You may be right cc, but I've just had 2 contrasting calls. One from a guy who openly admitted that they hadn't had cats before, but were bowing to pressure from their 18 year old daughter who was just off to uni. I asked lots of probing questions, including who would look after the cat while their daughter was away. They answered all my questions in a way which felt genuine. The guy on the phone was occasionally contradicted by his wife from another room - for example, when I commented "so you haven't had experience with cats before?" he said "no" but his wife piped up and said that they had looked after the neighbour's cats. He wanted to know what the proceedure would be (see Angie below). I liked the fact that they wanted a family discussion before getting back to me. I also liked that they wanted two cats, I suggested the twins. Fingers crossed.
I then had a call from a couple who wanted a kitten. Everything was too perfect. They worked from home. He was an alarm engineer and did Elvis tributes (we travel....er.....work locally, at various clubs). BS radar started bleeping. I asked about their home, which of course they owned. I explained that I was asking because some landlords don't allow pets. They were very young and I thought, you may not have children now, but.....
So I asked if they had any experience with cats. The guy reeled off a list of typical cats names such as Tabitha, Milly....as though reading a shopping list. I was taking notes, so asked about the cats. Without emotion, he told me that Tabitha had been put to sleep from cancer. Most of us would have gone on about how wonderful Tabitha was and the things she did, but he stated it as though saying "I've just had a cup of tea".
I thought "I'm not letting you have my carefully nutured ferals!" and stressed the difficulty of feral cat ownership. The line went dead.
Okay, maybe I was heavy with them, but I smelled several rats.
Would be interested in what other peeps think.
One thing you may be right about cc - I think accent affects how I view people. I'm more inclined to regard someone well-spoken as genuine. It's not a class issue, but one of attitude. I accept I'm probably wrong in this respect.