Where do people get cats from now?

[RedFlagsAllOver]

Just that really, where do people get cats or dogs? I've sadly just lost my tabby cat Poppy. It's still quite raw and I probably won't get another as I do have another cat who was never very keen on her. Poppy was so sweet and just ignored Jess swipes growls and hissing, but obviously people can't post on Facebook anymore. I got Poppy from the cats protection when she was 4 but I'm not sure how fussy they are these days. I see lots of cats but wonder where people get them.

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I find the universe’s Cat Distribution System really good. I had a tiny kitten appear in my garden a few months ago. Couldn’t find his owner and he’s part of the family now.

😁

That aside- local rescues or word of mouth!

I got mine from a local rescue, £80 each fully vaccinated, voucher for spaying, microchipped and flea/wormed!

Cats protection for one and a local adoption place for the other. It was easy. We applied, set up a viewing and then collected within a week ( both were waiting for jabs). Better than buying. Both are well settled and happy. You can filter for whether they will live with other cats.

My current 2 are from a local rescue. There are some local rescues who will only rehome cats to be indoor-only, but the one I used came out to do a home check to look at suitability of the garden/local roads etc - (less strict than it sounds). I haven’t encountered the kind of overly strict policies people sometimes complain about, local organisations have been happy to rehome to my home with young children and where we’re out working during the day, so long as that’s suitable for the particular cats.

I follow a couple of rescues in the area on FB which is how I came to have mine. There are loads of cats with them at the moment who are pregnant or just had kittens, I would imagine it's the same everywhere so maybe have a look at your local rescues.

You can view available cats on Battersea

https://www.battersea.org.uk/cats/cat-rehoming-gallery

Cat 1 - from a woman on Gumtree (I know) advertising 3 cats for new homes as she had too many and was struggling to look after them (she had 7 in total). She hasn’t neutered any of them and they kept having kittens, which was horrendous. I was really quite judgemental but didn’t say too much, just wanted to get one of the cats out of there.

Two were kittens and one was 3 years old - we took the 3 year old, it was her kittens she was advertising.

Cat 2 - Cat’s Protection. Very easy, went to see cat and took her home that night. Paid £85 adoption fee and got a ‘starter pack’ with food, scratch post, bed etc.

I’d really advise cats protection, they are brilliant. Our girl was fostered by a lady so they didn’t have an actual centre you could visit, but she had a sort of large shed/hut in her garden with different compartments for the cats.

Ours is sadly to say from freeads, because we have young children and rescues say come back when the youngest is 8. He was 1yo, not neutered, microchipped or vaccinated which we have had all done now. He wasn't from a litter they had bred so in that respect I didn't feel like we were contributing to the breeding of cats for sale. He came from a house with 4 young kids which is why we got him, turns out he doesn't like kids too much 😂 but we only have 2 and he is slowly getting used to them, the house we picked him up from was pretty chaotic. He has lots of space here, we have a big house in the countryside. He's got cat shelves and lots of places in the house to get away from the kids and be somewhere quiet. So overall I'd say he's got lucky! Id rather get one from a rescue though. It would also have been much cheaper! We only paid £50 for Dcat himself but then had a health check, neutering, vaccination, microchip and also had a full stool analysis done as he had runny poo which I thought was probably stress but wanted to rule anything else out. It's gradually improving the longer he is with us. He is also on a high quality diet instead of pouches which seems to help too.

Not many rescues say that for cats, if you end up looking to get another for any reason I’d try a few rescues, sounds like you got unlucky! But it’s a bonus for your Dcat though so sounds like he’s having a lovely live 🙂

Battersea do cats as well as dogs, if you are in/near London. My sister has a really excellent cat she adopted from them as a young adult a couple of years ago.

Absolutely from rescue.
Yes there's a cost but given the cat/kitten will be neutered and vaccinated plus money leftover helps more cats and kittens, it's always money well spent rather than going to some dickhead on Facebook selling animals.

Cat Chat is a good directory of smaller shelters in the UK

https://www.catchat.org/index.php

I adopted a friend’s cat who lived very happily with us for 18 years. I really wanted to have another after a while but was unable to as we live on a main road, despite my cat wandering for 18 years.
The shelters are crying out for help yet not willing to bend the rules, sadly.

This boy came from Cats Protection exactly one year ago today! He turned two in January and we love him so much. The photo of him on his back was earlier this morning, having a cuddle in bed with me - it’s funny thinking that this time last year he was hiding behind the TV stand, hissing at me. I think we paid a £100 donation, and the adoption process was very smooth.

We had recently had our previous cat pts when I saw him on the website, and I am sure she sent him 🐈

Ours just turned up one day and decided he lived with us now 😀 To be fair, we didn’t steal him, a couple of months later he got really ill and the vet wouldn’t treat him as he wasn’t ours, but they tracked down his owner who happily signed the cat and the subsequent massive vets bill over to us! We ve had him four years now and he’s amazing!

My two came from a local rescue whose cats are in foster, not cages.

We couldn’t get a rescue cat anywhere. Our home wasn’t suitable as we are on a busy road (it’s a b road, just one of the main ones in our small town). Which is madness as there are so many cats here and my two previous cats lived out the last ten years of their lives here without issue, they all tend to hang around the long back gardens and the woods. Never saw them out the front.

Ended up with a kitten after the lady in the shop across the road took in a stray who turned out to be pregnant and asked if we were looking to take on one of the kittens.

We got ours from our local rescue. We just popped in on the off chance as I thought they mainly rescued dogs but they had one 6ish month old kitten who we had a cuddle with and that was us, we took her home a few days later when we had a carrier and all the stuff. They paid for spay/microchip.
I did contact cats protection and sspca, one didn't get back to me at all and the other had a lot of questions and didn't have any cat suitable they said. Perhaps because we hadn't had a cat in a long time and dd was only 7.

Mostly shelters, some just turn up as strays and both current cats were given to me by people who didn't want them any more. The excuse for the old one was she pissed around the house. Funnily enough she stopped doing that after a few weeks living with me.

Rescue.

Or if you start telling everyone you meet that you are on the lookout for kittens you will find a friend of a friend of a friend's cousin has a cat who has just had kittens they are looking for homes for.

Also works for older cats - someone will be looking for a home for Aunty Dot's cat as she has just gone into a care home.

We got ours from the cat protection league.

We got ours from an independent local rescue centre, in Devon.

Sorry for your loss, I hope you will feel able to get another little furry overlord soon.

Rescues are always the places to go, try the smaller rescues rather than eg Cats Protection, Battersea. Stray Fat (ok, I'm leaving that auto correct!) Rescue Team West Midlands are always willing to home out of their area and do wonderful work.

Mine have always found me one way or another, the cat distribution system works.

I'm sorry for your loss. I'd start by looking in shelters that put them down if they can't find a home. Failing that then the cats protection league or a local shelter.

The Cat Distribution System has always provided my cats. My now 11 year old girl was found by my mum as a kitten hiding under a van in the night.

My last cat came with the house. Owners moved and she came back and they kept fetching her and she kept coming back until we said look, she obviously wants to keep living here and it's fine with us if it's fine with you.