The eye of the beholder

My brain is kind of swimming today. In my spare time (that’s one of the silliest phrases I’ve ever typed), I mentor a group of cat and mostly kitten foster parents for a local and very popular rescue. Anyone who knows me at all knows that reacue has been a huge part of my life going all the way back to my teen years. Today, we took in a group of Maine Coon cats. Seven young adults, one more gorgeous than the last. Someone surrendered thousands of dollars of cats that I’m guessing they loved very much. My heart breaks for them, this must have been a terrible decision to have to make. And I wish I knew who bred these cats and if they even know that they’ve been dropped off at a rescue organization. Now, don’t worry, the team will take great care of them, promise. But what really makes my head spin is that we received about eighty nine gajillion applications for them in the first hour after their arrival. Many from volunteers. A great many of these people will puff with pride when they tell their friends that they rescued a Maine Coon. They’ll host dinner parties just so their friends can see a real one. Because believe you me, so so So many of the cats people say are Maine Coons are just big tabby cats. When they get a gander at a bonafide MCO, their jaws will drop! Now, they could come to a cat show to see one, but they don’t support breeding or breeders. Lots of these same people believe that breeders are despicable. BUT boy do they want a real Maine Coon!!  I hope these seven boys go out into their new homes and do their breed proud. 

In my not so spare time, I massage small animals, mostly dogs, many purbreds, some whose owners could never imagine why anyone would want to own a purebred CAT. I think that’s awfully funny. And in the rest of my not so spare time, I work in an animal hospital, with quite a few colleagues who are either casually or vehemently anti-breeder. The other day at the animal hospital, one of my co-workers asked how much my kittens cost. My stock answer: a lot. But she pressed on. So I told her. And I watched as her mouth hung wide open in shock. I said “I paid more for my new puppy” (a berner and she’s worth every penny!). My coworker said, “yeah but she’s a dog”. “Mmhm,” I said, “a dog who will live for less than half the years of a cat and cost me way more in food and veterinary care.”. And she again said, “yeah but she’s a dog, she brings more to your life”.  And I turned around and went back to my work. I wanted to, and even started to, say do you know how much it costs to buy breeding cats?… I sent more than $2200 to Chewy last month…just the basic no emergency vetting on each kitten costs big bucks…and I stopped. Because only those who see the value will see the value. I don’t breed ragdolls because I’m greedy and making money hand over fist. I breed ragdolls because I adore living with them, I see their value, and I want them to keep existing in their very best form. I want to preserve this incredibly valuable addition to the lives of humans. You should still adopt if that’s what your heart tells you to do. And you should purchase if that’s what your heart is saying. Value is in the eye of the beholder and you get to choose.