The HypoAllergenic Cat

There is a new breed of feline that comes without the nasty side effect of all those itchy, watery eyes. The breed is called Alerca and they claim to be the world’s first scientifically-proven hypoallergenic cats.

As I understand it, the cost of each 12 week old kitten is about $5,000 after all the fees. That’s $4,000 for the cat, and $1,000 for delivery.

They say these cats are hand couriered on private jets (to avoid stress) to your nearest Vet for you to take delivery. Oh yeah, and you have to pre-pay for the cat up front in order to get your name on the waiting list so that you might get one in a couple of years.

Of course I have a couple of thoughts about this:

• What if this is actually a scam? It would be a SWEET racket! First, they get Time Magazine to mention the cats, this drives people to their web site where they pay $4,000 up front (since it’s not through the mail it isn’t as bad of a crime). Then, after taking a crap-load of cash they simply shut down the Web site and disappear. I’ll have no sympathy for anyone that hands over this kind of money site-unseen to any Web site for any product they’ll receive years down the road.
• Even if it’s all true, just try to stick your hypo-allergenic cat in the lap of someone allergic. They aren’t going to believe you and they won’t want to touch the thing. I’ve been undergoing immunotherapy for more than a year, and in theory I’m no longer allergic to cats. That being said, I still don’t want to be around them.

Still… what I’m sure someone is doing right now is purchasing one male and one female so that they can start breeding them in a few years and thus, start printing money!

At least, that’s what I’d do, except that I don’t like cats, and I’d prefer not to pay $10,000 for a set of chew toys for my rather large dogs.