Adopting a Ragdoll in Leeds: rescues, rules and costs

Our live count, near the top, gathers any Ragdoll or Ragdoll cross that a cat rescue we list in or near Leeds has posted, with a link to that rescue. On most days it reads zero. The long-coated cats those rescues do list are usually domestic longhairs, which share the soft coat if not the pedigree, and they are on our Leeds long-haired cats page. Pedigree Ragdolls more often change hands through the breed world. According to the GCCF, the UK pedigree cat registry, every affiliated club has a welfare officer holding lists of older or rescued cats and of people willing to take them.

Something in the owner's life shifts. Over recent years The British Ragdoll Cat Club has found homes for upwards of 60 cats annually, which it attributes to people's circumstances changing or to serious health or welfare concerns. That is also why so many of its listings say no children or no other pets: by its own account, plenty of its cats were taken out of homes where they could not cope with one or the other, and some older ones have simply never lived with either.

Ask any rescue what its fee includes. Strawberry lists neutering, vaccinations, a microchip, flea and worm treatment and 5 weeks' free insurance on its homepage, and its adoption page makes insurance for the cat's whole life a condition. Nearer home, Yorkshire Cat Rescue says it spends around £250 on neutering, chipping, vaccinating and flea and worm treatment for each cat, before any other vet care in foster.

A breeder's registered pedigree kitten sits somewhere between £200 and well over £1,000 (Cats Protection), and it is up to you to confirm which jabs it has had. The bills after that are the same either way, at least £79 a month by PDSA's reckoning, plus fuel if you are collecting from the North East or further.

Heart disease is the big one. According to the GCCF, the breed can carry a faulty gene behind hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), which can end in heart failure while a cat is still young. A DNA test for the one known Ragdoll HCM gene has existed since 2007, and every Ragdoll registered for breeding with the GCCF from 24 February 2016 must have it. With a rescue cat, nobody may know its parents' results.

• Silent early on. Ragdolls are one of the breeds International Cat Care singles out as more prone to HCM. It warns the early stages may produce no signs, and explains that breed screening pairs a heart scan (echocardiogram) with a genetic test from blood or a cheek swab.
• What has been checked. Strawberry Persian and Pedigree Cat Rescue gives each cat the usual vet check at vaccination, but says plainly that DNA tests, scans and X-rays are not part of its routine. Find out exactly what has been looked at in the cat you like.
• Kidneys and coat. Polycystic kidney disease appears next to HCM on PDSA's list. The coat is silky but still tangles, especially in the armpits and at the neck, so PDSA recommends a groom at least once a week.

Plan for an indoor cat. The British Ragdoll Cat Club treats Ragdolls, like most pedigrees, as indoor cats and advises against full freedom outside, since their easy-going nature can leave them less alert to danger; a catio or a secure garden is the usual compromise. The GCCF explains the name: the first cats tended to go limp and relaxed when picked up. It also calls the Ragdoll one of the largest breeds, taking up to four years to mature, and PDSA says one may climb into your lap or your bed just to be near you.

Rescues and breed clubs don't sell Ragdolls. They match: you put your name to a particular cat, they weigh up which applicant suits it, and the money you pay is an adoption fee. Most cats on these routes are adults, and Strawberry keeps no waiting list for kittens of any breed. Anything posted near Leeds today appears on our Leeds Ragdoll page.

Set on a kitten? Cats Protection points buyers towards breeders registered with an organisation like the GCCF, and says to visit the kitten and its mother at home rather than trusting a video or a social media advert. Before paying, ask the breeder for both parents' HCM test certificates, which the GCCF says buyers should be given. Anything that feels like a con belongs with Report Fraud, the successor to Action Fraud.