About Me & Our Family

Toni Wolfe

You Deserve To Know:

You’re Purchasing From A Reputable Breeder.

I believe it is important for you to get to know your breeder as well as your kitten-to-be. In a day and age where so many fraudulent breeders exist and people are buying cats from people who have stolen pictures and are make-believe catteries that don’t actually exist, you must be careful. People will scam you, take your money, and sell you a kittens that don’t exist, they don’t really own or sadly, even sell you a sick kitty. It’s really sad what goes on in the world of cat breeding and scammers today, so you can never be too careful. In saying that, let me give you some tips and pointers as a buyer and potential breeder what to look out for.

Never take someone’s word for an animal being purebred without proof. The breeder should also be willing to counsel you in breeding, if you are buying a kitten with breeding rights ask them about how they mentor the new buyers who purchase with breeding rights. Another important question you can ask is… What breeding program they are a part of, how do they serve in bettering the breed as a whole?  What breeders they are affiliated with? Reputable breeders know other reputable breeders. It’s just how it works and good reputable breeders also know who to stay away from.  Breeding and bettering a breed is our passion so like minded people know like minded people.. There are a lot of backyard breeders who breed for the money rather than the health of a kitten, they may say their cats are healthy but they really do not know because they do not know the line they breed and they do not run genetic tests on their cats, so until someone complains, they don’t really know what they are passing on.  Also verify them by other breeders, including ones they claim to know and ones they do not know, reputable breeders stay clear of back yard breeders, but we often know them by name, not always but we know quite a few, reputations say a lot in the breeding world.  Always remember the famous phrase “You get what you pay for”, as with anything, if it’s to good to be true that should be a good indicator for you, so watch out for a cheep deal, unless a kitten has become to old to sell at full price or a breeding cat is being retired, cheep sales usually mean back yard breeders, so know many of them focus on money so quick sells and multiple cats is how they operate, they will also tell you anything to make a sale. Make sure you ask good questions, like how many litters a year they have by that particular Queen. it should be no more than 1, CFA will register multiple litters but reputable breeders do not over breed their cats for health reasons to the queen.

,,Most breeders today, will expect to have phone conversations as well as text so don’t get upset if a breeder asks to talk in person or do a video or zoom call, we learn a lot more about people byntalking in person or over the phone, rather than always in text. Many breeders also do not like to meet in their own home because of bad experiences. Let’s face it, there are fraudulent, creepy, crazy, and just plain ole dangerous buyers out there, just as there are fraudulent breeders. Those reputable breeders will always ask you a ton of questions as we have to be careful also. A reputable breeder wants to know what kind of home their kitten is going to, how it will be treated if you are prepared to handle and care for that particular breed of cat, and its requirements for a healthy lifestyle. Do not get offended by multiple questions or even repeated questions. Sometimes we do this so we know buyers are being honest, we are looking for consistency and honesty in your answers not programed responses. Many of us have been scammed lied to, or had to deal with countless issues and bad experiences in the past or we are connected to breeders who have had certain experiences so we learn from each others experiences as well, so we have to learn and adjust how we do things by experience and try to make sure our kittens only go to the best and safest of homes.

With all that being said, I hope you consider one of our kittens but if our line is not what you are looking for I hope we have strengthened you to find the best possible breeder to fit what your looking for in a furever fur baby, so I welcome any questions you may have about our cats, our line, their history and what to expect in caring for a new kitten.

My Approach & Philosophy to Breeding

Breeding sounds like a fun and exciting thing to do and it came to be. However, nothing this fun, this exciting and this rewarding comes without risks. We take the health of our cats and kittens very seriously. Here at SlvrPalace it is our #1 priority, our cats are more than just breeders they are our beloved pets to us.  They are not just breeding cats or a business, they are our family! If you are planning to breed there are so many things you should be aware of. Yes, it can be profitable, however, it can also be a great expense some seasons, especially if something goes wrong. Even the best of breeders experience setbacks from time to time, it is all part of breeding.  The part most of us do not like to talk about, but if you are considering breeding, you need to be aware it’s not just all fun, there are things ALL BREEDERS are at risk to face as breeders that pet owners are not at risk for.  For example: any intact females can develop pyometra, which is a uterine infection that occurs due to heat cycles, especially at risk are unsuccessful breeding attempts (when breeding does NOT result in a pregnancy), when your skipping a heat cycle, ect.  Pyometra is always considered life threatening. If this happens, most vets will recommend spaying to save the life of the queen, although some vets will consider treating, most do not. I have been fortunate to have a vet that will treat, but only if it’s an open pyometra (meaning its actively draining), mine will do this because he knows I am conservation, without conservation our line dies out.  No breeder is exempt from the risk risk of Pyometra. Kittens can also become stuck or born breech requiring emergency vet attention and you can also lose the kitten, litter, or possibly even the queen. Like any animal, health concerns can always pop up, making emergency vet needs a must. So never go into something like this without first calculating the cost, being prepared for such emergencies and having a good mentor as well as a good vet.

My Background

I purchased my first two females in 2020.  Elsa is the cat pictured with the roses, Leia is the one below her.  They were my first 2 silver persian cats from full dearheart lines.  I only planned on a pet, then the breeder told me about this wonderful team of breeders and their goals.  So I decided to go ahead and purchase breeding rights and join the team.  I had also only planned on purchasing 1 kitten but then lucky me, Covid hit, flights got shut down and the flight nanny could not get a flight booked close enough to one of the buyers of her kittens, so the sale fell through, and since I had agreed to breed the one I was getting and we had a flight booked the breeder asked me if I’d be interested in 2 females instead of one.  So she and I worked out a deal and a couple weeks later I picked up my first 2 kittens at the airport in Columbus Ohio, Queen Elsa and Princess Leia.

After that it was about a 2 year wait trying to find a compatible male in the USA.  We were actually considering having a male imported in when one of our breeders had a new litter, from new parents and they were compatible with mine.  You can imagine my joy, so that was kitten number 3 named Elisha Roi.  Oh but wait, funny story… The breeders vet said to the breeder at their vet visit, I think this one is a female, not a male, so we were so super disappointed and thought we finally found our breeder and our boy after all this time and now we are going to have to wait for next year’s litter and hope there is a male in that litter.  So we decided to go ahead and purchase our daughter a dog, thinking we could have her trained before a new kitten came, well joke was on us cause after the dog purchase, the breeder calls us back to say she took the kittens back for their 2nd follow-up visit, and much to all our surprise, the vet said nope this one actually was a boy.  Now we have a puppy just a few weeks old and we had waited so long to find a compatible breeder, that we decided we had better not to pass on him.  So, we ventured to have a new kitten and a puppy at the same time.

Then a few months later came kitten number 4 our sweet lil purr baby Amaretta Bleu, yup at this point you can probably tell, I’m pretty much hooked on these cats and I absolutely love this breed.  Another funny story, Amaretta Bleu’s grandpa has a history of passing blue goldens and shortly after birth Ami looked like she may be a dilute, so we decided to add Bleu to the end of her name.  Well we did our DNA test and guess what, she is NOT a dilute nor a carrier of the dilute gene, but she is a golden carrier, and does through an occasional golden for us.  Super excited about that.  Amaretta was between 3-4 months when we brought her home and Eli was so thrilled cause he was still young enough to want a play buddy. and my 2 females were older and they just wanna lay around, be lazy and occasionally have a boyfriend from time to time. After Amaretta came, the same breeder she is from had a litter with a golden in it.  So at this point, what is one more and we don’t have an actual golden so… we got a golden. My daughter picked out her name, it’s Princess Peach, I like to call her “Peachy Pie”.  So that is all our SlvrPalace Dearheart cats. The next ones belong to my kids and their catteries.  “SlvrPalace Hello Kitty of SlvrC’Finesse” is from my Leia x Eli.  She is our bottle fed miracle I couldn’t bare to part with so we kept and set up a cattery for our 16 year old daughter so that when she gets older she can start her cattery with her.  My son has 2 cats, Princess Anna and Aurora.  Anna is from Leia x Eli and Aurora who we call Rori is from the same breeder that we got our Amaretta from so Rori is a full sister to Amaretta.  My sons cattery is called “Slvr D’Heart”.  So as our family grows so does our catteries, I am glad to have kids that also love our cats.  We love them all and though they are all very much alike, they all have different but wonderful personalities.  Amaretta is my husbands cat, he is her persons, so we say he is allowed to have the one, but the others belong to us.  He says it’s ok, cause he has the best cat of them all anyway, but they really are all so wonderful.  We do currently plan to add either a blue-golden male to our cattery soon, since we know Peach does carry the dilute gene and we will soon be testing Rori to see if she carries that also since she is the same line, so hopefully soon, we can produce some blue goldens and blue silvers, for those who want this breed but would like another color, but for now that will pretty much makes up our cattery, my daughters SlvrC’Finesse cattery who still lives with us and my sons Slvr D’Heart cattery which is just around 5 miles down the road from us.  We are planning on staying a small cattery so once we add our blue golden boy that will likely be the last new addition (or so I say), be we do want to stay small so we can enjoy all our fur babies as pets, not just as breeders.

Just Some Personal Information

About Me and My Family:

 I am a christian and I am married to a great Christian man,  I have 2 kids and a granddaughter, lots of hobbies, and very little free time, haha.  Besides running a cattery and helping my kids start their cattery, I also volunteer in various ministries, I am very active in my faith and church, I teach bible theology and leadership classes for a 2 year ministry school, I also play the keyboard, sing, help with flag ministry and the intercessor ministry at our church as well as I enjoy to play drums and learn other instruments.  I come from a musical family so besides being known for being the chicken lady and cat lady in our area, I love music, gardening, being outdoors, cooking, canning, and especially spending time with my family.  So you are probably wondering how I find the time and money to do what I do with all these cats. So, I would definitely first have to say I am very fortunate and blessed. I often say my husband makes the real money and I make the fun money since his job takes care of all our bills and I get to stay home and run a cattery and do all the other things, I have also prayed for each of my cats before we found them as well as the provision to purchase them.  So more than anything I’d have to say the Lord makes all this possible. My family is not rich, so don’t make the mistake of thinking only the wealthy can own a Persian much less multiple Persians or get into breeding like we do, but I do have a husband who is a very good worker, who makes most of the real income around here, while I do more of the self-employed business like from our greenhouse, that are all really hobbies that I can enjoy and make money at, at the same time.

There is an amazing book called Breaking The Spirit Of Poverty by Mark Pfipher, it’s a very tiny book, but I would recommend it to anyone wanting to add extra income to their family income. So for me, I love gardening, canning, cooking as well as music and animals.  So I learned how to make money from my hobbies and now I own a small greenhouse that my husband and friends helped me build.  It was a project that we built as we went, and as we could afford, meaning I started with a hoop house, used it that way, then later as I made money I added heaters and fans and exhaust vents, better shelving, and all that needful stuff as I went.

When it’s a hobby it makes working your business fun.  Then once that was set up, I also got started in a small pampered chef business that lets me set my hours, and make a little or as much money as I want or as time allows.  It’s been a great flexible business, that I can fall back on at any time or back away from and work less when life’s crazy busy moments happen and I’d be glad to help anyone get involved in it if they need extra income,  I buy a lot of stuff for my cats with it, so then besides those, I own the cattery.  Yes, that’s correct, this is also technically a business, in fact some states require you to register as a business if you breed dogs and cats.  My state at the time of this posting, currently does not require that for cats, but many states do. Therefore, I’d recommend asking a legal expert how to go about claiming the income and expenses from a cattery for tax purposes, if you are in a state that requires you to own a business license for breeding cats. I am no tax expert, nor do I claim to be, but at SlvrPalace, we do claim all money made and spent with the IRS for tax purposes, we do it under other income.  

Now let me first say I do this for the love of animals, having babies, and conservation, not for income, but there is income involved and loss at times, so I believe that should be given an appropriate discussion as well for those considering being a breeder. Breeders often get offended talking about that, but to say there is no profit to breeding, which many breeders do and say, I find that to be a false statement.  They either are not managing their cattery and money well, had an off year with various emergencies and vet care needed or were struggling to find good homes for their kittens, things like that or they just simply are making a statement that sounds good but isn’t fully accurate.  So let me say, this is not a business to go into for money, there are seasons of profit and seasons of loss, and that kind of mindset will lead you to bad breeding practices, but if you do it correctly, you should be able to profit from it as well, however most of us love what we do and we just end up sinking the profit back into our cattery, which is how we own multiple cats, fancy products like $800 litter boxes, ect. We purchase more things that make our life as a breeder more convenient for our doing what we love.

Now, I spend a lot of money on my cats, because my husband has a good job and we have additional income from other sources, like the greenhouse and Pampered Chef Business.  But most of the money I spend on my cats is more for their pleasure and my pleasure and because I want to, more than because I have to.  So also keep that in mind.  Many breeders do that and calculate that into their expenses which they can do, I do this as well.  For example, my cats don’t need a $20 food dish, but I have several of those because it makes for nice pictures, and I want one for each of my cats, therefore it’s an investment in my cattery, on the business side of it, but it’s not something I have to do.  So yes, it is a business if you manage it correctly you can make a profit, but all it takes is 1 vet emergency to also quickly eat up those profits.  So NEVER get into this for the income.  Those of us who are reputable breeders love what we do.  We could not imagine doing anything else and we know and expect those seasons of loss, we have counted the cost, please do so to if you are considering this.  Many breeders no longer sell with breeding rights because of the enormous amount of back yard breeders out there.  

Thank You For Taking The Time to Learn about Our Family & Our Cattery

 

Toni Wolfe – Owner of SlvrPalace