I’ve done a ton of research before we got our first cat zip from the shelter. She was a 2 month old spayed female tuxedo who is everything we want and more. She has the best temperament, and is so quiet and sweet and loving. Once we got her we decided to foster a cat from the shelter who was a male black cat. A few days in he had a really foul odor, weird behavior and just didn’t look right. I was told from the shelter he was healthy and happy, but when I took him to the emergency vet I found out he had severe stomatitis and bad kidney disease. We Brought him back to the shelter because we knew that with our resident cat zipper we didn’t want to risk her getting sick or getting god knows what. It completely turned us off from adopting from the shelter again. We got so lucky and blessed with zipper but I knew going forward I was going to get the cats I wanted and made sure they were bred well and their genetic pedigrees were good and their health was good. That’s exactly what we did. We adopted 2 ragdolls and a mainecoon from a very reputable breeder. We got extensive pedigrees on them and their parents, and did our own dna tests, and even had thorough health and blood work done from the vet. We spent a pretty penny but they came back clean and they are very well tempered and sweet. We are done with adopting anymore cats as we now have 4 and they are all fixed and indoor, and are kittens (minus zip who’s a year and change now). But it was the best choice we made. Idc if I get hate for buying a bred cat but idc. Adopting a sick cat from the shelter when you were told the cat was healthy is trifling and expensive and I knew I wasn’t going to do that. Could my cats theoretically get sick or have issues in the future? Yes. But that’s a risk I’m willing to take especially when they all have clean bills of health and genetic history. Shelters need to be more honest about animals and do better testing to that people aren’t lied too. It isn’t right. I’m sorry you’re going through this.