, watched the judging, looked at all the cats and the vendors and was happily looking forward to getting her kitten the next day, when, as she left the show hall, a lady came up behind her and said, "you should not buy a kitten from Marilyn. They are all diseased, live in cages and are not socialized", and then walked off leaving our poor lady very distraught and torn about what to do. We all agreed, that she should have come back in right then and asked the questions, but was so upset that she left the hall and was going to forfit her deposit and did not want to support a "bad" cattery. I spoke at length with her and convinced her that she needed to come back the next day and firstly identify the party and also talk to our Regional Director Ellen Crockett, the Can Am show manager and nearly the rest of the show hall about our reputation etc. She chose to drive the 45 minutes back to the show hotel where I met her. I had told several people of the incident and thank goodness for good friends who, though I told them not to upset their evening plans, came back to my room and sat with the lady for over an hour and counselled her and calmed her fears. Even an innocent by stander who had heard me talking in the hall way, turned around and said that she had sent two people to my place to buy kittens and both of them had come back and bought two more. This party works in the veterinary field and was very indignant (thank you for that, I needed it about then). The 3 other parties who counselled the lady also had cats of mine and vouched for them and me 100% and also explained about how no one did the testing on their cats that we have done. We work with 3 lines and before the DNA test was developed we kept whole litters of kittens until they were 9 months old, so we could ultrasound them and select the ones we wanted to keep for breeders.
Now what was left, was to identify this "party" who had stalked the lady out of the show hall. We were able to identify the party as Becky Player who also had told the lady that we had rows of trailers and rows of cages. First as to cages, we had won the "Kitten Play Pen" in the raffle held for the Long Family. I had never heard of a kitten play pen, but it did sound cute and was touted by many to be an absolute necessity when training kittens to use the litter boxes etc. Imagine my surprise when Corky put it together and it was a "cage". 3 feet by 3 feet by about 18 inches high and on wheels. I told Corky that we could not use that here. Our kitten room consists of "portable" expandable panels that go from floor to ceiling that allow Mum to use the verticle space up to the ceiling while allowing the kittens to explore and learn how to move, safely around in the horizontal space. Our Regional Director indicated that the "play pen" worked well for this kitten transition phase and I suppose it might, but our set up allows us to have tall cat trees for mum to climb on while babies are learning the ropes. We do not, nor will we ever use cages. Expandable pens that have tall cat trees and a lounge chairs do not qualify in my book as a "cage"
As for the "rows of trailers". We run AGFOR (Agroforestry Supply and Services) C0mpany which, until the Govt. ran out of funds, did biological brushing and weeding on BC clearcuts using 9000 sheep on 9 contracts all over BC. For our portable corral system and sorting races we use sets of aluminum Prattley Yards (anyone coming to our home would recognize some of them on our gates and try to figure out how the heck to open them) that come from New Zealand at a cost of $60,000 each set. Our head shepherds come from New Zealand and train Canadians how to safely and effectively move 1500 sheep over a BC clearcut and effectively eat the competing vegetation from around the new planted seedlings, releasing them from the danger of snow press and letting in sunlight and providing fertilizer at the same time. Our shepherds which included both Corky and I, have 24 foot RV trailers with a double bed in front for the head shepherd and two bunks in the back for the two assistant trainees. Each trailer has a generator and heat, kitchens and each shepherd is given a king sized wool quilt before the season as I wanted to be sure they did not get cold. The sheep are leased for $15 each from Alberta farmers and each sheep is Federally inspected and ear tagged so it can not transfer any disease to native wild life. The sheep gain 20 pounds over the Summer while on the blocks, the farmer can use his home fields for hay and the sheep come home and are bred and have their lambs and the cycle starts again the next Spring. Each Shepherd has a team of 3 working dogs, one heading dog and two New Zealand Huntaways. Each contract would have 5 working Pyrenees to guard the sheep. In 10 years of contracting we never had 1 predator interaction which would result in the sheep having to leave, not the predator. When the Huntaways were not required, we donated them to the Canadian Guide Dog Service, where they proved very good at that task. The Pyrenees went home to the farm where the sheep stayed over Winter and when we did not require Pyrenees for forestry work, we decided to show them and we received many American and Canadian Championships. So, this long story, explains our rows of crew trailers, Prattley Yard trailers, stock trailers, our 30 foot Garden City cat show trailer and assorted flat decks. So, whoever was spying for Becky did not get all their facts straight, hence the caution, that Karma will always catch up with you when you are being spiteful and nasty.
Our Regional Director, the Can Am show manager and many other judges and concerned parties all advised this poor lady that they had never dealt with a sick cat from our cattery. Everyone knows that no one can escape all incidents or illnesses, but we have been truly fortunate in all our years of breeding to have only a small handful of problems that were dealt with as professionally and quickly as we could. So, the bad news here is that the poor woman's happy day was turned in to a nightmare, as was mine. The worst news is that with all the repercussions of Becky's nasty behaviour, she does not seem to have learned anything. We have all done dumb things, me more than most, but as long as we are learning from it and moving forward, then it is not wasted. Continuing on, just being mean and spiteful is a very destructive course and no one wins, including affected Clubs.
The Good News is that we echo Dana's comments that the Can Am show was a delight, the show was well run, the hotel was fabulous and you can't beat most of the kind, caring people in the show hall. Our cats got lots of finals by well respected judges and my Grand Kids Jaden (10) and Dusty (6) who got to "finally" come to a cat show with Grandma, had a ball as did I except for the above pettiness. Please Lord, let this be the last "bad news" blog for a long long time.

8 comments:

  1. We bought a kitten from Becky in 2009. Never again. We love our cat dearly but it is clear she was not given the human interaction that kittens need. She is very aloof. Not only this but Becky's place smelled so bad, I had to wait outside while my husband asked questions. Lastly, she would not send us the paperwork and it took 2 years to get it. Only after I complained to TICA, did she finally send the papers. I believe this cattery pumps out too many kittens and they can not keep up. This leaves some kittens without any attention! I strongly suggest no one buys a Ragdoll from Izzadorables.

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  2. Update. Sasha passed away at age 6 from suspected FIP. Izzadorable and Becky should be shut down.

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    1. Hi there,
      I'm looking to buy a kitten from Ragalong Ragdolls and I'm looking into breeders. Can you give any advice please

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    2. Hi there,
      I'm looking to buy a kitten from Ragalong Ragdolls and I'm looking into breeders. Can you give any advice please

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  4. our babies are 5.5 bought two sisters took excellent care and one of my girls i got from briarglen ended up with a mass in her heart and with in two weeks she is gone, we are completely devastated.

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    1. We purchased our Ragdoll from them in 2007 and he's had many health issues including cardiomyopathy which requires us to medicate him twice daily.

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    2. I got a kitten from her and she died at just under 6months of age. She gave me a "replacement" kitten as she has a 3 year warranty and I just found out he has a grade 2 heart murmur. I'm devastated.

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