Sticky Situation - Need Advice!

My friend is beside me and dictating as I type this. She is in a sticky situation and we would appreciate ANY help we can get.

Four months ago, she purchased a kitten from a breeder with a contract. Due to some circumstances that came up, she had no choice but to ask the breeder to take the kitten back. She couldn't keep him anymore. The breeder was unable to take the kitten back into his home, but gave her permission to look for a new home for the kitten. He said he would help too. The new owner would sign a new contract with the breeder.

My friend tried to screen as best she could based on replies to her ads and then emails to find this kitten a good home. There was a particularly good reply from someone in Toronto (she lives in Alberta). This person sounded like a very good home but didn't care for the papers as he would be a "pet only". Because of the distance and language barrier between the breeder and the interested buyer, the breeder didn't sign a new contract with the buyer.

The initial contract my friend had with the breeder states that the kitten must be neutered between the ages of 6-8 months. She laid out some of the points to follow for the buyer and the buyer agreed to all of them. These included sending a copy of the neuter certificate to the breeder, having the kitten neutered between 6-8 months, keeping him for life and not reselling him, etc. The buyer agreed to all these points via e-mail communication. The deal was that my friend would send the kitten to her and she would have those things done when the time was right.

I've taken some law classes and according to the law, email correspondence ARE contracts if there is an agreement made.

The problem is this... while browsing online, my friend found out that the buyer has kittens for sale! She used another email account and replied to the ad, pretending to be an interested buyer. Well, she got a lot of info from the buyer of her kitten. Turns out the buyer actually had many cats of her own and even a breeding pair (not registered, from byb) which produced this current litter.

She told my friend she only had ONE cat (two including the kitten). Turns out she has many more. She even said in her email response that she retired her old male and has new young male to use, but he is still too young. She is referring to my friend's kitten. In one week, the kitten will be 8 months old.

My friend has her real full name, address, phone number, and vet clinic information. She is distraught and does not want the kitten to be bred and contribute to the BYBs.

She is going to email the original breeder and inform him of all this. That lady has no idea we know all this. We have refrained from contacting her because we don't want her to know we know and mess up the whole situation before we come up with a plan. My friend is totally regretting not making the breeder sign a contract with the buyer but as I told her, email correspondences count as contracts if there was an agreement, just that it'd be harder to enforce.

What steps do you recommend we take at this point? Thanks !!

Here was one of the original e-mail correspondence my friend and the buyer had.

In one of her very first emails, she wrote to the buyer, "However, this kitten would still have to be neutered between the age of 6-8 months."

FerrisCat, I believe the breeder has the papers. It was never transferred to my friend's name since the contract states papers would only be transferred upon proof of neuter. Since my friend didn't have that done, she never got the papers and the buyer certainly doesn't have them.

She is prepared to give money back for the kitten but what about the shipping charges? The buyer paid for shipping and we're not sure how to get him back right now. They are practically across the country...

Another thing - should my friend contact the buyer and let her know that we know everything? I'm afraid she might just ignore the emails and calls after she finds out we know.

Oh nono, my friend lives in Alberta, so it's within the same country.

The breeder's husband is going to call us in an hour when he gets off work. The breeder herself is Russian and can't really speak english. She called us and we didn't understand what she was saying. We just made out some phrases here and there like, "Don't worry, no problem, she doesn't have registration." I really hope they care enough to agree to go through all this. Sounded like she wasn't too worried because the buyer doesn't have the registration papers but I pray they understand the damages of bybs.

Thanks for your help so far, FerrisCat. Gives us something to start with. I personally have a friend in that city but I don't know if he'd do me the big favor.

mews2much, it's a Scottish fold.

I'll keep you posted.

Spoke to the breeder. They are concerned with this, thank goodness. They even said they are worried she will produce bad quality kittens.

They asked my friend to forward all the emails to them, which she did earlier today.

Meanwhile, my friend emailed the buyer just to ask how the kitten was doing and a "friendly reminder" that the kitten is now reaching 8 months old and is she planning to have him neutered soon?

We wanted her response on paper just in case. In reality it's going to be hard to prove the right cat has been neutered because she has so many and in the same colors too.

The breeder said he will ask TICA for advice after we hear back from the buyer. I don't think TICA will be able to do anything except tell him what you guys told me here, right?

My friend told the breeder about the ownership and registration factor, so hopefully they can act on that. We're not sure if the breeder will bring this to the legal level though. Updates as they come. I really hope too they can get the kitten back.

Thanks all.

She didn't answer the neuter question that my friend asked but she told my friend she was going to email the breeder to get his papers.

We then spoke to the breeder and she had asked to buy his papers off them. The breeder wants 500 + breeding/showing contract and the lady agreed. The breeder sells pet kittens for 1000 and for breeding, 1500. So she is to pay the difference (although my friend sold the kitten to her for much less under the impression that he was going to be a PET ONLY!). The breeder had a too bad so sad attitude when hearing my friend sold the kitten to her for a lower price and said she could try and get the difference back if she wanted, but he's not going to ask on her behalf.

Friend doesn't care about the money, but this whole thing is just WRONG!

My friend protested, saying this lady is going to breed him to non-registered cats and the breeder said they will add a stipulation to the contract stating that she is not to breed him to a non-registered cat.

................... I just have no comment.

If the breeder isn't agreeing to get the cat back, then we can't really do anything either. I am miffed.

OK, the wife tried her best to write my friend an email in English. She is russian and doesn't speak english well, so translations are done by her husband. This time she is writing by herself.

She said she would have never sold the kitten to this woman, but given the circumstances, she is doing her best to rectify the situation.

"we can not take it back cat! She paid you the money and it had no obligations to us, because we do not have her contract! We have never and would never have sold it to a kitten! But now, in this situation, we are doing everything possible to protect [kitten's name]! Do not blame yourself ... You're not to blame ... People like her are false and disingenuous - they are difficult to distinguish from normal.We now write a contract in which it will be forced to behave differently with respect to [kitten's name]. But if it does not comply with the terms of the contract, then we can already take her kitten back - we will have that right!"

I assume what she means is that she has no right to take the cat back because they don't have a contract with her? So she's doing her best to "fix" this situation by enforcing a breeding contract on her and if she doesn't comply, ie. breeds to a non-registered cat, then they can take the cat back since they will now have a written and signed contract with them.

I'm going to write an email for my friend and let her know that she technically has the right since she has the papers and she is the rightful owner, but I think maybe she wants to avoid getting into the legal details and bringing this to court.

Just spoke to my friend. The breeder sent her a copy of the breeding contract for her to edit b/c they want to make sure it makes sense so the lady won't find any loopholes.

We don't know how to approach this situation now that the breeder has agreed to let the lady breed with a breeding contract. Doesn't that basically mean that the breeder ALLOWS the transfer of ownership, like FerrisCat mentioned, getting the paperwork would be proof of ownership?

I emailed the breeder myself and told her there are two other options and let her know what steps we could try legally. I haven't heard back from her but she did speak to my friend this morning about editing the breeding contract, so...

You're right, my friend may be able to sue her for not holding up her end of the bargain, but even if she wins the case, the lady just might be ordered to pay her some money. Nowhere in their emails did my friend make clear that she would have permission to take the cat back if the lady didn't have him neutered. And from what I know, she's not in the best financial situation now so I don't think she has the $ to hire a lawyer and go thru this whole process. Sigh.

The thing is, she didn't violate the contract b/c she got consent from the breeder to resell the kitten. The original contract w/ my friend states that she's not to resell or give him away "without permission." So if the breeder went that way, my friend would be in trouble for breaking the contract, but she didn't.

I don't want to delve too much about this spay/neuter topic b/c it's too late for that, but yeah, the breeder doesn't believe in early neutering. They said the later, the better, and recommended at least 8 months even though the contract said 6-8 months. My frd then brought the kitten to see a holistic vet and the vet also didn't want to neuter early. At the time my friend sold the kitten to this lady, the kitten was 4.5 months old.

Seeing how this whole situation has panned out, I agree it would've been better if the kitten was altered early but given the circumstances at that point in time, it wasn't done, so here we are now.