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Purchased a kitten - September 2018 from Wendy Smith.
Issues:
1. Wendy Smith refused to return signed Contract which leads me to believe she will not stand behind her Contract - Wendy Smith is clearly a back yard breeder, a disgrace to TICA and other Ragdoll breeders. Wendy Smith claims she is registered under TICA, but unable to find her cattery name there, therefore assuming when I submit my kittens new name, it may come back to me showing breeder is not registered. Will update this if it happens like that.
2. Wendy Smith maintains a filthy cattery and filthy house - urine smell is at very unhealthy levels in this house, very unsanitary conditions in the home on the first level. When I asked to see where the kittens were kept, I was prohibited from entering the attached garage, which is where all cats/kittens are kept.
3. Wendy Smith used fowl and abusive language in email towards me, when I tried to get the original Contract back.
4. Wendy Smith referred to my kitten as a "[censored] bag" in email when trying to get Contract back, which is very concerning.
5. Discovered Wendy Smith changed her cattery name after I read posts on this website. Had I checked previous cattery name (Wen Wang or even Wendy Smith), I would have found multiple complaints against her, which is what I am facing now and would never have bought from her. The complaints that are dated back to 2012 are still ongoing.
6. One of the kittens Wendy presented to me had a severe upper respiratory illness. Several of the kittens had not been well socialized and were too shy and unfriendly.
7. Cattery was full of too many kittens from different litters, according to Wendy Smith. Called US Dept. of Agriculture, Virginia State Consumer Affairs Division after Wendy Smith refused to send me the signed original Contract, and was warned of scams and kitten-mills going on now in Northern Virginia. Witnessed one of the breeder cats as having visible bony structure and appeared pregnant. Saw two intact males who were well nourished.
8. When I brought my 4 month old kitten home, I discovered he did not know how to play, was dehydrated and refused water from a bowl, questionable litter habits, not well socialized as originally thought, fleas. Was rushed during the sale, citing more people were coming to see the kitten I selected.
8. Will update my complaint in a month if original signed Contract is not sent to me.
Wendy Smith can be reached at: MaoMaoVA.com or under Hobbly Classified. Wendy Smith's nick there is kittkngy335. Wendy Smith's cattery is located in Fairfax Station, Virginia.
I don't know where Wendy Smith got all her information from, but I do want to say that I paid $750.00 (It was not a discounted price) for a kitten with several significant congenital defects, which has been confirmed by specialists. Wendy, you need to know what these defects are, but I am too afraid of you to contact you to let you know what my kitten has. These congenital defects are in her cattery's blood line, per the specialists I have been to. I cannot contact Wendy Smith because of how she left things with me. She said she had an open cattery yet refused to show me where the kittens were kept - in the garage. Wendy Smith refused to send me the original Contract and still has not sent it to me, wonder why. Could it be she does not stand behind her breeding practices or has she something to hide. I did not threaten to sue her. She sent me emails with obscenities in them with abusive language in her attempt to bully and scare me away.
Wendy refused to inform me of the nutrition she was feeding my kitten, nor did she provide me with a bag of her food to help with the transition. She claims she is interested in nutrition, then why didn't she hand over a bag of the food she was feeding my kitten?
Yes, please do call the Fairfax County Code department and speak to the investigator who came out to her home along with animal control who cited her with many things. Find out the facts, not what Wendy Smith is yacking about here.
It's public record, you can look up Wendy Smiths court cases against her for reckless driving, DUI, etc, then go to the civil page and see the lawsuits against her. It doesn't stop there, she keeps changing her cattery name, there are lengthy complaints against Wendy Smith here on this webpage that other people have written about her cattery and the conditions the cats were living in, I am not the only one speaking up here. Buyer beware.
I just want to amend my last paragraph. Wendy Smith has numerous "infractions" for vehicle cases at Fairfax County courts, not DUI's.
My kitten has numerous congenital defects, but will not share any information with the breeder known as Wendy Smith, as I do not have a legal Contract, so as it stands, the breeder just sold me a kitten with no real Contract or lineage. I have spent thousands already to get to this point. You sold me a "large" 4 month old kitten, when he really was 6 months at point of sale, according to my vet. My kitten has been neutered now and will not breed, so his lineage is closed. Had Wendy Smith been fair and mailed the original Contract to me, then we would not be having this conversation, but Wendy Smith chose not to be fair. Question is... will Wendy Smith be fair to you?
This will be my last response about Wendy Smith. It's up to future buyers to investigate thoroughly.
Again, buyer beware.
I have requested to have my complaint against Wendy Smith removed from this complaint board and to date no one has responded from this board.
Thank you.
Debbie Smith, the customer decided to visit us about purchasing a kitten, but wasn’t able to drive. She was going to call an Uber to bring her so I offered to pick her up instead.
She picked up her kitten at a discounted price and I drove her home again. Later, she informed me that she forgot her contract inside a nylon bag that she left inside my car. After photocopying the document, I sent it to her by email and by text message. She responded angrily demanding the original copy. Following this statement, she threatened to sue me. I informed her that she could pick it up or send somebody else to pick up her contract at anytime she wanted.
I have offered to take the kitten back at a full refund but she refused, even though she claimed the kitten she got didn’t know how to play. As long as she sends the kitten back, that offer still stands.
Debbie Smith claimed that our cats that she saw were covered in fleas. Because of her report, someone from Fairfax County Animal Control came to our home. Despite searching vigorously, there were no fleas to be found. The official report is still on file. Anyone can call and verify it.
Sometime later, I got a notice from a company stating that her complaint was on the first google search page. The company offered to take down the complaint as long as I paid them a fee. I have no intentions to hide anything. As a breeder, there are tons of expenses and this fee is not something we are interested in paying.
I am a TICA registered breeder. All my cats are registered as purebred ragdolls. All of our kittens are registered as well and have TICA registration papers. We live in Northern Virginia. The prices of our kittens line up with that of other East Coast breeders’. Our kittens are house raised instead of some facilities enclosure. They are well socialized from day one.
I am a naturalized US citizen. I have lived here for over thirty years and spent six years in US graduate schools. I have qualifications to be a scientist or an engineer. Now, I am interested in feline nutrition and behavior. I like to have close relationships with my customers since I need statistics data on our cats’ size and behavior. It has come to a stage that I am matching different cats to a different family environment. Interested people can contact me at manager@maomaova.com
Debbie Smith,
please post what your specialist diagnosis on all defects of the kitten you claimed here.
Also check your PayPal account and see how much you paid me there. I gave you two round trips and you didn’t pay a penny for right?
I don’t Think it is reasonable that I should deliver whatever you forgot / left in my car. It is not my problem that you don’t have a car. Please hire somebody to get your stuff.
Also, as I offered earlier that full refund are guaranteed as long as you return that kitten.
Important! - I have worked with Wendy extensively and she has been a complete professional. Here's my full review, feel free to reach out to me.
These cats are truly special! My wife and I live in suburban Pennsylvania with our 5 children (ages 0, 2, 5, 16, 18). We both had experience with family cats during our childhood, but as we started our own family, we were not sure how cats would fit into our lifestyle. We have a German Shephard dog, who was 7 years old when we got our first ragdoll. Even though she was an older dog with anxiety who had never lived with cats before, these ragdolls have been the most friendly, amazing, and lovable companions for her that we could have ever imagined! Our first ragdoll, Oliver (a Blue Point) and our second ragdoll, Einstein (a Seal Point), both became such amazing friends with our dog that we later got three more ragdolls. Yes, as hard as it is to believe, we have 5 ragdolls in our house of 7 people (and the 80-pound German shepherd). All the cats get along so well! They all have individual personalities, but at the same time, they are all amazingly friendly and love to be around people. One of the most amazing things – they do not overreact to anything! With little children, we were always worried about one of them petting the cats too rough or playing too rough and causing the cats to scratch. To our great relief – these cats are amazing at playing with kids. They really get pushed around and don’t react at all. If they don’t want to deal with playing anymore, they’ll simply walk away and find somewhere to lay down. Simply put, they have just about the best temperament and disposition that you could want out of an animal.
Thinking of getting a ragdoll? Here’s my advice:
1. This may be the best breed of cat that exists. They’re amazingly friendly, they get along with each other, they get along with dogs, they get along with rough kids, and oh, they have the softest fur ever.
2. WENDY IS AMAZING. I have spoken to her many times about the cats and she has always been very professional. She has an amazing talent working with these animals and I can tell that every one of them gets very personal attention. They are so well adjusted, well trained to use a litter box, and so smart as they grow up! They do very well with voice training (or a squirt bottle for when you need to stay quiet), so if you’re diligent with them, you really can keep them off of the nice furniture and away from anything that you want to keep extra-careful.
3. If you have any questions for me, message me at jpowellml AT gmail.com . I’d even be happy to provide pictures. I’m a real reviewer with 5 real ragdolls that all came from Wendy’s cattery in northern Virginia. She is a wonderful person and I hope you get to meet some of her wonderful kitties!
I visited the MaoMaoVA ragdolls and Wendy let me see the cattery. The kittens were as cute as the pictures described online so that was a plus. However the dozen kittens I visited were living outside in a chicken coop covered in moving blankets. Remnants of dirty cans showed she had been feeding them friskies wet cat food but it did not specify it was for kittens. Water was in plastic tupperwares on the floor and did not look very fresh. This was in October, I hope that they are brought indoor/heated conditions now. The cattery was also filthy and the kittens smelled like barn animals. Wendy tried to pressure me to buy the cat on the spot -- classic sales tactic. She was also quite rough in her handling of them.
I told her I wanted to think about it and wanted to see the medical records. She said she doesn't test kittens, but not to worry about it because she would give me a new cat if there were congenital problems within the year, so I asked for the health records of the parents. She said she would look but never found them.
As for the record of health for the kitten I was to adopt, the record she sent me only showed that she had received one round of distemper vaccines, and that this kitten was overdue for over two months for the second round of distemper vaccinations. This is already a red flag, because the contract says kittens should be up to date/present a clean bill of health upon adoption (so it shows that the seller is not honoring the contract before we even took a kitten home --- good luck trying to get her to honor the contract if your cat has problems later down the road) also that the health record did not test for Feline leukemia (FeLV) or feline aids (FIV) or Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), which I know ragdolls are prone to. Since she could not find the health records for the kitten's parents either, I asked her if she would take the kitten to get tested for these illnesses, and even offered to reimburse her for the cost of the visit. At this point the seller Wendy started to get cross with us and said the testing of the cat is "not her problem."
This seller did nothing to help me to have confidence in the health of her kittens, kept her cats in dirty/poor conditions outside, and honestly I feel bad for all those beautiful little ragdoll cats. I would not recommend this seller to anyone.