This complaint is a buyer beware about Lanie Bulzachelli aka Shalane Doucette, the owner of Palace Cats Ragdolls in Ft Myers FL. I placed a $200 with here at the end of Sept for a male blue mitted kitten that was to born in October. I emailed extensively with her, checked complaint boards, etc before placing a deposit as I was looking for a reputable breeder that also believed in natural rearing and she was the only one I found in the country for ragdolls. Everything was going fine. I received one picture of the kitten at about 5wks, he was the only male in the litter. Then, in November, we decided to put a deposit on a second male kitten from a litter that was born 2wks prior to the other kitten we placed a deposit on. This litter had 5 males born and we were supposed to be able to choose a kitten from this litter. I emailed 3 times asking for pictures of not only this litter but also any updated pictures on the blue mitted kitten. Each time she had an excuse, her ipad charger broke or the kids had baseball camp, etc. I asked if she could just use a point & shoot or her camera phone to take a pic and she never did. She then contacted me about 5 days before Christmas and asked me if I would take the kittens at that time. This statement concerned me greatly as they were not to come to us until the end of the 1st week of January so that they would be 12 wks old. The week of christmas would have made them only 9wks! When I confronted her she said Oh, I forgot to write down when they were born, I didn't realize how old they would be! She then sold off the remaining seal mitted litter that week without us being able to see any of them or pick our kitten! We were then to have a pet transporter bring the kittens to us on board the plane, five days before they were due to be picked up, the transporter would not respond to emails and I would need to go get them on a $1200 plane ticket! Then, I worked out transportation details and mailed off the final check on a Thursday. That afternoon after i had let her know that I dropped the check in the mail, she told me that all of the kittens in both litters were sick with chlamydia from a vaccine that a tech gave by mistake. Keep in mind she told me originally tha part of the reason she charges 3 times more for her ragdolls than most breeders is because she buys these very expensive vaccines and takes them to the vet to be given. When I confronted her on how this happened she said she didn't have time to buy vaccines and just let the vet give them and they were not supposed to get a chlamydia vaccine. I became even more concerned so I emailed my vet to ask questions. She was suspicious because she said the incubation time for a chlamydia is 3-5 days after exposure. These kittens all became sick within 24-48 hours. She was concerned that it might be herpes as the symptoms are so close testing has to be done to determine the exact diagnosis. When I asked Lanie if she tested she said no that the test was expensive and she just started treating them. She agreed to hold my check until we knew if the kittens made it. I emailed her with some specific questions from my vet and requested an answer on Friday. I never heard back from her. Monday morning my gut instinct told me to put a stop pay on the check. Sure enough Tuesday morning the check was presented to the bank. I emailed her as I was furious because she never answered my Friday email but mainly because she cashed this check when she said she wouldn't. She said she was in the hospital with pneumonia and wasn't able to get back to me, she also had the nerve to say she didn't know the check was cashed that it must have been her husband! The check was only written to her and all checks to her prior were signed only by her, she didn't have a business stamp. I asked for at least half of my deposit back as I knew she wouldn't give the full amount. She said she would be happy to sell me kittens from the next litter that were quote "fat and healthy". I declined and again asked for a refund. I have never heard from her again and she refuses to answer my emails. I understand her site says deposits are non-refundable, however, she didn't hold up to any part of her agreement and I felt at a minimum half would be fair! I honestly, have no idea if she even had kittens to sell us!
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