4. We only allow at home challenge for people with kitten reservations.
This means you have completed our kitten inquiry form, and our
reservation form (after you are approved for adoption), and have made a kitten reservation by paying 1/3 the adoption cost
down via paypal or money order.
You must have identified your safe home and approved our Siberian cat adoption contract. A safe home also signs/notarizes your contract. Your safe home agrees to provide a permanent home for your kitten
if allergies arise at any time in the future. We do not refund your adoption
cost. Any money is between your safe home and you, the allergy adopter. We do
not rehome for allergies. We want to be sure that allergic adopters
know they are not "trying out" the kitten.
Our kitten inquiry form
contains allegy questions. These help us give you feedback on liklihood of sucess, and steps you can take to prepare for adoption. FOre example, if you are strongly allergic, it can be a great idea to see an allergist and begin allergy shots. Every step you take to reduce your sensitivity is a step in the right direction. We can tell pretty easily if you are open to taking steps to
keep an allergy friendly environment. For example, folks who are "dying" for a
kitten, but have shag rugs, curtains, overstuffed furniture, live in a
small space, have asthma, and are dismissive of making changes
are not a good bet a successful adoption. You can find other breeders who have less stringent requirements to adopt. Click here for our list of North American Traditional Siberian Cat Breeders and for worldwide Siberian and Neva Masquerade Breeders.
5. Money wise, a fur sample is 25 via paypal or money order (we are sorry, but we cannot accept checks). If you adopt with us, 20 is applied to your kitten adoption.
Reservations with ForestWind Siberians are 325. If you react *while here with our cats* (VERY
IMPORTANT), we refund it 100%. We have just started to scheduling monthly
allergy open houses - check for announcements on our ForestWind Siberian Kitten Blog and on our ForestWind Siberians Calendar.
6.Allergy challenge at our house. We do this in your car. We provide an unwashed adult male
cat. You can be in your car as long as you want (if over 30 minutes we
go out and check, as we tend to use only two cats for our Open Houses, and don't want them too stressed by handling). We ask you to call us when you are done. Or, if two people have come together, one knocks on the
door. We really underline this, and ask that you **not** carry our cat back. If they get frightened, since they are not outdoor cats, and jump down it can be dangerous for them. Now
we take them out on the harness and leash.
Before you come to our
house, we define length of time to reaction, severity of reaction, and
type of reaction. We are sorry, but your reaction must be obvious to an observer and occur while during the official allergy challenge. Unfortunately, we have been fooled by people did not react here, then went home and said
"Oh I reacted later..." Actually they'd been planning to adopt from another breeder all along, or found and adopted a cheaper kitten elsewhere. If it takes you several days to react, we can not account for that in our allergy challenges, as we are unable to "control" your home environment.
Here is a typical assessment for a person who takes a few hours to react: You come and handle our adult male cat for 30
minutes, then leave to hang out locally in restaurant, museum or shops. You then return at X time (length of time you've pre- defined with us), and either test with
another cat; give the all -clear; or let us know that sadly, "I am reacting." If you react with our cats, we refund your reservation 100%. Unlike some breeders we do not charge for the in home chalenge. WE feel you are demonstrating a strong commitment to adoption and we are giving the same in return.
We offer a lot of information in our forums about allergies and
housecleaning. We go over these strategies with you, and we start right from the beginning
making suggestions, and offering support.
Hope the above makes sense to you, just ask us questions if you are at all confused!. We've worked this strategy out over the last five
years + ten years before that of Kate being cat allergic and living successfully with
shelter cats.
Warmly,
Kate & Carolyn
Testimonials
"She follows me around like a little puppy. Every time I come home, she hears my car, and much before my husband can tell that it is me, she already knows it and tumbles down fr..."
Alina
Lily is Doing Wonderful!
"thanks kate so much meeka is very good she weighs 6lbs now she gets in to everything i love her to death she plays with everything now she gets in to my bath tub and sits in i..."
crystal
meeka
"Many thanks to ForestWind for trusting us with this beautiful boy. I highly recommend Kate & Carolyn's healthy, well trained, happy, and delightfully loving kittens!
Gorel i..."
