Hi everyone,

my beautiful girls celebrated their first birthday yesterday. I love them dearly and (to us) they are worth 10 times the (fairly high) price we paid for them. I have posted a couple of pictures on the image forum.

We bought them from who we thought was a reputable breeder in Midlands UK. He seemed like a nice man and we saw the mother but the father was "out". Our two were the last of two litters of four by their two queens. The one was obviously the "runt" and a bit smaller and less well marked. The other, they said, was left because they wanted to sell her as a queen but they were going on honeymoon so needed to sell her before they went. I picked Emily, the more well marked and more expensive one, but the next day my husband called me to say he wanted the other one so we went back and collected Charlotte to join Emily. They are inseperable and a real joy and enhancement to our lives.

We had them neutered in December and then contacted our breeder to forward the TICA paperwork as agreed. He said it could take a while as the paperwork had to be posted to and from USA. So I waited until the end of March to contact him again. I've texted him, emailed him, left voicemail messages all to no avail.
His website has disappeared in the last few weeks and I've checked the TICA cattery list and his breeder name is not there!! I also emailed the breeder where his stud purportedly came from but have not heard back from them either. Obviously I am worried. Are these cats real bengals? Please see the photographs.
Also, I would love to hear from any one else who recognises my story and knows who I am talking about.
I do not want to unfairly malign this breeder, I just need answers.

Any help would be much appreciated, thanks

They sure look like Bengals to me.

_________________
~ Kyenta

Your girls certainly look like Bengals to me! As for the TICA paperwork, that's one reason to get the gals spayed prior to taking them -- no hold up on the paperwork. Many breeders insist on proof of the spay before the papers are sent Yes, TICA is in America, but it still shouldn't add more than a couple of weeks. It's a bad sign when a breeder will not return emails or texts. A website disappearing is another bad sign. I would suggest you revisit the TICA website to check their members as another poster here claimed she could not find her breeder on the list and I looked and the breeder WAS listed there.

There's no harm in listing the breeder's name here. You're not slandering them -- you're just sharing the problem you're having. Googling the breeder may bring up some good and bad reviews.

You can email TICA and ask any questions you want. Was the litter registered? Probably not! I'm not sure what you can do at this point except file complaints against any organization he was part of -- US or UK.

Message for Sherry,

Hi. Thanks for your advice. I'll double check TICA listings just in case. I think I'll give the guy two more weeks just in case he has been on holiday. Also, I might private message someone I've seen on the forum who has had a very similar problem to see if they bought from this cattery.

Kind regards

Maria Jones

Maria if you want to pm me the breeders prefix and name I can have a look for you. I'm in midlands too and might even know them

Hi everyone,

thanks for your help and advice. A user has kindly given me some information which has resulted in me being in touch with the breeder's wife. He is currently very ill and she is going to follow up on the paperwork.

I'm very glad I chose not to name this breeder at this point.

Kind regards

MariaJ

Sometimes things happen that we aren't made aware of. Hopefully things will work out with the paperwork! I hate to hear the breeder is ill, but at least now you have more contact information. Let us know how everything turns out.