Cognac is like the God of alcohols... he really is top shelf, but when I began my journey into breeding... I told myself I would never keep a breeding cat who was not happy doing his job. It's been a hard pill to swallow because he's everything I want, BUT after months and months of saying he'll adapt to catio life... he's going to like popping all these female spirits... he has stayed very consistent in letting us know that he wanted to be inside mingling with the bartenders and really finds the females to be a chore. I don't understand the last part, but the male just wants to eat and love on humans and denying him of it was breaking my heart.
The struggle comes from 1) it's hard as HECK to find an incredible male for your cattery. You have no idea how many hours, weeks, and months are spent diving into pedigrees and 1000000 cat breeders. It's draining. If it were simple, I promise every breeder would have their Ron Perlman twins with the fiercest RBF look. 2) After you find your diamond, you then have to hope and pray they pass all their health tests. You have no idea how hard this is.... which is why there are more breeders who don't even do the testing because it's that hard to find a healthy cat, but easy to breed the one that looks good and pray their kittens don't get their bad genes. 3) After everything is said and done...and you're ready to breed them... swallowing the fact that they don't want to bang anyone and you had to physically hold the female just right after many many many many attempts... ugh. y'all have no idea how stressful breeding really is.
So if you were wondering why we got ANOTHER red smoke male, ...this is why.
Cognac has been very happy in his new home, and we will continue to be making changes as we strive to have the best WELL ROUNDED pints around. Mental health is just as important to me as physical appearance.