Online Maine Coon purchase NIGHTMARE

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This is a salutary warning to be extremely cautious about buying a Maine Coon cat or indeed any other purebred cat online. If you do buy online you really must do a load of careful research beforehand and be extremely cautious. Firstly I would strongly not recommend buying a Maine Coon cat online, sight unseen, without knowing the person who's Selling the cat/kitten. It frequently just doesn't work and here is a story from near Munich, Germany which supports what I said and indeed would any other sensible person would say.


Although, I understand why people sometimes do purchase Maine Coon cats online without doing careful research. It's because they love Maine Coon cats. They desperately want to adopt a Maine Coon cat and make them part of their loving family. They might have aspired to living with a Maine Coon cat for a very long time. You see many stories on the Internet of superb Maine Coon cats living in great homes, living great lives with a loving caregiver. These encourage people to adopt this highly popular cat breed.

But it also encourages scammers and disreputable people, unscrupulous people to take advantage of these emotions. This is what happened near Munich. Gabriele, we are told, is obsessed with Maine Coon cats. She was looking to adopt a Maine Coon kitten for a long time and stumbled upon an advert for two kittens being sold south of Munich not far from her home.

She felt very fortunate into bumping into this advert. Perhaps she felt that it was a sign that this was going to work well. We are not told but she must have contacted the seller either online or on the telephone and then went to pick up the beautiful fluffy kittens from the seller and brought them home.

We don't know what she paid but it is not beyond the bounds of plausibility to suggest that she might have paid £10,000 or the equivalent in euros (perhaps about €11,000) for the two kittens because high quality Maine Coon kittens can cost about £5000 each depending upon the quality of the breeder. Normally there might cost around £3000 or the same in Euros. They are expensive and a person is going to make a very substantial financial outlay for the pleasure of owning a couple of genuine, high-quality Maine Coon kittens.

It is clear from the story that Gabriele did not know much about Maine Coon cats or at least didn't know much about adopting kittens. It transpired that she adopt kittens that were too young to be separated from their mother. They were weaned too early which in itself can cause behavioural problems such as suckling on their caregiver's hands and ears and never getting over that.

But in this instance they were not eating. She rushed them to a veterinarian for help and was given the sad news that they were very sick. Were not told if they were suffering from a specific illness but very young kittens are very vulnerable as I'm sure you know. Simply losing body temperature because the ambient temperature is too cold can kill them. And they can be infested with worms if adopted from a bad breeder.

Such infestations can kill kittens. Anyway, Gabriele tried to contact the breeder I presume to give them back and receive her money back but, unsurprisingly, for me, she was unable to get in touch with the breeder. They had disappeared into thin air leaving no trace. Surprise, surprise. This is how scammers work. They simply con people and then disappear and on Facebook and other social media channels you can disappear like that.

And of course you can pop up somewhere else and do the same thing again under a pseudonym. You can go on doing this indefinitely.

Gabriele now realises that she probably didn't buy Maine Coon kittens at all. She's not sure. If she had brought genuine Maine Coon kittens they would have cost the amount I mention above but she may have bought them at a so-called bargain, perhaps around one-tenth of their true value but she might have bought random bred cats which are worth about £40 each in monetary terms. She may have paid about £400 for each one of them. If they were moggies then she paid 10 times too much for them and if they were genuine purebred cats they would have been worth about 10 times more ironically.

And that is where the story finishes. We don't know what happened next but it would appear that Gabriele is now looking after a couple of domestic cats which are probably moggies. Her dream is shattered and it has turned to a nightmare.

Don't buy purebred cats online such as on websites as Facebook. The only way to buy a purebred cat is to firstly ensure that you have the budget and the funding to look after that cat for 15 years. That's £15,000 per year times 15. Make sure you have the disposable income for that. And then you've got to buy from a reputable breeder and finally visit the breeder and ask questions. Obtain a contract. Read the contract. Ensure the cat is healthy and fully vaccinated, and at an age where they are weaned. Ensure that the kitten is fully socialised. These things are done by the breeder.

The basic motto is that you must always visit the breeder before purchase and never give them money upfront. That last advice can be overturned if you buy from a reputable breeder you know and you want to reserve a kitten. But normally the advice is never to pay money upfront certainly not blind and not knowing who you are giving the money to.

Story source: WAMIX.com

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Please excuse the occasional typo due to preparing these articles at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I don't have a proof reader.
Location: Munich, Germany

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