In 1997, we fell in love with the
Ragdoll breed when we first saw pictures of them.
At that time
the first Ragdolls had just arrived in South Africa and we waited fourteen
months for one of the first South African-born Ragdoll kittens. In
the meanwhile, we
realised that we could never just have one and started
planning to import our own
Ragdolls for breeding. Raglin Ragdolls
imported the first Tabby and Red lines.
Raglin
Ragdolls was the first and only cattery in South Africa working with the
non-pointed Ragdoll. Our beautiful Bibi Babette was the first
non-pointed Ragdoll
in the world to achieve a title in the
show
halls. Bibi is retired and at present no other
non-pointed Ragdolls
are being bred with in South Africa.
Our cattery is situated in the
tranquil village of Irene, Centurion (Gauteng) and our
large
house is
shared by our Ragdolls and Katu (neutered Birman). Robert and I are
self-employed and work from home, being here for our cats
24/7.
Above
is our boys' beautiful log cabin. Behind the cabin, they each have a
150+ sq foot secure garden with trees and shade.
Their cabin is
situated between our house and Robert's office.
Our queens can
visit the boys during the day, except when they are in
call.
Our queens are
never caged and they do not live outdoors in runs.
They share
our bed (like all queens should be able to!)
and have free access
to a
secure and safe courtyard during the day
In July 2002, I visited some
USA catteries during a whirlwind 5-week tour. Not only
did I see the
most gorgeous Ragdolls and beautiful cattery set-ups, but I also
attended
the 2002 International Ragdoll Congress held at Denver. I
met Ragdoll breeders that
I have communicated with via e-mail for many
years, as well as met respected
TICA judges and Canadian Feline
Specialist, Dr Susan Little DVM. The "cherry on
the cake" was
spending a couple of hours with a dear friend and British Ragdoll
breeder,
during the London layover.
Robert is very interested in the
birthing of our kittens and he is my "resident midwife".
The
excitement of each new-born is shared between us and once the kittens are
ready
to leave, the pride and joy of seeing yet another healthy and loving
kitten go to its new
home, are our rewards.
A
Raglin nursery when kittens are due.
Kittens stay in dedicated
nurseries inside our house till they have received their
first
vaccination.
A week thereafter they are given the freedom of our house
where they learn how to interact with our adults.
We do not allow
"browsing public" to view our cats and/or kittens. Visits to
view our cats
and our kittens are strictly on invitation only. These
invitations are a privilege and cannot
and may not be demanded. Do
not call us when you are "in our area" and demand to
"check out" our cats
and/or cattery.
We do not keep our cats in outdoor
cages/structures/buildings and our kittens are not kept
in outdoor cages
either. When you visit us to meet our cats and kittens, you will be
visiting
them inside our house and thus we expect you to respect our
privacy.
We do NOT entertain
enquiries from children,
no matter how adult or intelligent you think your
child is.
Right of
admission to our house reserved
Visitors socialising with our older kittens and our
adult Ragdolls
in our safe and
secure courtyard with natural lawn and
the freedom to come and go
as they please,
but still confined to the
courtyard and our home.
Since 1999, our regular vets are Dr Martin Neitz and Dr
Heidi Schroeder of
Willow Park
Small Animal Medicine Specialist
Hospital, Pretoria,
telephone 012-803 5425.
Doc Martin
with a Raglin kitten
The friendly staff - Dr Heidi, Mindri
& Doc Martin
Raglin Ragdoll
cattery does NOT support or approve of declawing
and devoicing.
Approved kitten buyers will sign a contract
prohibiting them from having these gruesome
procedures performed on their
Raglin Ragdoll.
All of our kittens have a
genetic health guarantee.
Our cattery is registered with
SACC and TICA. We are club members of RFCI
(Ragdoll Fanciers Club
International) as well as South African cat clubs.
All Raglin Ragdoll kittens are
registered with SACC and new owners receive a certified
5-generation pedigree as well as a Transfer of Ownership
document.
Buying a kitten from Raglin
Ragdolls: A 50% deposit is required at time of placing
your
order for a kitten. The balance of purchase price is payable
when the kitten
is ten weeks old.
IMPORTANT:
By
paying the deposit/balance, the Buyer accepts the following :
Breeder and Buyer retain the right to cancel this contract, up to the time
that the kitten
has been delivered to the Buyer. In such instances, all
moneys paid by the Buyer to
the Breeder will be refunded by the
Breeder.
ENS (early
neuter/spay)
Without exception, all our pet kittens are
neutered/spayed at the age of thirteen to
fourteen weeks and they may
only leave our cattery a short while thereafter.
We have
been practicing ENS since 2000 and have never had any kittens (male or
female)
with health problems due to it.
Unfortunately, some breeders
and vets remain ill-informed and advise against ENS, even
though the
internet has so much information available on this subject.There are many
published study reports on ENS that prove beyond a doubt
that ENS does not cause
health problems later on in life. On the
other hand, there are no published study
reports that prove
ENS to be harmful to the kitten.
"Pre-pubescent at eight
months is no different endocrinologically than pre-pubescent
at eight
weeks. Physiologically, altering falls only into two categories:
pre-pubescent
or post-pubescent (over a year of age). There is no
difference to the adult cat
whether the surgery was done at seven weeks of
age or seven months, both surgeries
involve removing inactive tissue
(except in early maturing females)."
- Author Lorraine
Shelton -
It is a lot of extra work and
responsibility for the breeder to keep the kittens the extra
month
or so,
in order to perform ENS. Not only hard work, but also very costly as
the kittens
eat much more than the adults! In my opinion, any
breeder that really cares
for his/her kittens
would gladly accept this
responsibility and bear the cost of raising
the kittens for so much
longer.The advantage of ENS is that the litter leaves together
and
return the same day to the home
it knows, back to the queen that comforts
them.
It is a wonderful sight to see how those kittens,
that only
hours before had anaesthesia/surgery,
play and romp around as if they have
never left
the house! Everybody is happy, including
the breeder and
obviously, the new owner, as they
know that they won't have to go through
the stress of surgery on their kitten a couple of months later.
|
