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TrueKitten

How verification works

Verification is the reason TrueKitten exists. Here's exactly what we check, step by step — and, just as important, what a badge does and doesn't promise. We authenticate documents and identities. We are not a health insurer, and a badge is never a promise about a kitten's health.

How a badge is earned, step by step

  1. We verify the breeder's identity

    Before a cattery's listings go public, we authenticate the identity behind it. Only verified catteries appear, so every breeder in our catalog is verified — the Verified badge is the visible marker of that check.

  2. The breeder submits the health-test documents

    The breeder uploads the lab reports, cardiologist letters, and registry certificates for their cats — the same paperwork a careful buyer would insist on seeing before sending a deposit.

  3. We match every document to the cat by microchip

    The microchip is the linchpin. We check that the chip number printed on the certificate matches the chip recorded for the listing, so a real document can't be borrowed from a different cat.

  4. We authenticate the document against its source

    We confirm the result against the registry or lab that issued it. How far we can go depends on the record — a public-registry lookup is the strongest, a lab-portal share is next, and a visual document review is the most limited (the three grades are explained below).

  5. The badge appears — for exactly what we checked

    Once a document is authenticated and matched, the cat shows a “Health Docs Verified by TrueKitten” badge for that test. The badge says we authenticated the document and matched it to the cat. It is not a guarantee of the cat's health.

  6. We keep the badge honest over time

    Some tests are point-in-time. When an echocardiogram or a viral screen passes its expiry, the live badge drops until the cat is re-screened. If a result is ever revoked, we remove it — and any kitten cleared by that parent loses the inherited claim too.

What a verified document looks like

A sample of the kind of document we authenticate. This one is synthetic — a made-up cat, marked SAMPLE — so we can show you the real thing without exposing a breeder's private paperwork.

We black out the owner's name and home address before a document is ever shown. A breeder's home address must never leak — that's a safety rule, not a formality.

How we grade each method — honestly

Not every check is equally strong, so we grade every verified result by how we confirmed it and show you which grade a badge earned. From strongest to most limited:

Registry-database lookup

Strongest

We look the result up directly in the public registry that holds it — such as OFA or PawPeds — and link you straight to that public record, so you can read it yourself instead of taking our word for it.

Lab-portal share

Strong

The breeder shares the result to us through the issuing lab's own portal, so it reaches us from the lab directly — not as a file that could have been edited along the way.

Visual document review

Most limited

We review the document itself and match it to the cat by microchip.

What this does NOT prove: we have seen a document, but we have not independently pulled the record from the issuing source. It's the weakest of the three, and we label it as such so you can weigh it honestly.

The registries we check — and link you to

Where a result lives in a public registry, we don't ask you to trust us — we link you straight to the source so you can see it for yourself.

When a result is a registry-database lookup, its badge links straight to that public record. We're still expanding the set of registries we pull from directly.

When a badge changes or disappears

A badge is only as current as the test behind it. Skeletal and DNA results are permanent, but an echocardiogram and viral screens like FeLV/FIV are point-in-time — a cat can change after the test. When one of those passes its expiry date, its live badge drops until the breeder re-screens.

HCM-DNA and HCM-echo are different tests, and one never stands in for the other. A DNA test looks for known mutations; an echocardiogram images the actual heart. Most cats that develop HCM are DNA-negative, so a clear DNA result never replaces an echo — we treat them as two separate claims.

If a result is ever found to be wrong or is withdrawn, we revoke it, and that revocation cascades: any kitten cleared by that parent's result loses the inherited claim too. Clear-by-parentage is always labelled distinctly from a direct test on the cat itself.

What a badge does — and doesn't — promise

A “Health Docs Verified by TrueKitten” badge means one specific thing: we authenticated this document and matched it to this cat by microchip. It is not a guarantee of the cat's health, and it is not insurance.

The breeder's own health guarantee — a separate promise in the sale contract — is what covers the animal itself. A health count on a listing card is a count of authenticated documents, never a health score.