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Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

The litter tray

Our beloved cat is gone

24 replies

SootySweepandSue · 01/12/2011 08:39

We lost our beloved cat yesterday to a car accident. I am devastated as she was a huge part of our family. I know it will take me a long time to get used to this, but I can not bear not having a pet in our family. She was only 2. I had her since she was a kitten.

I have been looking at Battersea etc as I am already thinking of getting another. Can anyone advise on how to chose a type of cat if you have an 18 month old? It seems initially that rehoming places have a lot of cats that have arrived due to incompatability with children? Is it hard to find a cat lime that? Would it be best to get another kitten and then they would grow up with toddlers? Or are some cats just not built that way?

We are burying her tomorrow with her favourite blanket (my cashmere jumper) and some toys and things. I am so sad :(

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crazycrackernanna · 01/12/2011 08:44

Oh I am so so sorry Sooty You must be devasted to lose your girl...lots of x

kreechergotstuckupthechimney · 01/12/2011 08:46

poor sooty. I have no idea about rehoming stuff. I got ours from the slightly unhinged woman who runs our local independant rescue.
My DD is 10, so we could safely have kittens.
I think you need to speak to your local CPL or similar.

SootySweepandSue · 01/12/2011 08:49

Thank you. I'm going to spend all day downloading photos for a big scrapbook. I must about a thousand pictures, probably more...

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SootySweepandSue · 01/12/2011 08:49

I will contact CPL too

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crazycrackernanna · 01/12/2011 08:50

girlywhirly · 01/12/2011 11:54

I am so sorry about your cat.

I should warn you that CP don't usually re-home cats in families with DC under 5 yrs, it is their policy. I don't know about Battersea. The reason is to protect the cats from grabby toddlers who don't understand how to treat cats gently. They cannot risk the cat becoming injured by a child. I don't know whether they would consider rehoming a cat who had been with a family with children previously, who couldn't be kept any longer by that family. They will need to visit your home to make sure you have adequate facilities and know how to look after a cat.

The other problem is CP don't like to rehome cats close to Christmas in case they are a 'present' and end up in their care again. You may be better looking after Christmas, as sadly there are often many abandoned pets then.

SootySweepandSue · 01/12/2011 13:04

Thanks girlywhirl. I had thought that something like that was happening as I did a search on Battersea website and put in 'children under 8' and it said they had no suitable cats which I was surprised about as I thought there were generally a lot of unhooked cats. I may have to look at getting a kitten but definitely not before Christmas I think I'll be too sad for a while yet.

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SootySweepandSue · 01/12/2011 13:05

Unhomed cats .

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girlywhirly · 01/12/2011 14:10

Yes there are lots of unhomed cats, but they won't home cats and kittens close to Christmas in case they are being given as a Christmas present. People decide when they make a mess or destroy the upholstery or stop being a cute kitten that they don't want them anymore, hence the home checks to make sure the cat will be in a suitable environment and cared for properly.

Yes you will be sad for a while yet. Your scrapbook of pictures sounds a lovely idea.

cityhobgoblin · 01/12/2011 14:19

So sorry , SootySweepandSue - sounds as though your cat had a very happy life with you , amazingly loved xx

SootySweepandSue · 01/12/2011 14:44

Thanks citygoblin. I am uplifting photos there are tons. I'm wondering how many there are in total, definitely more than days if her life. Plus she will be buried in her favourite cashmere jumper of mine, she loved to paw it.

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Sparklingbrook · 01/12/2011 14:47

Sooty I'm so sorry.

abirdinthehand · 01/12/2011 14:51

Im so sorry to hear about your cat. How sad.

I have to admit - we adopted our cat from Battesea. She was 1 when we got her. We were thinking about kids but we told them we were not planning children because they had a rule about not rehoming with people with babies . I am quite experienced with cats, and I knew it would be fine - in my experience any youngish healthy cat will get out of the way of a grabby toddler - and of course as a responsible mother / cat owner you will put a lot of effort into teaching your toddler how to behave with animals. I also feel a bit safer with a cat than dogs - as it's extremly unlikely a cat will inflict anything worse than a bad scratch, so the risks are much less than with dogs.

pookiecat · 01/12/2011 14:55

So sorry for your loss. Contact your local cp , I got a lovely 1 yr old male from them last year and my dd was only 1 at the time. They just made sure that we didnt get a little kitten or a scratchy cat. Its silly that rescues have policies around under 5s, we have 3 cats and my dd is told to be kind to them. x

abirdinthehand · 01/12/2011 14:58

I agree pookiecat - when we adopted ours I thought 'come on, even a family with a baby is better than being in a cage...???'
I understand they have to be careful but I don't think they should make blanket rules. OUr cat is very happy, and knows to hide under the bed if the boys are noisy - they have never hurt her, or she them.

SootySweepandSue · 01/12/2011 15:16

That's encouraging to hear some success stories with younger cats as we want a cat to grow old with. Our DD is very gentle and much less rowdy than most toddlers and she knew how to handle our old cat. I think I will call and try to arrange a visit after Christmas.

I'm also going to write to the Council to try to get a 20 zone on our side roads. More for DDs sake as I know it my choice to let my cat out but still..,

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Squigglywiggly · 01/12/2011 15:23

I am so sorry to hear about your cat . They are an important part of the family really.

We recently lost both our cats (just over 2 too) 2 months apart we believe on the road (a few blocks away).

Really miss having a fluff ball around but again we have a 1 year old who loves cats - so for us too finding suitable cat might be tricky. Our old cats were so good with her.

cityhobgoblin · 01/12/2011 15:28

I'm so touched at you wrapping her in your lovely jumper , Sooty, absolutely choked me up ( your cat would definitely let you off using your expensive item though -I like to think she's in eternity , knowing she's totally loved ) . The toys are a lovely idea , did the same with one of my cats .

You're very brave to be putting the masses of pictures into a scrapbook already , & I hope it helps the grievingb process .

(On a wild tangent , if you like the idea of " all time being one " , your cat can still be with you in spirit , whilst simultaneously pouncing around in cat paradise
< ahem , sorry >

Hope you are able to adopt a new cat soon.

PetiteRaleuse · 01/12/2011 15:35

So sorry

SootySweepandSue · 01/12/2011 16:18

Thank you everyone...

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kitsmummy · 02/12/2011 12:32

Oh I'm very sorry to hear that. Do try CPL though, we just got our new cat from there this week, and our kids are 7 and 3. They had no problem with homing a cat with children. We could have had a kitten too if we had wanted it.

They are thorough, they did a homecheck etc, but I think they could just see that we were decent people who could give a cat a nice home.

Dancergirl · 05/12/2011 20:14

OP - I'm not sure that's strictly true about CP (which I'm assuming is Cats Protection...?)

Each branch varies and has their own rules and procedures. We've just adopted a kitten through Cats Protection and we have a 4 year old (who admittedly is not much under 5 but I'm pretty sure they would have been ok with a younger child too).

So sorry for your loss

TheOriginalFAB · 05/12/2011 20:25

I am so sorry for your loss. You must be so sad .

Get0rf · 05/12/2011 20:30

Oh I am sorry. How upsetting for you.

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