Anonymous
map-marker Elizabethtown, Kentucky

Simply Silver Persians Cattery - Persian Cat Review from Elizabethtown, Kentucky

stars-rating-full stars-rating-full stars-rating-full stars-rating-full stars-rating-full
Rebecca Sprague and Jesse replied to an email I sent to them in February of 2013 regarding a kitten. We had 2nd choice of this litter in question, and we drove from Kentucky to nearly Chicago to pick up our Sophie. She was known as pink, her collar color. Upon arrival to their CLEAN home, I picked up my Sophie and my husband and Mr. Fuggles got acquainted. He handled him for quite some time and actually tried to get me change my mind. He loved the spot on his head. He had literally the best personality of the entire littler! He was absolutely precious, whereas my Sophie was skiddish at first, which is why my husband loved Mr. Fuggles. He actually wanted him and mentioned getting two! After playing with the kittens, we got our paperwork, and was shown everything by Jesse. Rebecca had known my desire for the pink kitten had grown via the CLEAR photos and videos that I received on a regular basis. I was so afraid the woman before me would choose her, but she didn't, she chose purple collar kitty. Sophie was immediately taken to the vet the next day because we had I believe a 48 hour window. She was given a completely perfect bill of health. That was 3 1/2 years ago. She is my baby to this day. She is gorgeous and known as the "Fancy Feast cat" in our very small town. When we picked up out kitten, we were warmly greeted. We were allowed all of the interaction time we wanted. Rebecca even asked Jesse to get a pet taxi for us because in our rush, we had forgotten one. I told her I would mail it back or pay her for it, and she said no to both, we still have it. Sophie was clean, smelled well, and not matted when we got her. She has clear eyes, as did ALL of the kittens. They all will run some when they are younger and intermittent times, but they do outgrow this. Sophie has no staining on her fur around her eyes. She is as close to picture perfect as you can get. I am not someone who will defend wrong, but I will not watch someone be personally attacked either, when I know how different my experience was. These people went above and beyond in communicating, sending pictures, videos- all high quality, might I add. They made my dream of owning this type of cat come true, and they did do with great professionalism and respect. I was 110% happy with the service and "fluffy product" that we received. Below, you will see pictures of our kitten purchased from Rebecca and Jesse. The first four were taken the night we brought her home, which is also the same day we picked her up. I have also added a screenshot of Rebecca welcoming the idea of us picking our kitten up. The very last two photos you will see are pictures taken of the kitten in question, Mr. Fuggles, on April 16, which my husband took while I was holding my kitten, and Mr. Fuggles was about to climb up the couch to us. Noticed his fur is not matter, and he looks very clean, as his eyes look clear on this date. Same went for every kitten in that home. I can not fathom his health declining that much in that environment from the time I held him and played with him until he was revived. I will not dispute what you have said ma'am, because I wasn't there, but I can show you that he was NOT in that condition before. He was perfectly healthy when visited in their home in late March. Thank you Rebecca and Jesse for our sweet Sophie. You can see that she has a very passive temperament since my girls love to dress her up, which I believe is because of the love and attenrion she was shown while in your care. Have a blessed day. The Hess family from Kentucky
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Reason of review:
Good quality
Manson Nux
map-marker Columbia City, Indiana

Purchased kitten- deformed and dirty

Simply Silver Persians Cattery - Purchased kitten- deformed and dirty
Simply Silver Persians Cattery - Purchased kitten- deformed and dirty - Image 2
Simply Silver Persians Cattery - Purchased kitten- deformed and dirty - Image 3
Simply Silver Persians Cattery - Purchased kitten- deformed and dirty - Image 4
I recently purchased a kitten from Rebecca Sprague at http://silvercattery.com/. I was so excited to finally pick up my kittens at the airport as they were a surprise for my child. Within minutes I had taken one of my kittens out of the pet carrier to check him out and cuddle with him. I was in for the shock of my life. My poor kitten has a deformed mouth and jaw area. He was missing several teeth, one of his canine teeth was so offset it was cutting into the roof of his mouth! The other bottom canine was sticking out the side of his mouth, he was completely unable to close his little mouth all the way. Not ONCE was I told I was purchasing a kitten with a deformity. While I was provided with a few pictures of him, his jaw appeared fine. The only pictures I was provided were very small baby photos of him, which were grainy. I am extremely disappointed by the fact Rebecca did not mention this to me. After spending $1500 on a kitten I expected a lot more. After further looking at the kittens, both has mats on their belly and between their legs and arms. They smelled horrible. The male kitten's eyes with extremely filthy. Both looked at though they were never brushed or given baths. As if this wasn't enough, the only paperwork I received was a crumpled piece of paper from Rebecca's vet. Then I noticed green puss coming from the female kitten's eyes.This only further escalated my anger. I called Rebecca, but instead talked to her husband. He claimed they never once noticed an issue. He proceeded to blame me, the airport, and the kitten. How on earth was I able to detect a problem within minutes, but these horrible breeders claim their wasn't an issue????? I feel deceived and lied to. Rebecca then tried to claim this issue was my fault! Rebecca Sprague has no respect for her customers or her kittens, or the Dearheart blood line to be selling kittens with deformities and not make her buyers aware of any problem. I want to make sure this never happens to another hopeful customer of hers. Purchasing a kitten from http://silvercattery.com/ will only bring extreme disappointment.
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Loss:
$1500
4 comments
Guest

Since I know that online reviews can have a strong impact on a small business I felt compelled to rebut this negative review with a review of my own. Simply Silver Persians is a small hobby cattery. Unlike many large-scale catteries, the Spragues utilize professional veterinary services for all of their kitten care including check-ups and vaccinations. In general, when you purchase a kitten from a small-scale breeder, expect less genetic diversity & expertise, but more hands on socialization & attention.

I purchased two male kittens from the Simply Silver cattery less than a year ago. I drove to their cattery to select my kittens and to pick them up when they were weaned. On both occasions, the kittens were freshly washed and groomed. Rebecca & Jesse were very helpful in responding to my barrage of emails about the kittens. Persian kittens require a lot of upkeep; so I was thankful for all of their helpful advise. In the first few months, our kittens needed constant washing & eye cleaning; however, they outgrew this phase. Simply Silver Persians are “doll-faced” as opposed to “peke-faced,” so their eyes do not weep once they reach adolescence (unlike most show Persians). Their fur is exceptionally long and silky, which means that it mats almost immediately; so do not be surprised if a shipped kitten has a few knots. To keep them looking their best, you must brush them daily and bathe them weekly. However, since the Spragues bathe their kittens regularly, any kitten(s) purchased from their cattery will already be accustomed to water, etc.

I absolutely adore my two Simply Silver Persians. I would not hesitate to purchase another kitten from this cattery. However, as with any pet purchase, I would strongly recommend picking up your kitten in person rather than having it shipped – that way any questions or concerns could be addressed immediately. Please keep in mind that all Persians are predisposed to genetic abnormalities (as are many varieties of purebred cats); however, both of our cats were found to be healthy by our veterinarian and tested negative for parasites and disease. Based upon my knowledge of the Spragues, I believe that they would have exchanged the hapless Mr. Fuggles for a different kitten had they been provided with documentation from a veterinarian per their Health Guarantee. Please do not allow one negative review to scare you away from this cattery.

Guest

I would like to comment on the above abusive letter regarding Rebecca Sprague and Simply Silver Persians Cattery. When I read this persons comments about the deformed kittens mouth, how it was matted, and it smelled, I could NOT BELIEVE what I was reading!

I bought an adorable little ball of fluff from Rebecca two years ago. I chose not to have my kitten shipped, as I wanted to see for myself where my kitten came from. I drove all the way from NJ to Indiana to pick him up. Rebecca's home was very clean, and the cats were well taken care of.

Before I bought my kitten, they sent me many high def pictures of him. He can be seen as a kitten, and full grown cat on their website. They also sent me videos of him as well. Kody was, and still is, perfect in every way!

I have had Persians for 18 years now, and I have to say that I am not dissatisfied in the least with Simply Silver Persians. They gave me the vet statement, as long as our signed document when I picked up Kody. All this being said, I am concerned for Fuggles. If those pictures are real, it is obvious that cats jawline is not straight.

My concern is for the cat. I hope it is not in any pain, and instead of placing blame, I hope someone makes sure it can be taken care of. Persians are susceptible to jaw/teeth issues, and must be checked. I know of a vet that missed a mouth problem, causing the Persian severe pain, only to be brought back a second time, before the vet noticed anything.

As far as the other pictures.. they could have been taken after the cat was transported on the plane. Perhaps it was not a great experience for the kitten.

That is another reason why I personally would not subject my kitten to it, and I drove the long distance to pick him up. Bottom line, this woman should have picked up her kitten in person, and inspected it before she handed over her money.

Guest

My name is Rebecca Sprague, owner of SSPC. I am here to address the completely false accusations made by Ashley Wittling.

Let me start by saying that I have been in business for over 5 years in the Northern Indiana area as a small hobby breeder. We currently have 3 females and 1 male in our entire household, so we are in no way a "mill" or a commercial breeder. Our cats are part of the family and allowed to roam as they please in our household. They are all considered dear members of our family.

We have placed a great number of our Dearheart Persian kittens into loving homes all over the United States by way of airlines shipping, and by welcoming customers into our home for viewing and pickups. I can say with 100% certaintly that we have never had so much as one complaint leveled against us up until this point.

We were contacted by Ashley Wittling by phone on March 24th 2013 expressing an interest in Star (female) and Mr.Fuggles (male). We spoke on the phone for close to 15 minutes, she then inquired about the two kittens and their different personalities. I informed her that the kitten in question "Mr.Fuggles" was not as attractive as the other kittens...HENCE THE NAME, but that he had an amazing personality...which he did. Not only was the aesthetic trait she was speaking of completely unnoticed by a trained, licensed veterinary doctor, but he was issued a clean bill of health in all areas as stated on the vet papers below. The kitten was seen the first time at around 3/26/13 by our vet, and the kitten in question was approximately 8weeks of age at that time.

Shortly after we hung up with her she made the $200 holding deposit for each kitten. She told us of her intentions to come to Indiana to pick up the kittens in person at our home. After repeated attempts to contact her without response we finally heard from her on April 16th at which time she insured us that she was still interested in the kittens. We did not hear from her again until April 24th when payment & a confirmation that Ashley was still planning to pick them up in person was received. On April 26th Ashley Wittling asked if we could ship the kittens to her that week suddenly changing the original plans. Since we were already shipping off another kitten from the airport that coming weekend on May 4th we accomodated her request and we made the last minute reservations the flight. My point here is that we were never trying to hide anything from Ashley as we were expecting her to show up at our front door in soon to pick up the kittens before she suddenly changed things.

Late May 2nd (2 days before flight) we took the kitten in for a 2nd vet check up to obtain his health certification stating he was in good health and in no danger to fly. He received yet another clean bill of health from our vet this time as well. Keep in mind we in no way EVER blamed our vet for this situation as stated by Ashley. We only make these statements to show that if it was not addressed as a serious or life threatening condition by our vet nor was it something that we noticed, so it came as quite a shock to us that they were making such claims of him looking like a "sabrtooth tiger", naturally we started asking if it looked like a fresh injury that could have happened during the flight. We explained to Ashley that we had never had an issue with the PetSafe program although if her vet did find a fresh injury to inform us immediately.

Contrary to Ashley's completly false statement claiming that we only provided "grainy photos" to help her pick her kitten we actually shoot all of our pictures and video with Hi Def camera and video recorder, not just for her, but for every kitten and every customer we have ever had. In Ashley's case we provided two hidefinition still pictures, 1 of front profile and one of side profile (seen below), on top of that a total of 4 HI DEFINTION VIDEOS that were made of that particular litter for her to view to help her decide which kitten out of the bunch she wanted. *Mr.Fuggles is the kitten with the green collar in all of the videos*

We also keep every kitten identified with color coded collars so that kittens are always identifiable to the customer from the time they are 4 weeks old until the time they are shipped. You can see this for yourself on you tube. Just type in simply silver persians. You will see a large collection of videos of all the previous kittens that we have ever placed into other homes. I challenge anyone to view those videos and say that our kittens look neglected, abused, unhappy, have matted fur, dirty, etc. Our vet would literally laugh if you told him that one of our kittens was matted, smelly, dirty or uncared for as we are well known for HOW CLEAN our kittens are every time we go into have them checked up. Miss Wittling knows in her heart that she is lying about this 100%.

In fact, we go far above and beyond what most other catteries are willing to do in regards to helping customers see every aspect of the kittens personality and looks. Do we open their mouths and do a dental inspection on each video?...no, we leave that up to the professionals. No kitten is ever perfect...especially with the Persian Breeds who at times are subject to congenital predispositions towards nasal, tooth, eye, and jaw abnormalities. Actually those "abnormalities" are part of what makes the Persian Breed so unique and desireable to a large group of cat lovers around the world and these "Typy Persians" are sought after just much as the Traditional face or Doll Face Persians. That being said, we always make sure that before ANY kitten is placed into a new home that he/she is given a clean bill of health by our vet...free from any life threatening problems. This coupled with the numerous high quality videos and pictures provided should have been more than enough on our part to help the customer choose which kitten is best suited for them. The rest of the responsibility must be placed squarely on the shoulders of the buyer to select the "look" and "personality" of the kitten as desired by the individual. If there was ever any doubt we will always submit new pics or videos at the request of the customer without hesitation.

I would like to address the statement made by Ashley in which she claims that the kitten has several missing teeth. I cant beleive I am actually having to explain this to an adult, but the reason behind the missing teeth is that at 3-5 months of age all kittens loose their baby teeth and get replaced by their adult teeth. Furthermore they are born without teeth to allow them to feed from their mother without hurting her. The "deformity" of which Ashley Wittling is speaking of, was not visible to us at anytime during the kittens stay at our home. Ashley appars to have gone to great lengths to provide pictures of this kitten looking as utterly disgusting and pittiful as possible. Well ... videos can not be altered or manipulated so I invite those who are in doubt to view the videos with Mr.Fuggles in them on youtube. All of the videos containing him are labeled in the description box with the word "Fuggles". Below are the videos, pictures, and vet documents that were used in the ad for both Mr.Fuggles and his litter mate Star with the supposed green puss problem. Keep in mind the pictures of Star were taken 1 week before the actual shipment of her to Mrs. Wittling and Star was documented in good health by our vet days before her flight. Also the crumpled piece of paper she is speaking of is the actual health certificate he was issued to be able to fly. By TSAA regulations that is the only piece of paper work we were allowed to put in there with them. I suggest to Ashley Wittling to check her e-mail as I sent both the CFA registration papers along with the vet papers to her on May 6th, just a couple days after arrival as we do for all of our customers.

I think what this boils down to is that she was unhappy with the choice she made when she met the kitten in person and is willing to go to any effort to slander my name to either get her money back or hurt me trying. Unfortunately for Miss Wittling my reputation speaks for itself and I have hundreds of satisfied customers to back me up. I have been in business for over 5 years and you cannot find one complaint on my hobby cattery up until yours.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-649036

Rebecca Sprague and Jesse replied to an email I sent to them in February of 2013 regarding a kitten. We had 2nd choice of this litter in question, and we drove from Kentucky to nearly Chicago to pick up our Sophie.

She was known as pink, her collar color. Upon arrival to their CLEAN home, I picked up my Sophie and my husband and Mr. Fuggles got acquainted. He handled him for quite some time and actually tried to get me change my mind.

He loved the spot on his head. He had literally the best personality of the entire littler! He was absolutely precious, whereas my Sophie was skiddish at first, which is why my husband loved Mr. Fuggles.

He actually wanted him and mentioned getting two! After playing with the kittens, we got our paperwork, and was shown everything by Jesse. Rebecca had known my desire for the pink kitten had grown via the CLEAR photos and videos that I received on a regular basis. I was so afraid the woman before me would choose her, but she didn't, she chose purple collar kitty.

Sophie was immediately taken to the vet the next day because we had I believe a 48 hour window. She was given a completely perfect bill of health. That was 3 1/2 years ago. She is my baby to this day.

She is gorgeous and known as the "Fancy Feast cat" in our very small town.

When we picked up out kitten, we were warmly greeted. We were allowed all of the interaction time we wanted. Rebecca even asked Jesse to get a pet taxi for us because in our rush, we had forgotten one.

I told her I would mail it back or pay her for it, and she said no to both, we still have it.

Sophie was clean, smelled well, and not matted when we got her. She has clear eyes, as did ALL of the kittens. They all will run some when they are younger and intermittent times, but they do outgrow this. Sophie has no staining on her fur around her eyes.

She is as close to picture perfect as you can get.

I am not someone who will defend wrong, but I will not watch someone be personally attacked either, when I know how different my experience was. These people went above and beyond in communicating, sending pictures, videos- all high quality, might I add. They made my dream of owning this type of cat come true, and they did do with great professionalism and respect.

I was 110% happy with the service and "fluffy product" that we received.

I have left my own review with pictures of our kitten the day she was picked up, pictures of her now, and probably much to everyone's surprise, pictures of Mr.

Fuggles, the kitten in question, because we loved him and took pictures of him in their home! :)

The Hess family from Kentucky

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