Kitty pricing!

[Emilia Darkwatch]

I totally agree that the work should be valued and the effort people make in breeding good lines of kitties should be reflected in price. I think that there is still a strong community that many of us do uphold which is wonderful, and I myself love to buy from friends first and foremost. When I am looking for a new kitty I certainly tend to buy from friends or even swap kitties with them. We all have a freedom of choice to buy from whom we wish which is great and is why reputation and integrity, first and foremost as a person... not breeder... is most important in any community, this one being no exception

I love the cats, making friends with people, old and new who love them too and share it as a common interest... and love meeting new people and helping them with the cats in a down to earth way. Something I am asked time and time again by people new to cats, and which I am sure many of you must also be too... is "what is the best fur/eye etc to breed? what is the most popular???". My answer has been the same for years and always will be... breed what YOU like... what YOU think is special and find your own special combination that works for YOU, which is not so difficult with the huge and ever growing number of traits we have to pick from. This is honestly the most important gift of anything any of us can offer when we meet the new or even fellow breeders... to advise this and also encourage them to value this and reflect such value in the price of the cats. It, albeit indirectly, dissuades them from buying the "clones" of cats we see, depressingly, en masse in some places, no matter how cheap they may be. It encourages them to find their own "niche" and individuality... that individuality may well be what makes their kitties saleable and desirable AND will put them off making clones of YOUR cats they buy from you, and if they feel their cats are special and unique they WILL be encouraged to price them as being such, not mass produce stuff or devalue it. Most of all, it just encourages diversity which surely has to be a good thing and will not lead to direct competition, as in loads of people all breeding very similar types of kitty and trying to undercut one another in order to sell