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I figured I'd start a new thread, since our new little boy is starting his new life with us. As some of you know, I took the drive up to New England yesterday to pick him up and he was still yet to be named. As promised, here's an anecdote of my journey....I may get a little long-winded and I apologize for that 
.
Yesterday, the alarm went off at 5:30am after getting about two hours of sleep as the anticipation kept me up all night. I made my customary cup of coffee and pondered whether it was a good idea to take the trip or not as I was still exhausted. In a now or never moment, I sucked it up and headed out the door at 6am.
Plugging the coordinates into the GPS, it said that the trip would take four hours. Those that know me, know that I hate long drives and get rather antsy even on 90-minute drives, but for the sake of saving on shipping the lil bugger, I decided to take the trip in steps, taking breaks along the way. I don't like buying anything sight unseen, plus I wanted to meet the breeder, see the parents and the overall setup.
The trip up there was rather uneventful and quite boring. I was proud of myself, since I made it a full 3 hours before taking a break. There was no traffic whatsoever, so that actually shaved 15 minutes off of the trip. I probably would have done the whole trip in one sitting, but my morning coffee got the best of me, so I took a 5 minute break at a rest stop to take care of business and buy a bottle of water. From there, it was the just a short 45 minute trip til the destination.
Once I arrived, I called the breeder and she greeted me at the door, along with a four legged naked friend...not a cat, but her pet chinese crested. We walked up to the living room, where there were a few lil well-behaved naked blobs on the couch. Upon seeing me, they all got up to greet me I immediately fell in love, lol. The breeder and I spoke for a few minutes and she wanted to show me around. Offering full-disclosure, she mentioned that the baby we reserved is showing hair (flock coat) and that her cats usually lose it all by two years of age (which I already knew after doing my usual tedious research), but sometimes potential buyers get paranoid. Even with that, the points may retain hair. In fact, there was one in particular that I also fell in love with that was a return, because of a paranoid buyer. I appreciated the fact that she wanted to make sure that I was fully informed and 100% happy.
Upon going through the house, I realized that this was indeed a cat owned house, LOL. She was just living in it, laboring after all of their needs. Every set of breeders had their own room of the house which were set up
as furnished bedrooms, along with cat furniture....a cat palace of sorts in each room. Every cat was clean as a whistle and were definitely well taken care of. I've been to a couple of breeders houses in the past and walked out, due to the conditions and this was definitely a welcome surprise.
One thing I noticed about the naked Peterbalds, as opposed to Canadian Sphynx is that they are BALD. Even the most naked Canadian Sphynx that I've been exposed to have that minute layer of peach fuzz. The Peterbalds are like feeling warm rubber. Their personalities are also a little bit different, having the Oriental Shorthair genetics in them as well. Very similar to what I was used to, but had a bit of a twist in the way they interacted with me.
Then there was the nursery room. Let me tell you... I wanted to walk out with every little angel in there. LOL. I met the siblings of the one that we reserved, along with a more recent litter who were currently being prepared for the next wave. They were all adorable. Ours, as soon as, I entered the room looked up and started purring. I knew that we chose the right one. The breeder even said that he had the best personality out of all of them. The others (two identical brothers, a black female and a chocolate pointed female), who are on their way this week to Texas, Lousiana and other New England states all were taken first, being that they had less hair than ours, testament to the buyer paranoia.
Upon picking him up, I was hooked. Besides his loud purr, he started kneading my chest with the "heaven" face on. Once I conveyed that I was totally happy with him, we went back to the living room. The whole time he was climbing all over my shoulders, purring, etc. I went over all of the particulars with the breeder...what he's currently eating, litter, vet records, pedigree, etc. She then gave me some supplies...grabbed him and threw a sock sweater and a t-shirt on him for the ride and we were ready for the journey back. After another few minutes of chatting, it was time to go. I belted his carrier into the passenger seat of my Jeep and away we went.
After getting some gas for the ride home, it was back on the interstate. I must admit that I almost missed a couple of exits on the way staring at him, haha. He was good for the most part and got a little annoyed a couple of times being in his "kitty jail cell", meowing with his lil gruff meow non-stop and clawing the bars, but then resorted to kneading his blankets and then falling asleep. He had two 15 minute episodes like this, but then finally fell asleep until the first stop two hours in. I had a bit of a headache, so I decided to take an earlier break. After going through the drive thru at a rest stop, I parked and ate some lunch and it was onto the home stretch. He went through his couple of episodes again, but then fell asleep for the last two hours of the ride. All in all, it took 4 1/2 hours to get back, because there was some traffic.
His first stop wasn't the house though. Instead, we went to my wife's workplace, since I was getting back in the vicinity of time when she was leaving. Upon getting there, I brought him in and the place lit up. My wife started tearing, since she was so happy and in love with him. It was bittersweet for the both of us since this is another step at mending the wounds left from Gryff's passing. He purred and purred and all of the women couldn't put him down. Once they were done, it was finally time to go home.
Now that I know I've gotten long-winded (sorry again), I'll leave it at this for now. I'll update with the events pertaining to the introduction to the others and naming him later on (yes we continued with the Harry Potter theme, although it was an arduous task to pick one). In the meantime, here's some pictures...ones that he stood still for as he's quite the bundle of energy. We love our new little fuzz(for now)ball......Enjoy and thanks again for all of your support and positive vibes!
.Yesterday, the alarm went off at 5:30am after getting about two hours of sleep as the anticipation kept me up all night. I made my customary cup of coffee and pondered whether it was a good idea to take the trip or not as I was still exhausted. In a now or never moment, I sucked it up and headed out the door at 6am.
Plugging the coordinates into the GPS, it said that the trip would take four hours. Those that know me, know that I hate long drives and get rather antsy even on 90-minute drives, but for the sake of saving on shipping the lil bugger, I decided to take the trip in steps, taking breaks along the way. I don't like buying anything sight unseen, plus I wanted to meet the breeder, see the parents and the overall setup.
The trip up there was rather uneventful and quite boring. I was proud of myself, since I made it a full 3 hours before taking a break. There was no traffic whatsoever, so that actually shaved 15 minutes off of the trip. I probably would have done the whole trip in one sitting, but my morning coffee got the best of me, so I took a 5 minute break at a rest stop to take care of business and buy a bottle of water. From there, it was the just a short 45 minute trip til the destination.
Once I arrived, I called the breeder and she greeted me at the door, along with a four legged naked friend...not a cat, but her pet chinese crested
. We walked up to the living room, where there were a few lil well-behaved naked blobs on the couch. Upon seeing me, they all got up to greet me I immediately fell in love, lol. The breeder and I spoke for a few minutes and she wanted to show me around. Offering full-disclosure, she mentioned that the baby we reserved is showing hair (flock coat) and that her cats usually lose it all by two years of age (which I already knew after doing my usual tedious research), but sometimes potential buyers get paranoid. Even with that, the points may retain hair. In fact, there was one in particular that I also fell in love with that was a return, because of a paranoid buyer. I appreciated the fact that she wanted to make sure that I was fully informed and 100% happy.Upon going through the house, I realized that this was indeed a cat owned house, LOL. She was just living in it, laboring after all of their needs. Every set of breeders had their own room of the house which were set up
as furnished bedrooms, along with cat furniture....a cat palace of sorts in each room. Every cat was clean as a whistle and were definitely well taken care of. I've been to a couple of breeders houses in the past and walked out, due to the conditions and this was definitely a welcome surprise.
One thing I noticed about the naked Peterbalds, as opposed to Canadian Sphynx is that they are BALD. Even the most naked Canadian Sphynx that I've been exposed to have that minute layer of peach fuzz. The Peterbalds are like feeling warm rubber. Their personalities are also a little bit different, having the Oriental Shorthair genetics in them as well. Very similar to what I was used to, but had a bit of a twist in the way they interacted with me.
Then there was the nursery room. Let me tell you... I wanted to walk out with every little angel in there. LOL. I met the siblings of the one that we reserved, along with a more recent litter who were currently being prepared for the next wave. They were all adorable. Ours, as soon as, I entered the room looked up and started purring. I knew that we chose the right one. The breeder even said that he had the best personality out of all of them. The others (two identical brothers, a black female and a chocolate pointed female), who are on their way this week to Texas, Lousiana and other New England states all were taken first, being that they had less hair than ours, testament to the buyer paranoia.
Upon picking him up, I was hooked. Besides his loud purr, he started kneading my chest with the "heaven" face on. Once I conveyed that I was totally happy with him, we went back to the living room. The whole time he was climbing all over my shoulders, purring, etc. I went over all of the particulars with the breeder...what he's currently eating, litter, vet records, pedigree, etc. She then gave me some supplies...grabbed him and threw a sock sweater and a t-shirt on him for the ride and we were ready for the journey back. After another few minutes of chatting, it was time to go. I belted his carrier into the passenger seat of my Jeep and away we went.
After getting some gas for the ride home, it was back on the interstate. I must admit that I almost missed a couple of exits on the way staring at him, haha. He was good for the most part and got a little annoyed a couple of times being in his "kitty jail cell", meowing with his lil gruff meow non-stop and clawing the bars, but then resorted to kneading his blankets and then falling asleep. He had two 15 minute episodes like this, but then finally fell asleep until the first stop two hours in. I had a bit of a headache, so I decided to take an earlier break. After going through the drive thru at a rest stop, I parked and ate some lunch and it was onto the home stretch. He went through his couple of episodes again, but then fell asleep for the last two hours of the ride. All in all, it took 4 1/2 hours to get back, because there was some traffic.
His first stop wasn't the house though. Instead, we went to my wife's workplace, since I was getting back in the vicinity of time when she was leaving. Upon getting there, I brought him in and the place lit up. My wife started tearing, since she was so happy and in love with him. It was bittersweet for the both of us since this is another step at mending the wounds left from Gryff's passing. He purred and purred and all of the women couldn't put him down. Once they were done, it was finally time to go home.
Now that I know I've gotten long-winded (sorry again), I'll leave it at this for now. I'll update with the events pertaining to the introduction to the others and naming him later on (yes we continued with the Harry Potter theme, although it was an arduous task to pick one). In the meantime, here's some pictures...ones that he stood still for as he's quite the bundle of energy. We love our new little fuzz(for now)ball......Enjoy and thanks again for all of your support and positive vibes!
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