Privacy Policy

1. Information we collect

We may collect information you choose to provide when you submit an inquiry, contact us, reserve a kitten, make a payment, or otherwise communicate with us. This may include:

• Your name, email address, phone number, and other contact details.
• Your kitten interests, preferred sex, desired color or pattern, household information, questions, and other details you include in an inquiry or message.
• Reservation and transaction information, such as the kitten you are reserving, deposit or payment amount, payment status, and related communications.
• Information about how you heard about Gulf Coast Ragdolls, including referral-source information you voluntarily select.

When you use the website, certain technical information may also be collected automatically by us or our service providers. This can include your IP address, browser and device information, approximate location derived from IP address, referring page or source, pages viewed, interactions with the site, timestamps, and similar usage information.

2. How information is collected

Information may be collected when you enter it into a website form, email or call us, communicate with us through another channel, use a Stripe-hosted payment page, or otherwise provide it directly to Gulf Coast Ragdolls.

Technical and usage information may be collected automatically through cookies, similar browser technologies, analytics tools, server or security logs, and local browser storage. For example, our website may use local storage to remember that a visitor originally arrived from ChatGPT or another AI-search referral so we can better understand how customers discover us.

3. How we use information

We use information for legitimate business purposes related to operating Gulf Coast Ragdolls, including to:

• Respond to inquiries and communicate with prospective or current kitten families.
• Confirm kitten availability, manage reservations, deposits, adoption arrangements, pickup, delivery, and related records.
• Process or confirm payments and maintain transaction records.
• Provide customer service and follow up about a reservation or inquiry.
• Understand website traffic, referral sources, and how visitors use the site.
• Improve our website, content, advertising, marketing, and customer experience.
• Protect the website, prevent fraud or misuse, troubleshoot technical issues, and maintain security.
• Comply with legal, tax, accounting, regulatory, or recordkeeping obligations.

4. Parties to whom information may be disclosed

We do not sell or rent your personal information for money. We may disclose information to service providers that help us operate the website or business, only as reasonably necessary for those services. These may include:

• Formspree, which processes website inquiry-form submissions.
• Stripe, when you use a Stripe payment or reservation link. Stripe processes payment information under its own privacy and security practices.
• Google, including Google Analytics, which helps us understand website traffic and usage.
• Cloudflare and our website hosting or security providers, which may process technical request, network, and security information in order to deliver and protect the website.
• Professional advisers, vendors, or service providers when reasonably necessary to operate our business, maintain records, obtain professional advice, or provide services you request.

We may also disclose information when required by law, legal process, court order, governmental request, or when reasonably necessary to protect the rights, safety, property, or security of Gulf Coast Ragdolls, our customers, kittens, or others.

5. How information is disclosed

Information may be transmitted electronically to the service providers described above when you submit a form, use the website, make a payment, or interact with features that rely on those providers. For example, inquiry information entered into our forms is transmitted to Formspree so it can be delivered to us, analytics data is transmitted to Google Analytics, and payment information entered on a Stripe-hosted checkout page is transmitted directly to Stripe for processing.

We may also share information by email, phone, secure account or dashboard, or other appropriate business communication when needed to respond to you, complete a transaction, obtain professional services, or comply with law.

6. Payment information

Payments made through Stripe are processed by Stripe. When you enter payment-card information on a Stripe-hosted payment page, the full card information is handled by Stripe rather than stored on the Gulf Coast Ragdolls website. We may receive transaction-related information such as your name, contact details, payment amount, payment status, and other information Stripe makes available to merchants.

Stripe's handling of your information is governed by Stripe's own privacy policy and terms.

7. Analytics, cookies, and local storage

We use Google Analytics to understand how visitors find and use our website. Google Analytics may use cookies or similar technologies and may collect information such as pages viewed, session activity, device and browser information, approximate geographic information, and referral source.

Our website may also use browser local storage or session storage for limited functions, such as remembering AI-search referral information, carrying form attribution through an inquiry flow, or preventing a page refresh from being counted as a new inquiry. These technologies store small pieces of information in your browser.

You can control or delete cookies and locally stored website data through your browser settings. Blocking some technologies may affect analytics or certain site functions.

8. Security practices

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards designed to protect information from unauthorized access, loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure. Depending on the information and service involved, these practices may include HTTPS/TLS encryption in transit, reputable third-party payment and form-processing providers, access controls, limited access to customer information, and website or network security services.

Payment-card information submitted through Stripe is handled by Stripe's payment infrastructure rather than stored directly on this website. Our hosting and security providers may also use technical controls to monitor and protect website traffic.

No website, transmission, or storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. Accordingly, while we take reasonable steps to safeguard information, we cannot guarantee absolute security.

9. Data retention

We retain personal information for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, including responding to inquiries, managing reservations and customer relationships, maintaining business and transaction records, resolving disputes, enforcing agreements, and satisfying legal, tax, accounting, or regulatory obligations. Retention periods may vary depending on the type of information and the reason it is kept.

10. Your choices and requests

You may contact us to ask about personal information you have provided, request that inaccurate contact information be corrected, or request deletion of information that we are not required to retain for legal, accounting, transaction, dispute, or other legitimate business purposes.

You can also use your browser settings to manage cookies and other stored website data.

11. Children's privacy

This website is intended for adults researching or arranging the adoption or purchase of a kitten. We do not knowingly collect personal information online from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, contact us so we can review and address the request.

12. Third-party websites and services

Our website may link to third-party websites or services, such as Google, social platforms, maps, payment pages, or other external sites. Their collection and use of information is governed by their own privacy policies and practices, not this Privacy Policy.

13. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy as our website, business practices, service providers, or legal obligations change. The current version will be posted on this page with its last-updated date.

14. Contact us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or how your information is handled, contact us: