Ragdoll Cattery

We love our new Ragdoll kitten from Anna! She is simply perfect! Sweet, adorable, potty trained and well socialized from the day she arrived in our home! Anna did a great job in communicating and sending us updated photos of our kitten as she progressed. She also, provided us all the needed paperwork before we even received her, very comforting. Our kitten came via plane in cabin with pet nanny that we organized from Anna’s recommendation. Anna provided us with a care package(food, wet and dry) and goodie bag! An awesome experience! We will definitely use Anna again for our next baby!

My wife did a lot of research to find a ragdoll cattery where we could find a ragdoll that would get along with our mini Dachshund, and she chose Royalist Ragdolls in Fort Valley, VA. Christina or someone she hires is very good at getting images ready for her website. She does an excellent job with the pictures or editing them so the kittens truly look remarkable. On Jun 8, 2024 we picked up our kitten in Fort Valley. The breeder Christina said demanded that we pay her in cash--$2500--which we did. (I assume it’s to avoid paying tax on it.) She said that the price was $2500--the high end of the range on her website--because our kitten River was “perfect.” I don’t know what perfect is, but River died on July 19, 2024--just 15 weeks old. We spent about an hour at Christina’s house, noticing that our kitten still wanted to nurse. Then we left with a little cat food, some medicine, and some antibiotics. We had one ragdoll previously, and although it seemed odd to send a kitten home with medicine, we didn’t think much of it. The truth is that River was never healthy. He had diarrhea from the first day we got him. It seemed like the diarrhea was improving, but after a couple of weeks, we scheduled an appointment with a veterinarian. Even though it’s almost a 2 hour drive from home, our vet has a PhD in microbiology, has her own lab, and uses traditional and alternative treatments; and we have been with her for several years with our mini-Dachshund. We told Christina about the diarrhea and the fact that River wasn’t putting on weight, and she texted us that it could be coccidia, and she could send us some medicine. When we showed the text to our vet, the vet said that it was apparent that Christina knew that River wasn’t healthy from the start. What responsible breeder would sell a sick kitten? What breeder would wean a kitten at 8 weeks and send him away from his mama, seeing that he still wanted to nurse, and knowing that he wasn’t fully healthy? At the same time as we were getting River, our daughter in law was getting a ragdoll from another cattery. Her cat was a couple of weeks older than River, but growing fast, and we learned that that cattery kept kittens for 13 weeks before letting them go. Naturally that would allow the immune system to develop more fully. When we first told Christina that River wasn’t doing well, she offered River’s brother, more than once, as a replacement. I insisted that a kitten is not a widget like a screwdriver and not just “replaceable.” We have a healthy attachment to our pets. She had no response. After River died, I told Christina on Friday, July 19. I asked her to refund the fee for River as well as the vet bills--over $1000. Total about $3700. She said she would get back to me “in a day.” I texted her on Monday and on Tuesday the following week. No response. I called her on Wednesday, and she didn’t pick up. All I can assume is that she won’t talk to me because she wants the money more than integrity or taking responsibility. Some folks are like that.