Ragdoll Kittens for Sale Wollongong: Ragdoll Breeders Near the Illawarra

Up the escarpment: collecting Ragdoll kittens from the Illawarra

Illawarra families collect from our home in Bowral, by appointment. There are two realistic ways up the escarpment, and which one you take matters more with a twelve-week-old kitten in the car than it does on a normal drive.

Picton Road, for Wollongong, Corrimal and the northern suburbs

From the city centre, head up Mount Ousley Road, turn onto Picton Road and follow it west to the Hume Motorway, then run south to the Mittagong or Bowral exit. Call it about an hour. Picton Road is a busy truck route, so leave a good gap, but it is wide and the curves are gentle. From Thirroul or Bulli, join it via the Princes Motorway.

Macquarie Pass, for Shellharbour, Albion Park and Kiama

The Illawarra Highway climbs from Albion Park up Macquarie Pass to Robertson, then on through Burrawang and into Bowral. On paper it is the shorter run from the southern suburbs. In practice it is a narrow rainforest road with hairpins and sheer drops, and it can be slow behind a caravan.

Here is my honest view. Drive up via Macquarie Pass if you enjoy it, but take Picton Road home. A kitten sliding about in a carrier through thirty tight bends is a kitten that arrives carsick and frightened. The extra fifteen minutes is worth it.

Put the carrier on the back seat with a seatbelt through the handle, keep the windows up and the air conditioning gentle, and let the kitten be. Our step-by-step guide to buying a Ragdoll kitten lists what to have ready before you leave the house.

A Ragdoll cat by the coast: humidity and ticks

Coastal humidity and that semi-long coat

The Illawarra summer is less about scorching heat and more about sticky, still afternoons when the nor'easter drops out. Ragdoll fur handles dry heat better than humidity. In a damp spell the coat around the armpits and behind the ears tangles faster, so move from a weekly comb to two or three quick sessions a week through summer. A metal comb with wide and fine teeth does more good than any slicker brush.

Our Highlands winters are colder than yours, so a kitten arriving from Bowral will not find the coast chilly. If anything, the first few warm nights may see it sprawled flat on the bathroom tiles. That is normal.

Escarpment bush and paralysis ticks

If you live in the northern suburbs, from Helensburgh down through Thirroul and Austinmer, or on any street that backs onto the escarpment, assume paralysis ticks are close by. They thrive in moist coastal forest, and they are at their most dangerous from September to December. For a house on the bush edge, a cat run attached to a window or a meshed-in back verandah gives your Ragdoll fresh air without the gullies. If your cat ever wobbles on its back legs, changes its meow or struggles to breathe, treat it as an emergency.

Houses, units and keeping it indoors

Many of our Illawarra buyers are in freestanding houses with yards, which makes it tempting to let a cat wander. Ragdolls are poor candidates for that. They are trusting, slow to sense danger and not much of a fighter, and Wollongong has busy roads cutting between the escarpment and the sea. A Ragdoll raised indoors from twelve weeks never misses the street. Read up on temperament and size in our Ragdoll breed guide, and meet the parents behind each litter on our cats page.

Vets and after-hours care

Register with a local vet in your first week and book a check-up within a fortnight, bringing the vaccination record and health certificate we give you. Ask your vet which after-hours service they refer to, and write it on the fridge. Knowing where to go at 10pm on a Sunday is worth more than any amount of reading.