Hard decision

We have been offered the chance to take over two, two year old, completely pedigree Ragdoll cats. We know their owners, the husband is little bear's godfather, and they are having to get rid of some of their well loved and well looked after pets as they have more animals than Noah. They would not have asked for a penny, just wanted to know that the cats would be okay.

We said 'no' but know that the cats have gone to a good, loving home.

There were a number of reasons. The first one is that evil cat just wouldn't be up to two new young cats. She is currently quite clingy, and one of her eyes is starting to swell again. Her fur is feeling thin instead of being dense and soft and she is losing a bit more weight. She doesn't need the stress of other cats turning up. The second reason is, embarrassingly, I don't want to groom them. We have always had short haired cats who treated any attempt to groom as a hostile move. I don't want to start now trying to fit in the care that the cats would need, and I would never settle for doing less that a good job. Long haired cats are that way because of human intervention, we have to take proper responsibility for them. In the circumstances, I want to stick to short haired, please.

Also the two are typical Ragdolls, good natured and placid. I don't know how to deal with good natured and placid cats - it goes against all experience. When we do have to get a cat, and hopefully evil cat will be here for a good while, I know on a fundamental level that we will get a 'rescue' possibly from the cat's home, with the personality to follow malevolent cat, evil cat and psycho cat and I will feel comfortably resigned.