Hi Melanie

OK--HERE GOES! It's MAJOR confession time. I hope you will forgive me after you read all that I'm about to say, and I am asking you to PLEASE not tell RoseMarie anything that I've written here, as she has proven many times, with many people, that she can be a VERY formidable opponent when she gets offended. I know that your loyalties are probably to RoseMarie right now, rather than to me, but I can tell you with complete assurity, that you don't know her well enough from just your brief dealings with her, to know who you are dealing with. If you tell RoseMarie what I am about to reveal, it could cause real problems for Debbie, who RoseMarie owes a lot of money to. And, if it causes real problems for Debbie, then she will be very upset with me, for opening my big mouth. But I have created a situation here, where I can tell that hard feelings have arisen, and I feel now, that honesty is the best policy.

RoseMarie is not now, nor has ever been my friend, although I may have given you that impression. In fact, quite the opposite is true. I can't understand for the life of me why Debbie keeps dealing with her, after everything that's transpired between the two of them, and with me, and things that's she's witnessed have happened with other people. I'll explain more in the body of this letter. The way I became acquainted with RoseMarie (whom I've never met in person, by the way), was because I had a high breeder quality odd eyed White male that I was originally going to keep (a grandson of my Grand Champion C.E. White female, "Northbrook's S.W.A.K."), but Debbie must have been telling RoseMarie about him, because, I get this phone call from Debbie, telling me that RoseMarie REALLY wants him and is willing to pay $400.00 for him. Since I had never been able to get prices like that living in the desert (this was pre-internet history), it was really a tempting offer, and I decided to go for it. As it turns out, RoseMarie couldn't afford to pay that amount all at once, so she contractually agreed to make payments of $100.00 each month for 4 months. A breeder friend, Evelyn, (the breeder of my Odd-eyed White male, "Trubl"), was visiting me one weekend, and told me she would drop the kitten off, and get RoseMarie to sign the contract, on her way back to her house in Upland. Evelyn called me up when she got home and told me that RoseMarie was really weird, and that I probably had just made a HUGE mistake. Then, a month or so after RoseMarie got the cat, she up and decided that she no longer wanted him??, and being that I originally had intended on keeping him, instead of holding her to her contract, I agreed to take him back. THAT was a Big Mistake! Another long time breeder friend, Esther, has a sister, JoAnne (who lives in Bloomington, but visits the desert on weekends), and she agreed to pick him up from RoseMarie's house in Hemet on her way here. When JoAnne got here she also did not have a positive thing to say about RoseMarie. She said she didn't have "two brain cells to rub together." And then I came to discover that my White boy was returned to me with the WORST case of ringworm I had ever seen on a cat. His entire back was one big lesion. I had never seen a spot that BIG. So, being the "fungaphobic" that I am(because of experiences similar to Debbie's that I'll explain below), I told Esther that she could have him if she was willing to deal with isolating and treating him for however long that it took. So, not only was I out the money for the boy, I had to give up a cat that I was originally going to keep, who was only one out of two that I had gotten from my Grand Champion female's bloodline(When I bought "Northbrook's S.W.A.K.," she was 7 years old, and she had already been "used up," as her former owners were trying to get a DM on her, and apparently had bred her to death, so I was only ever able to get 2 live kittens out of her, out of four breedings--she's 12 years old now, and living with Esther). So, this was my FIRST experience with RoseMarie.

Anyway, Debbie on the other hand, is my good friend (and has been for 14 years), and RoseMarie has many cats that Debbie has given her that have gone unpaid for. Several of these cats were RoseMarie's former cats that Debbie gave back to her after she had rescued them from a shelter where RoseMarie had dumped them during one of her "Freak Outs"--another long story that I will explain later). Debbie has spoken to me several times rather disturbed about the fact that RoseMarie keeps acquiring new cats, but seems to be unable to pay her what she owes her. When Debbie found out about this new Himy show kitten that she got from you, which RoseMarie said she had traded for a Silver, Debbie was in disbelief, and so was I, especially after I saw the quality of your kitten in the pictures on RoseMarie's web site. Neither of us could understand why someone would actually trade that beautiful kitten for one of RoseMarie's petter than pet quality Silvers, when there was so much better quality out there to be had. (I heard via the grapevine that RoseMarie actually got DQ'd at a show with one of those Silvers). So we assumed that RoseMarie was probably lying to us, so that she wouldn't have to admit that she spent big bucks on a cat that should have gone to Debbie. So, I decided to play detective, and check it out for Debbie, since she doesn't have her computer set up at present. This, I confess, is why I originally wrote to you--to find out if RoseMarie had REALLY traded you for one of her Silvers. Plus I also DID want to find out if you had ringworm, because RoseMarie was trying to talk Debbie into taking kittens back instead of paying her the money she owes. RoseMarie has gotten cats with ringworm before that have infected all of her cats(she never isolates, and never learns), and because she knows how strongly Debbie and I feel about it, we fear that she will lie to us and tell us she doesn't have it, when she does. So Debbie does not trust her. Debbie got ringworm in her cattery a few years back from kitten buyers that had visited other catteries first, and she battled it for over a year. In order to handle all the work involved, and still do the things necessary to take care of her large family, she had to get rid of about half of her Chocolate breeding program. And all the labor involved-- the full 8-12 hours every 5 days spent bathing & dipping the remainder of the cats that she kept, still about killed her physically. It was a REAL set back for her, physically, emotionally, financially, and in losing lines that took her years to develop. She still hasn't gotten back to the place that she was before that happened. So, Debbie NEVER wants to go there again. She says she would just "hang it up" if it ever happened again. Because of that experience, she's more of a "fungaphobic" than I am (and I'm baaaad). Now, when Debbie shows a kitten to prospective buyers, she puts it in a cage on the front porch (NO ONE comes in to her house), and she won't even let the people touch the kitten unless they're really serious about buying. And, after they leave, she sprays down the porch with fungicide, and then sprays all the way out to the street. If the people don't buy the kitten, it immediately gets taken inside and bathed with fungicidal shampoo. So, to make a long story short....when I wrote to you originally, it was to find out those two things for Debbie--whether RoseMarie had actually traded for a Silver kitten, and whether you had fungus in your cattery. When you didn't answer the questions in the first e-mail, because of the confusion about thinking I wanted a stud service, it became necessary for me to carry the charade a step further. I visited your web site, and looked on the "Available Adults" page, and picked a cat to inquire about, that I thought would be the least likely to be available as a breeder. The way it was worded on your web page, I thought that "Magoo" was probably already neutered, so that would eliminate him as a possibility, and I wouldn't have to waste any more of your time. Oddly enough, when you wrote back to me and told me that "Magoo" WAS available as a breeder, I really DID become interested (my Cataholia). That part was the truth. I really HAD been wanting a White carrying(or masking) the Himy gene for a long time. When I had to give up all my cats when I got sick, that's the direction I was going in. I had bred "Sunny"(the White girl you liked on my web site) twice, to one of Debbie's CPC's carrying Lilac-Cream Point, hoping to get White CPC's carrying the Lilac gene. I had kept a copper eyed White male out of her first litter, and her second litter which contained two Whites(one odd eyed), was about 4 weeks old, when I had to place her, because of my illness. So, I printed off "Magoo's" pedigree and picture, and took it down to my friend Esther, who runs Animal Control, to see if she would isolate him there for me for a few weeks. Esther did this once for Debbie, when Debbie got a cat from RoseMarie that she was concerned about being exposed, or having ringworm. I went in once every 5 days for six weeks, and Lyme dipped her for Debbie. Well, like I told RoseMarie(which she obviously repeated to you), Esther was not too impressed with either the pictures or the pedigrees, and that you knowingly let someone in your house that was infested with it, and so she told me to "Run Like Hell." So, she made no offer to isolate 'Magoo" for me . Please don't be offended by Esther's comments--I don't always share her opinion. Ester has been a breeder since the "dark ages", and has an incredible memory. She knows all the great catteries from way back(in several breeds), their breeders, and can even quote most of the names of the top cats that they have produced. Esther herself, has 5 Grand Champions at the moment, and she has impeccable pedigrees--but that is one of the things as a breeder/shower that is really important to her. If I was all that concerned about pedigrees, I certainly wouldn't be a friend of Debbies, as she does some of the strangest breedings I've ever seen. And Debbie doesn't show either, so her pedigrees look pretty bad up front--especially with no cattery name). So, like I said in a former e-mail, I was rather "bummed", and I called Debbie to tell her about what I had found out about RoseMarie, and also to tell her about "Magoo." I was VERY, VERY, surprised when Debbie said she might be interested in him (especially because of the fungus situation--as a while back she actually turned down a FREE Grand Champion female because it had fungus). But her stipulations were that you would trade for a Silver, and that her Vet would be willing to board and bathe the cat for her for at least a couple of weeks. But, after the initial excitement wore off, and she found out that "Magoo" didn't carry Chocolate, and after re-thinking about how much it was going to cost her(Vet bills, plus a free kitten), she decided against it. At this point, I was really feeling bad about all your time that I had wasted, and getting your hopes up that you were actually going to sell "Magoo," and I didn't know what to do or say, since I hate it when "flaky" people do this to me. Hence my silence for a day, and hence this letter of apology.

Now, to tell you more about RoseMarie. She is living on disability, and both Debbie, and Esther, and I suspect that it is for mental reasons. She has done several things with her cats, and to people in the past, that have indicated mental instability, that have drawn us to that conclusion. The first thing that she did, was to "flip out" one day and without notice, dump ALL her cats at the local animal shelter. She did not tell Debbie she was going to do this, to give her a chance to say she would take them off of her hands for her--she just dumped. Then, after the fact--she called Debbie. Since a number these cats came from Debbie originally, she was compelled to go to the shelter and rescue the lot of them. And, since they had already been there for a day, and were exposed to God knows what, everyone in Debbie's household came down with this lethal upper respiratory virus. After $900.00 at the Vet, and giving 30 shots a day for several weeks, and losing several of her best kittens(again--the Chocolate line), Debbie finally got a handle on it. And then RoseMarie "got her bearings" again, wanted to get back into cats, and Debbie actually sold her some of the cats back. At this point, I didn't know who had the bigger "screw loose," Debbie or RoseMarie, as I wouldn't have given RoseMarie a dead dog at this point. The next thing that I found out about that Rosemary did to a so-called breeder friend of hers (I don't recall her name but I can get it from Debbie if you want to check out the story), is that she blasted all over the internet (3 verbose ads on Yahoo classifieds), that no one should buy kittens from this woman because she had ringworm in her cattery. (That was the pot calling the kettle black!!). She also wrote this woman a very NASTY letter, which I got possession of, and I read it to Debbie. Debbie was very shocked, as she had not seen this particular side of RoseMarie before, and when she confronted her about why she had done such a thing, her only excuse was to say that she(RoseMarie) had called this woman several times, and she(the woman) had not returned her calls. RoseMarie tends to take everything VERY personally--to the point of paranoia. The reason I can say this, is because something similar also happened to me, a few months later. RoseMarie had made Debbie one of Yahoo's FREE web sites(using Yahoo's PageBuilder program--a very simple program that anyone with a slight bit of computer knowledge could understand), and she had Debbie conned into thinking that she was this computer whiz, that had created this phenomenal site that had won all these awards. She splashed 3 entire pages of these awards all over Debbie's site, most of which were fake, along with advertisements, that she would do cat web sites for other people. So, I went to this site to see this "wondrous" job she had done, and found that the site was a total embarrassment. There were gross grammatical errors, misspellings, cat colors that were wrong (Silver Calico instead of Shaded Tortie and White--Golden Chinchilla instead of Chinchilla Golden, etc.) , and the cats pictures were way too dark, and stretched to fit the frames, instead of the other way around, so were distorted. I called Debbie, and gently tried to tell her, that she was going to lose credibility as a breeder by having a site that looked like a person with no education (in cats or otherwise)had created it, and could I please have permission to go in to the program and clean up the mess. Debbie agreed, and gave me the passcode, that RoseMarie had given her. Well, when RoseMarie found out that I had tampered with "HER" site, she came unglued and wrote ME a nasty letter. I included a copy of that letter below..........

From: Shar Dew Persians - Orientals <shar-dew@yahoo.com> To: <-Spiritquest-@msn.com>

Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2001 3:18 PM

"I went to Debra's web site yesterday and noticed I could not get to it and I come to find out that you have changed the url, and I must tell you you had no right to do that unless you first asked me, I am the one of made her site, you should have some respect and know your place , and I just needed to tell you this that you have some kind of nerve to do things to other people's site who made them without asking me, you are not a very nice person at all and I dont want nothing what so ever to do with you. I feel sorry for you and you think just because you can make a web site now you know what your are doing, and the truth is you - dont know what you are doing I might be taking Debra's site down so maybe you should try to make one for her on your own! You had a computer for a long time before I ever made a site for Debra, how come you never made a site for yourself and her then? I just cant believe a person like yourself can be so full of nerve to take over someone else work. I thank you for allowing me to express myself I am angry at your actions. I cant believe there are people in this world like you.Please dont ever contact me every in life!

(The above shows you an example what kind of grammatical errors were present on Debbie's web site)

And here is my response to her letter........(which Debbie thought was a bit harsh)

From: Michelle Casserd <_spiritquest-@msn.com> To: RoseMarie Cronan <shar dew@yahoo.com> Sent: Tuesday, September I 8, 2001 4:59 PM

"Dear RoseMarie,

I did NOT change the URL of Debbie's web site. It is still http://www.geocities.com/hollyhockpersians. Nor did l change her passcode. The only thing I changed was the name of the index page, as I combined the index page with the main page, and I added the HTML language to the index page to be able to submit it to the Search Engines. If you change anything on the index page now, it will go back to the original format, and the Search Engine "spiders" will not be able to pick it up. A web page is no good unless it is submitted to the search engines.

And why do you always take things so personally? Nothing was done deliberately to hurt you and I had Debbie's permission. It is NOT YOUR web site--it is hers--and she is the one who calls the shots. You hadn't looked at the site for weeks, and she needed it updated, so I did that for her. I also corrected the faulty grammar. You also took personally whatever happened with that lady you wrote that nasty letter to.

I think you have some serious problems with self-esteem and paranoia--and after I read that letter to Debbie, she's not looking at you in the same light anymore either. It really surprised her and I that you could write such a letter. And now you've done the same thing to me. As far as never having anything to do with me, that's just fine. I don't need any paranoid people in my life--I have enough problems.

And as far as thinking that I'm knowing what I am doing just because I can make a web site---any slightly computer literate person could make a web site with that PageMaker program. Making one from scratch with the HTML language is another story. You are the one who was trying to impress Debbie with all your expertise, and awards etc, not me, and I set her straight about that. I think YOU had a lot of nerve putting all those pages of awards(most of which were fake) on Debbie's site, just to "buck" yourself up. I'm not the one who's blowing smoke here. You better take a good hard look at yourself, or get some professional help, or stop taking whatever kind of drugs you are taking, or if you REALLY are the Christian that you profess to be(which I personally doubt because of your past and present actions), then I'd do some real hard praying to God to reveal these things to you. If you take Debbie's web site down, just because you are angry at me, that's a very vindictive thing to do. Another very negative trait that you better take a look at.

Michelle"

Well, after that, a few months went by, and I got a whim, and decided that I wanted to see if I could trade some of my Persians for some Abyssinians(which is really my number 1 love in the cat world) so, just for fun, I threw an ad on Yahoo classifieds to see what kind of response I would get. RoseMarie saw the ad, with my show quality Tortie pictured on it, and decided that she would like to have her. (She's always trying to swing deals where she doesn't have to shell out any money) So, I get this e-mail from RoseMarie about letting "by-gones be by-gones," and like you so aptly put it, "I smelled a fish." The very next e-mail I get from her is asking me if I want to trade my Persians for some yet as unborn Oriental Shorthair kittens. Well, like I said, I wouldn't give RoseMarie a dead dog, so I politely responded that although I thought Orientals were very pretty, that I knew nothing about the breed, and would rather stick with what I knew and loved.

After that, I have heard very little from her, so she proved that my feelings about her motives were accurate. She also just recently was whining to Debbie about the money she owed her, and brought up the fact that she had done a web site for her, and wasn't that worth something. So, now Debbie is questioning her motives about doing that also. The latest story, is that RoseMarie is getting a Himy female from somewhere. She will probably keep collecting, to fill the empty hole in her psyche, until she is either totally overwhelmed by not being able to deal with the work again, or overwhelmed with disease from not isolating, and she will probably do a similar number as she did before, which is to dump all her cats. If I were you, I would try to figure out some way to get my kitten back. Or you can just wait in the wings and see what happens.

Again, I am sorry for the fabrication. I was just trying to help out my friend Debbie. I didn't mean for it to become such a soap opera. I do hope you will forgive me.

Michelle >^,,^<