Jackie Sullivan, Jackie Harrington, Sphynx Kittens, Sick Kittens This woman sells sick kittens! Madisonville Kentucky

I had posted on several sphynx sites that I was looking for a pet-quality kitten for a lower price than I had seen so far. About 6 months later (in May '06) Jackie sent me an email and told me about her boy. She said that she was trying to breed her girl with a new male that was only concerned with trying to kill the fixed male in her house (the one she contacted me about), so she had to keep our Cassio in the basement all alone and she needed to get rid of him.

We decided to take him, we paid $500 for him plus airline fees to Columbus, GA, and when we received him he looked nothing like the photos she had sent and he was a very skittish thing. He warmed up to us quickly, as we supposed he got little to no attention at Jackie's. He had a voracious appetite, like if he didn't eat while the food was there he'd starve later. He was always very cautious around our feet, as though we'd kick him if he came too close. He had scars on his body. Otherwise, he looked and acted ok.

Cassio was the most loving cat we'd ever been around. He was our joy. We adored him and he adored us. September of 2007 we noticed that Cass had developed a bit of a cold. We figured we would give him some time and if he didn't perk up we'd take him to the animal clinic. He never got better, only worse. We took him to be xrayed and the doctors said he had asthma, and an extremely enlarged heart. We were trying to weigh our options, as treating an animal with the conditions he was diagnosed with are terribly expensive and hard to treat.

A week after he was diagnosed, I found him on our hardwood floor (sphynxes rarely lay on hardwood because it's too cold). He looked up and yelled at me, and I knew something was really wrong. He had fallen there, his hind legs were stiff and ice cold. He had used the bathroom on himself. His front half was warm and mobile. We rushed him to his vet, where she told us there was really nothing we could do. He'd had a blood clot from his heart sent down his spine that blocked the bloodflow to his hindside. Since he had done his best to stay awake for us to find him that morning, he had used most of his energy struggling on the floor; he faded fast, and there wasn't much need for euthanization. Our little man was gone.

We later figured out that his specific heart disease was HCM, a prominent and detectable birth defect. We were never aware that such a disease existed, or that we should have him tested. There is no way Jackie Springfield/Harrington did not know about his condition. Our little man is gone and our hearts will forever be broken; we were cheated out of our time with him, and we were cheated out of our money because she knew she couldn't do anything with him and his HCM. We would pay any amount of money to have him back with us.

This woman is a monster.

I will gladly do whatever it takes to bring her down.

Misti Raye
Columbus, Georgia
U.S.A.