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Welcome to another episode of the Cat Breeding for Beginners podcast. I'm Pamela and I breed British Shorthairs in Perth, Western Australia. I have a real passion for cat breeding and exhibiting and I want to share my knowledge and experience with you.
I'm on a mission to help new cat breeders go from feeling intimidated, confused and having trouble getting started to confidently breeding happy and healthy cats whilst enjoying this amazing hobby. Hey before we jump in I want to invite you to take my what kind of cat breeder are you quiz. It's a fun little quiz that gives you real insight into where you are in your cat breeding journey and the next steps that are going to help you grow with confidence.
You'll find it on my links page at catbreedingforbeginners.com backslash links. Go take it and let me know your results. I saw a post on a very established breeders Facebook page recently that was explaining quite in quite an aggressive tone that they were angry about having complaints made about them to their association.
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They were saying that the association's committee had changed recently. They were kind of indicating they were being persecuted. They were you know very upset about it and it was two breeders that were pursuing them or something like that.
I thought to myself well I normally am very up for posting the good and the bad but would I have posted that? And the answer is no I would not have because I probably wouldn't have been in that situation in the first place. Although I have had complaints about me personally I've never had complaints about the care of my cats and from the post that I was reading I got very strong indications that it was to do with the cats so when it comes down to health issues and that no I've never had a complaint made about me about that but I have had complaints made about me personally. Yes that's a story for another day that's several stories for another day but I don't know that if that I probably did share about it at the time I don't know whether looking back I'd do the same thing.
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Sometimes we can get drawn into a lot of drama and this struck me as a lot of drama. What would I do if I did have a complaint made about me and my cats today? And I think I would just deal with the matter. I don't know that I would go off on a tirade I don't know that I'd get upset about it and I think that comes from a place of knowing that my cats are good that I do deal with the problems that I have that I am open and honest about everything and that there's no real grounds for anything.
Everybody at any point in time can sell a cat to someone who they think is going to be a fabulous owner and turns out not to be. They can have miscommunication with people and have problems there. I've fallen I have actually had that issue I had someone I was trying and trying and trying to contact because I knew that the litter of kittens from the other owners telling me had actually got giardia and I wanted to make sure that kitten was either okay or could we treat it and finally the owner contacted me and said that they were frustrated and very upset that their kitten still had diarrhoea.
I was like oh thank god I've been trying to contact you that I didn't have the right mobile number and the email address I'd had a comma instead of a dot or something silly like that. So that actually got resolved really well and they were very happy and I had that kitten you know back to normal within 12 days and the owner was very grateful and has been happy ever since but that could have gone very pear-shaped. So miscommunication can sometimes be the reason for things as well but things would have to be pretty bad to get to the point where someone would make a complaint I think to my association about the way that I keep my cats and I'd like to think that if you have problems with people if you have problems with pet buyers or other breeders that you've given cats to try as much as possible to resolve it before it gets to that point because when it gets to that point everybody knows about it even if it's only going to the committee on your association it is circulated in emails it is available for other people to know about it just is the cat fancy is made up of volunteers in most places unless you're talking about one of the really big associations things are not kept that private and people talk and also the people making the complaints absolutely talk they'll tell anyone that wants to listen what's going on so before it gets anywhere near that point the best thing I can recommend is that you talk to them and try and resolve it and the best way to do that is to take away all the emotions now that post I saw on Facebook was aggressive and it was addressed who was it addressed to like literally it wasn't talking to the people making the complaints it wasn't talking to the association it was just telling everybody I'm unhappy and I'm cranky and I'm gonna say this I think that that's something that you can maybe type out but don't post because it doesn't actually do you any favours what does do you favours just to take a deep breath get rid of any emotion get rid of any drama shake it off you know shake it off physically if you have to and then go and try and solve the problem so in this case my case the lady was very angry that her cat still had diarrhoea and my answer was to apologise I said I'm so sorry I have been trying to contact you I'm not blaming I didn't place the blame on her because I couldn't contact her I just wanted to explain why I hadn't been in touch I am aware of the problem can we please get your kitten either you can bring it back to me to be treated or you can go to my vet and I'll pay for the treatment for it and pay for any medications it needs but if you want to bring it back and have me medicated I'm happy to do that as well and again I'm very sorry that this has happened it must have been very unpleasant for you I apologised I gave them a way to fix the problem and I apologised again and it worked nothing you know the lady's now very happy does it hurt me to apologise no does it hurt me to admit that I'm wrong no does it hurt me to provide care for the kitten that I've raised with a lot of love no that cost me I think 175 dollars now she paid me two and a half thousand for the kitten so that's not unreasonable things just have to be put into perspective yes people go off on tangents and go to their vets and run up big bills with things and then come back to you expecting you to deal with that issue there's ways that you can manage that up front in the conversations you have with them when they're picking up their kittens you know you can talk to them about having pet insurance you can talk to them about these might be some of the problems you have you can also say which is something I say to everybody as they're leaving and it's in the guidebook that they have from me that they take away if your cat is sick for any reason please let me know obviously take it to the vet but please let me know because before they sort of get to the point where their vet suggested that it has all its teeth removed and its blood transfusion and this and that and the other maybe I could have solved the problem with a bit of help because maybe it's something I know about or even I can just provide support I don't I don't think that anyone that's gone off and run up a big bill and come back and said can you pay for the bill I don't think that's ever happened when people have had a conversation with them when they picked up their kitten and stayed in touch with them and you know had a relationship with them they just come out of the blue so I really recommend that you get out in front of that as well in the first instance but if it does get to that point the answer is how can we solve this problem together how can we fix this together not I'm mad at you you're I'm angry you're having a go at me I'm going to be defensive I'm going to tell you you're wrong I'm not doing anything it's not my fault it's not my fault no the answer is how can we solve this together what are we going to do going forward and I think that's just the solution no angry messages on Facebook I don't think they have a place all that says is it tells what does that say to the pet buying public about cat breeders we already suffer from enough damage done by you know hoarding situations that are put on the tv all the time we already have this reputation as you know being crazy old cat ladies who have a house full of cats that piss on everything we already have a bad a bad rap but people have been working so hard to improve that things like this just takes us back just takes us back so if you have an issue in the cat fence if you have an issue with a pet buyer if you have an issue with another breeder if you have an issue with your association just as much as possible don't respond straight away take a moment take a breath get rid of the anger get rid of the drama get rid of the the need to be right and say how can we fix this together because there's always a way to fix it together always so that's my little piece of advice for today all right hope that was helpful okay bye guys thanks for listening make sure you visit www.catbreedingforbeginners.com where you can find articles guides courses and more plus make sure you check out my amazing new cat breeders club it's a supportive space where new cat breeders can learn share and help each other i only take new members a few times a year so sign up to make sure you don't miss 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