Cattery Jethro’s Our disappointing experiences with cattery Jethro's resulted in a law suit, after both cats that we bought from this breeder had died way before their time. The below  reffered occurrings, are according to our own observations. They represent our own opinion and vision. Jethro's Princess Odine came to us, as a promising cat. She was beautiful to look at, but her strong will, made it difficult to show her. When she was old enough to be mated, a long ordeal lay ahead of us and her. During a two year period, she was mated several times, by different studs. She never became pregnant, or had an uterus infection. The expenses on veterinary bills piled up and the costs for stud service were a huge loss. When we had almostgiven up hope, Jethro's Princess Odine finally got pregnant by our own boy Heavenly Cinooky Nooky. After 66 days, she wentinto labour, but instead of a kitten, there was only filthy brown blubber! We rushed to the vet, where a caesarean section was preformed, resulting in one single living kitten, amongst indefinable filth, probably deceased foetuses. To give Jethro's Princess Odine a chance to recover completely of the operation and because there were several more cleanings of the uterus necessary, the kitten was placedwith a foster mother. Jethro's Princess Odine recovered well. The kitten came back to us, at 14 weeks. Unfortunately his story can be told in a few sentences. He didn’t grow welland was sickly all the time. A few weeks and many attempts and medications later, he had diminished so much, that we decided to put him to sleep.   Section showed that he had FIP. Jethro's Princess Odine has been mated several times more after that, but never had result. Again she had uterus infections and we decided to neuter her.Jethro's Princess Odine shortly after that, rapidly developed tumors under her belly. The diagnose was cancer, with only a very short expectation of life. Out of respect towards this sweet cat, we decided on December 1st , with heavy heart, to let her cross over rainbow bridge with dignity, without pain.Words can not express our sorrow........ The breeder did NOT respond to this news! Because Jethro's Princess Odine couldn’t have kittens, we bought Jethro's Princess Victoria, a daughter of Jethro's Princess Occhi, the litter sister of Jethro's Princess Odine.Victoria was not our first choice, that would have been one of her sisters, a seal point. But a friend of mine wanted that kitten, so we choose Jethro's Princess Victoria instead.The seal point girl died, before she was old enough to move, due to not specifiedstomach/bowels problems.   Jethro's Princess Victoria came to us on 16/2/2008 and started getting sick after a few weeks. On 1/6/2008 she was put out of her misery. Section showed: FIP She would not only meet her waiting sister, behind rainbow bridge, also one of her brothers, cause of death again FIP and a week later, another brother, again FIP.As far as we know at the moment, 4 kittens out of a litter of 8, have died within one year, 3 of them on FIP. Also, our own single kitten, from mothers side exactly the same line, also FIP!!! The respons of the breeder: After many disappointing matings with Jethro's Princess Odine, the respond was verbal support.No compensation was offered,not financially, nor in form of a replacement.They did feel sorry for us though.The amount that was paid for Jethro's Princess Victoria , was according to breeder a “friendship price”.It was the same amount we paid for Jethro's Princess Odine and with Jethro's Princess Odine there was no talk of a friendship price, as it was just what the breeder asked us to pay. After Jethro's Princess Victoria ’s death, we again received verbal support, this time accompanied by the promise of a compensation. We were to get a cat, born from the first litter of Jethro's Princess Occhi. The breeder wanted to have a litter with her first, but after that we could have her.Believing that we would get a notice, when this cat had her litter and when we could come to pick her up, we waited patiently. Until we found out, that the cat was sold to another breeder! On our request, we received this answer: We didn’t hear from you anymore, therefore thought you weren’t interested in her anymore.Apparently it didn’t dawn on them, that we were waiting patiently out of courtesy not bothering them all the time.Never mind, breeder promised us Jethro's Princess Occhi this time. Due to problems with the other cats,they had decided to stop breeding Siamese. Again, they wanted to have another litter first, after that we could have Jethro's Princess Occhi. The vision of having Jethro's Princess Odine’s sister filled us with joy, so again we waited patiently.For the mating of Jethro's Princess Occhi, they had decided on a boy from a friend of our, who isn’t open for stud service, but was offered to them anyway, due to my helping hand in that matter. After all, I was pledging for their reliability. The mating didn’t succeed, so breeder called me, to tell me that Jethro's Princess Occhi had to leave straight away, as she could no longer live in the house with the other cats and a new mating would take to much time.I did however then, have to pay them the mating fee (€ 350,-) after all, I could repeat the mating myselfand one kitten out of the litter that was to be born returned to them. A bit overwhelmed by this proposal, I asked for clarification, after all I understood that they didn’t want to have Siamese anymore. No, they didn’t want the kitten in person, I should sell it and give them the money for it€ 600,- Clarification: the compensation for an infertile and a dead cat, would cost me € 950,-!!! On top of that, comes the fact, that a stud service can not be sold to a third person! The definition of the words  to have was according to breeder (quote) It means to us that you would be the first applicant (end quote) Because I had to recover from this much impertinence, greed and crookedness, at first I couldn’t say much more then:we don’t want Jethro's Princess Occhi then. When it all started dawning on me, what was going on her, a combination of anger,disappointment and disbelief grew in me. After it was obvious that we were not willing to pay € 950,- for a 3 year old cat,that had already had 2 litters and was also supposed to be a compensation for the losses we had suffered, all of a sudden,breeder did have time to repeat the mating. Or could it be, because they realized that the mating couldn’t be sold together with the cat, therefore causing a loss of € 350,-, in case they sold the cat to someone else?! Simultaneously with this “surprise”, we found out that in the meantime, out of Jethro's Princess Occhi last litter, 4 of the 8 kittens had died, 3 of them of FIP One of the buyers is being compensated with the amount of € 250,-. The other and us, get nothing! This high rate of dead kittens and the more the coincidental same illness, and the parallel to the death of our own kitten, from the litter sister of Jethro's Princess Occhi, in our opinion,  rises the more then likely possibility, that Jethro's Princess Occhi is carrying a hereditary disease. For certain because our kitten had a different father then Jethro's Princess Occhi’s kittens.Due to the unprofessional, indifferent, greedy attitude of the breeder, we have decided, to summon them to give usback the purchase fee of Jethro's Princess Odine and Jethro's Princess Victoria. This because we believe,that we have bought two cats, that both do not meet the expectations and conditions on which we bought them and that one can ask for in a cat, namely that they are healthy and that they will grow to be at least 10 years old. We don’t want to profit from this, we only want our money back, no veterinary bills, no wasted stud service money, no compensation for all the hurt… Breeder referred to the selling contract, shows signs of surprise over our reaction and states not to be willing to compensate us in any way. A possible law suit over this matter, doesn’t seem to bother them, notice to the cat club neither, nor publication on my website. Therefore we have decided to take legal action to settle this matter, ventilate our vision on the story here until now and notify the club. We believe that a breeder has more responsibility, then just selling kittens and cats. Follow up care is very important to us, acknowledgement of mistakes too!  After almost 2 years of quarreling, on 2-6-2010 the judge has reached a verdict about the matter. During this time there has been a number of meaningless arguments been brought on by cattery Jethro, which were supposed to show that Victoria has died of FIP caused by stress brought on by a litter of puppies and a Maine Coon, that obviously has made Victoria's life a living hell causing her to develop FIP.I have my own thoughts about that...... Odine was supposed to have been treated by me with all kinds of "fertility drugs" (of which I still don't know what they are, but think it's an interesting way of breeding) according to counsellor of cattery Jethro among others *quote* "several mammographies" *end quote* (you're allowed to laugh here)That she had one uterus infection after another and in the end developed mama carcinoma after being spayed, is suggestivly being blamed on me. To my knowledge, I gave Odine the best medical care possible, which was necessary for the complaints she had developed, like the uterus infections. Nobody can predict if - and in this case how many times - it comes back. If I would not have treated her, she would have died of the infection, when I decided to call it quits and had her spayed, the result was the development of mama carcinoma against which I also had no chance. However, this cat had no medical option to a long life. By unfortunate circumstances my former counsellor had missed to send in the complete documentation concerning the visits to the veterinary, therefore all treatments and expenses. The opposition was of course happy about this and has gratefully used this mistake, which does not mean that their arguments which they brought on the defence were accurate.Victoria didn't die of FIP, because she had stress caused by a litter of puppies, or a Maine Coon that was in our "way too small" house. Odine only had the best of medical care that was possible and certainly not to gain kittens of her, but to have this sweet cat with us for a long time ! According to cattery Jethro and counsellor, Valentino is still alive and the other 2 kittens that were sick and of which 1 also died of FIP, were carefully not mentioned in the dialogue.For clarification: Baz Waumsley has not cancelled the micro chip of Valentino, which apparently is proof that Valentino is still alive.Personally, as a breeder, I would immediately contact a buyer, if I hear that one of my kittens has died and ask what's going on, but hey...personally I would..... ( P.S. the chips from Odine and Victoria were not cancelled by me neither, so....) Unfortunately cattery Jethro never came up with proof, asked by me, if the other kittens of the litter are still alive. Nor did they ever test Occhi for possible reduced immunity.They did however ask for an autopsy report of Odine, long time after she had died. They never responded, even though they knew Odine had cancer, they never responded when I told them Odine had been put to sleep, but they did want this redundant report way after Odine had died. (we didn't suffer enough from the loss apparently) Occhi is supposed to be spayed and in the hands of a non breeder now. As far as I understood "free of charge". The exact motivation to this is something everyone can think of themselves.Cattery Jethro feel that I am causing them damage with my publications on my website.They demanded - against a non-compliance penalty of € 100,- per day - that I remove it from my website. I am a big fan of freedom of speech and choose my words with utmost care, before publishing. I make it very clear that it is my own opinion, vision and impression of the occurrences and leave everyone to draw their own conclusions. In other words: I will not be silenced ! I don't need to tell deceptions or make the occurrences more colorfull then they really are. Everybody who knows me, knows this and I am appreciated for my impartiality and integrity. Futhermore I had warned them for the publication and they "had all confidence", just like with my complaint at their cat club, which they left spontainiously after that..... Condese:The judge could not grant my demand to compensate Odine, due to lack of evidence, because my former counsellor didn't do her job right. He did feel it was bad that she had died, but the age of 3 years was apparently enough in the court's vision (where a cat is a thing and not a creature) to not be able to ask compensation anymore for her loss.He thought it to be only decent that cattery Jethro would compensate Victoria,because the kitten had only lived for a few weeks after purchase. He send both parties to the hall, to try and come to an agreement.Personally I do not like these negotiations between counsellors, similar to haggling at a cattle-market, but because every euro that they didn't have to pay me, was apparently so important to the opposition, my counsellor had offered me to compensate the left over amount in name of my insurance, so that cattery Jethro had to pay the amount that would suit their budget and thoughts and the rest is given to me by Arag. Opposition kept nagging about removal of the stories on my website, but I would under no circumstance give in to that! Eventually the decision was made, that I had to remove the link "named and shamed", because this was "hurtful" and that I would alter the text of the banners on my news page, which I did.Conclusion:Every cattery can/should do as they please and what they think is decent. My preference is selling healthy, sweet kittens with all necessary after care. Something can always go wrong, but it is in the nature of the breeder, how to handle it. If I sell a cat for breeding and it turns out to be not suited for that, I will compensate or replace, without asking any kind of payment !! A kitten from my cattery that dies before it had a reasonable lifetime will be replaced or compensated.If anybody tells me that one of the kittens I have sold, has died, I will immediately contact the buyer to ask what is going on. Out of sight - out of mind will under no circumstance apply to cattery Heavenly ever. It is a hobby, but one with great responsibility. For the law cats might be items, but to us they are living creatures with a soul and the owners don't just have a wallet but also a heart and emotions ! The theatrical display of cattery Jethro in court, (which I will not describe as I promised the judge I would not write anything harmful about the owners of cattery Jethro) has not changed my way of thinking about them, only made it stronger and I am truely grateful never having to have anything to do with them ever again !The siamese cat world can be happy that they quit breeding this breed and as far as the Abessinians are concerned, those people that want to do business with them will have to experience themselves what kind of breeders they are. However, we and the other harmed buyers, have seen the cats that we bought suffer and die.

Jethro’s Princess Odine 25.9.2005 - 1.12.2008

Jethro’s Princess Victoria 15.11.2007 - 1.6.2008