I have a complaint against Aisling Rags, a ragdoll cat breeder in Waverly, NY. Here is my story. I saw her website and emailed her to see if she had any available ragdolls. She emailed back that she had a young ragdoll cat she'd like to sell. I asked her why she wanted to sell the young cat and she said she bred the cat when it was 17 months old and that she wanted to sell it because she wanted to use one of its kittens it had as a breeding cat. I decided to look at the cat. She told me in the email that she doesn't ever meet clients at her house and that I'd have to meet her in a parking lot to see the cat. I would of rather have met at her house because I think it's a good idea to see the living conditions the cats are in. But she would not agree to that and so parking lot it was. I drove 90 minutes to see the cat. It was a cold day out and I was chilled to the bone standing in a parking lot holding the cat. I mentioned the cat seemed very lightweight and she agreed and she said it would put on weight after it was spayed... I gave her a deposit she required, and she said I could pick the cat up 2 days after it was spayed by her vet. I thought that was quite soon after a spay to take a cat home, but figured she was the "expert". I went to pick the cat up, in the same parking lot, and she put the cat right from her cat carrier into mine, into my car. I handed her and her husband the rest of the money, several hundred dollars total for the cat. She then, for the first time, tells me the cat has a problem with its one eye. She said the eye weeps and runs "but mostly when it's stressed" she said and that she and her vet didn't know what it was. I asked her if it was an eye infection. She replied, "no". (I should mention that I found out from her vet that the only time she brought this cat to the vet was to have it spayed and a rabies shot, done 2 days before I picked the cat up.) She kept wiping the discharge away that was under the cats eye. Anyhow, she also hands me some lysine tablets that she said she got from Walmart. I didn't know what lysine tablets were. All way home the cats one eye was running bad, puffy looking underneath eye and it had eye discharge. I get home and take cat out of carrier and almost fell over. For first time I see the cat standing up and it was very thin, bones sticking out. I look on spay sheet and the weight said 8.2 lbs. It was so small and underweight. She gave me some "Special Kitty" dry cat food from Walmart, which is of a very low quality, inexpensive cat food that was recalled couple years ago for salmonella contamination. She claims on the kitty care sheet that she gives all clients, that she feeds her cats Iams cat food. Not true, because she told me she feeds this cat "Special Kitty" cat food, that she told me she buys from Walmart! Guess she knew she wouldn't be breeding or keeping this cat so she gave it lousy food. Cat wasn't a money maker for her anymore...just a commodity. The cat also was always extremely scared the entire time it was with me and so I knew this cat wasn't "socialized" like she claims her cats to be. One could tell this was probably always a caged cat. It also used its litter box as its bed so that is also a sign it was likely a caged cat. Another reason she wouldn't want you to meet at her house I'm sure, because then you'd see how the cat really acts, and this cat was extremely fearful, and if had gone to her house I would of seen that, whereas a parking lot, one can't tell its behavior.

The day after bringing the cat home I called my vet and asked about the eye condition and the vet said all the symptoms sound as if it has the herpes virus which attacks the one eye. Also that cats with herpes virus also are low weight and small in size. And that many catteries have the herpes virus. I am sure that this breeder knew it had herpes virus of the eye! It's a virus that can never be cured, is lifelong and a cat can go blind if it gets bad. Since she bred the cat, it means the virus can be passed to the kittens it had. I know one kitten was black and she had it up for sale on her website and she must of sold it because it's no longer available on her website. The other kitten was a white kitten that the cat had, and she told me she was going to use it to breed it. So the kittens that this cat had can surely have the herpes virus, which means she would be selling people kittens with herpes virus, since the virus can pass from mother cat to kittens.

The same day as I got home with the cat, I called her up and (since I didn't want to tell her the cat was sickly, because I knew she would get insulted), I told her I wanted to return the cat. She said she would not take the cat back. She said she would not refund any of the money I paid for it. I then asked if I could return the cat to her at least, and she said no. I could tell she was glad to be rid of the cat and get her money. To make a long story short, I was able to find another home for the cat with someone who is better able to care for her and she is living a life of luxury now. So, I lost several hundred dollars and spent 8 hours driving in multiple trips to get the cat. In the end I feel I at least "rescued" the cat from this breeder and suspected bad and/or unsanitary living conditions. I am very upset and just want people to be aware of my experience with this breeder. I might add that the contract one signs with her states she's not responsible if the cat she sells you has a virus. Also, the medical records she gave me were incomplete. The only time this breeder brought the cat to a vet, (according to what her vet's office told me), was the one time, when she had it spayed and a rabies shot two days before I picked the cat up from her. The cat was never tested for FIV or leukemia. I just assumed it would of been tested. I asked her in an email after I got the cat home, if it was ever tested for FIV and leukemia and she said "no, but the cats parents were tested". She had purchased the cat, when it was 3 months old, from another breeder. If the cat was never tested for FIV and leukemia, then perhaps the cat I bought could have FIV and/or leukemia. I found out from talking to my vet on the phone that many cats that have FIV and/or leukemia also have herpes because their immune systems are weak. I had already spent hundreds of dollars when I bought the cat from this breeder, and I didn't want to spend more money to see if it had FIV and/or leukemia also. There were many red flags I should have seen, but I never bought a cat from a breeder, and I'm a very trusting person, but I learned the hard way. I'm an animal lover. I just want people to be aware of my experience with this breeder. Let this be a warning to others to be very careful when selecting a breeder to buy a pet from.