Spirit of The Cat Rescue Mona McCloud Bad Breeder, Won't Reimburse Vet Bills, Hard to Communicate With Anderson Indiana

My family had purchased several Scottish fold kittens from Anderson IN since Spring 2012. My family lives in central & southeastern Ohio ... about 3-5 hours away.

The last time we got a Scottish fold kitten, August 31st 2013, we bought him from a different breeder, but this person lives in the same town that we purchased previous kitties, and original breeder knew this breeder.

First - receiving any kind of information about this cat - purchased for $500 cash - was impossible! We asked for pictures - and finally got 2 lame pictures. I requested a video - never got a video. I requested details ... mom, dad, color? All I got was that the cat was black. The kitten was not black! He was brown, gray tortoise-like.

When we got to the breeders home (4224 Madison Ave, Anderon IN) [I don't feel bad for posting this address, as it is listed as a business address for her cat rescue], the place was disgusting. There were cats running all over the place, the smell of urine & ammonia were overwhelming. Dirty litter was just left in plastic containers in the garage. It is perfectly acceptable to run a cat rescue - but it is not acceptable to combine your breeding projects with every cat you take in off the street - which WAS A LOT. 2 litters of kittens, with little ones running all over. Mona tried passing off medicine to us to use, claiming the kitty had seen a vet, but none of the medicine was marked. 

Our purchased kitten came with:

1. ringworm

2. a scratched cornea - resulting in a viral infection in his cornea

3. 2 parasites

4. fleas

A summarized letter I wrote to Mona McCloud:

We felt confident in your ability to breed, love and care for a precious Scottish fold kitten based on our experience with XXXXXX.

When you buy an animal who will be with you for the next 15-20 years, you

certainly expect their condition to be pristine. Kitty’s was not. When we came to your house on 8/31/13, we were appalled at the conditions. We understand you had just cleaned, and it breaks my heart to wonder what the true conditions were prior to our arrival. At one point you offered my mother to take home older kitty food that you said had worms in it!  Despite what you said during our conversation last night, we were never given any choices from the beginning – it was this kitty, or no kitty. I’m a Scottish fold lover; rest assured that I would have loved to see another Scottish kitten! The rest were litters (2) and a ton of cats that had just arrived at your placewith no exam. Let me remind you that you are not a Doctor of Veterinarian Medicine.

Who knows what these new rescues brought in to your garage and living quarters? I support what you do but there is a right and wrong way to do what you do. A $500 cat is, in fact, much better than a rescue, despite what you may think. They all deserve the same love and care, but a kitten you’re selling doesn't deserve to be put at intentional risk like that. You planned to sell him, which makes this even worse.

You claim we signed an agreement waiving you from any liability. That is not true. Since we were purchasing him from a “rescue”, you had us simply sign a paper and state our name and address (I believe), since “everyone has to pay taxes”! I saw thepaper, and although I did not read what was on it, I am certain it was mostly bare. There was no “legal paragraph drawn up by your attorney”. Plus, I am certain you would have mentioned this in November during my first request of reimbursement. There was no mention of this agreement until 12/17/13. I find this very strange, and questionable.

Despite kitty’s condition, you assured us that all would be well. We also are not Doctors of Veterinarian Medicine and could only do one thing: trust you. We should not be punished for trusting you. You sent us home with medicine that didn’t have any identification on it, and instructed us how to use it. We did use the pink, liquid antibiotic and the Terramycin, but we did not use the "fungal" pills. We had no idea what these pills were(except for you saying they were for his ringworm) – there was no label on the bottle. This is unacceptable & unethical, maybe even unlawful. I took everything you gave us to the vet, while she did recommend we use the Terramycin - but, due to this infection being viral, not bacterial, he needed more medicine. If the medicine she prescribed did not work, he was going to have to see a vet eye specialist! He was at risk of losing vision in his left eye.

How sad. We took him to the vet because the medicine you recommended we use was not working. She encouraged us to still use the liquid, pink antibiotic medicine. We learned that this is only good for 10 days! We didn’t know this! We didn’t know when it was opened! You could have educated us a little better.

6 weeks went by that kitty was getting up to 4 medications at one point.  We didn’t buy a $500 kitten to care for him every 6 hours (seriously, for 2 weeks, we had to give him oral injections every 6 hours. I imagine you know how difficult that can be to arrange).

I had a total of 5 visits with Dr. XXX DVM. Let’s start from the beginning.

9.6.13 – after a week of no improvement on his left eye, we established him with Dr. XXXX. She said his eye was bad, was shocked to learn this handsome kitty was kept with rescues.After viewing his eye, she could see no blood vessels. This means there was no blood supply or oxygen going to his cornea; Cornea’s need fresh blood supply for function. She determined this was a viral infection and I needed to start him on viral drops ASAP, and she encouraged me to go pick up the medicine that very day.

She requested she seem him the following Monday evening (9/9/13). The purpose of that was to ensure the drops were working. If they weren’t, she was going to have to send me to a vet who specializes in the eye. The drops were working and I was asked to continue the drops every 6 hours, and in 2 weeks, I could reduce this to every 8, then every 12, then every 24 hours. She also did not recognize the pills you gave to us in an unlabeled bottle. She prescribed a medicine that we orally inject once a day for a week, then off for a week, then on for a week, etc – for 4 cycles. (8 weeks total). They also gave him Nemex at this visit for worms. I did share his health record with her, which you gave to me. Nemex was needed, and was not on the his health record – or any indication of the proper dewormer. After learning he was with rescues, this was not an option. His belly was so bloated, and he had soft bowels. I was asked to bring a fecal sample in to my visit on 9.27.13.

9.14.13 – This was a recheck to ensure drops were still working and his eye was getting better. She let me know that blood vessels were starting to form again! But to continue the drops as instructed. Ringworm was not getting better at this point.

9.27.13 – Another re-check on his eye. The cloudyness is finally starting to resolve and more blood vessels are forming. I’m instructed to continue the viral eye drops once every 24 hours for a week. We’re still doing the terramycin at this point, as well as the liquid antibiotics. Still on the ringworm cycle medicine, as well. He had a fecal test done due to continue soft bowels, and bloaty belly, despite the Nemex. At this visit she did a test with green dye. She put green dye in his eye and then rinsed it with water. She looked in his eye with the scope again and if the cornea had green dye stuck to it, it wasn’t healing. But no green – so eye is in its last stages of healing! Vet also changed kitty's DOB to 7.1.13 versus 6.1.13 due to size and weight.

9.28.13 –vet called me on a Saturday to say he tested positive for another parasite and he needed to do a weeks worth of oral injections called Panacur. At this point, kitty is on 4 medicines … doing 3 different oral injections.

11.5.13 – A final check on his eye - all good! Cloudyness is gone, but still “Seepy”… the seepiness still continues to this day, by the way, and we wonder if it will ever go away.

Final check on ring-worm – still not completely gone, but finally … is starting to heal and clear up. She requests another fecal test at this appt. to ensure the Panacur cleared the last parasite up from 9/28/13. She called me on 11.6.13, and everything came back negative. Finally, over 2 months later, a clean bill of health – aside from tackling the flea issues w/ Paradyne.

Clearly - no one asked for this. It's entirely unfair to pay for a special kitty breed to end up in this situation! I have nothing against rescuing cats and hope to some day, but this is a breed I've wanted for ... ever.

The full amount of vet bills turned out to be $320.78.

I asked for these to be reimbursed since all issues could have been preventable. She refused, and claimed we signed a legal agreement basically saying we accept the kitten "as is", and that she is not responsible for anything that may happen. This is bull! We did not expect anything like this! We feel like we rescued him from her.

I asked her to send me a copy or the original (would be even better) to determine the authenticity of the document since my mom and I both feel like we did not sign such a document. We have not received this document to determine if it was forged - or if she added a legal blurb in the middle. At this point, if we don't get our money reimbursed- FINE! But I will warn everyone that she is BAD BUSINESS.