13 Oct 2024 - AJ
Me and my family have been owned by cats for decades. I don’t have one right now - getting approval for one is heck where I live - but I adore the fluffballs. And I have to admit, I’ve had times where I’ve wanted a purebred one and have just been astounded by how much breeders - legit ones - charge for even a pet-quality purebred cat.
Apart from a kitten born in a family member’s garden (mama, a stray, was quickly sent off to the vet to make sure she didn’t have any more litters), all of my family’s pets have been private adoptions or shelter adoptions. Most of them have been pretty standard shorthairs, one resembled a straight-eared Scottish Fold, and we had a longhair that we were pretty sure had some Persian in him.
Pet ownership is a tough job. You don’t want to cut corners.
Nowadays, I wouldn’t dream of getting a cat from a breeder. There are way too many cats, dogs, bunnies, and so on that need homes, or are picked up and aren’t identifiable (aka don’t have microchips). Almost all shelters will kill because they just absolutely have no room for these animals. It’s a sad business. And you’d be surprised at how many breed lookalikes there are. Sure, chances are you’re not going to find a Sphinx or an American Curl, or one of the rarer varieties of cats, but you might find an actual or close-to-actual purebreed. There are Siamese out there that were given up by their owners! Same for Persians, or Maine Coons, or Oriental Shorthairs (same loudness as Siamese, just not the colors). Maybe you won’t find a Scottish Fold (or maybe you would, the folded-ear ones have health problems up the wazoo) or an American Curl (same) or any of the other exotic cat breeds, but you could find something. Same for dogs - I’m not as much into them so I’m not familiar with the breeds, but I’m sure that there are purebreds and lookalikes in shelters - or rabbits.
I would hope, reader, that you would consider the same.
I will note that some scammers are exceptionally good at avoiding red flags. I read a story on r/scams a while ago where the scammer took video calls, showed off the supposed animal, collected a deposit, and disappeared while the buyers were on their way to pick up the supposed cat. While a lot of the scams I cover here are perpetuated by people in less prosperous countries, there are domestic scammers as well. Sometimes I forget that and have to keep reminding myself, and you should, too.
I was reminded of this by a totally different post on reddit where a person let a stranger use their phone, only to find out the stranger had gotten into CashApp and sent themselves money. I’m not sure whether this would fall under my pages (it is a scam, and yet not a scam), but I would give some of the same advice as the commenters on that one. That is, never hand your phone to a stranger. If they need to put a call out, have them give you the number, you dial it, put the phone on speaker, and let them talk. You could also offer to charge their phone, assuming you have the correct cables and a charger (that you don’t mind losing - I keep cheap 5000 mAh handy when I travel). If you absolutely must give your phone to a stranger, make sure any financial or other sensitive apps are behind some kind of lock - if the program itself doesn’t require some kind of authentication such as a pin or biometric lock, use a 3rd party program to enforce that.