To think rescue centres don't actually want you to adopt their pets?

[lurchersforever]

One of my cats had to be out to sleep suddenly in the summer and I would now like to adopt a young cat to keep us all company - me, ds and our remaining cat. I've only ever had rescue pets so looking at local centres. All have banners like please adopt/1000s of unwanted pets etc, but it is impossible to go and see any.

I have no issues with vetting and saying only certain types of households are suitable, but my issue is none of the centres are actually open. I've looked at about 6 near me and they are a mixture of not open to the public, don't answer the phone, say they're shut while Google says they're open, want you to fill in an application form and drop it off in person but you won't be able to even see a pet until your application has been assessed, don't reply to emails... The most success I've had is a centre that 'might' be able to arrange a video appointment to 'meet the cat' at some point and then I might be able to adopt 'when they open,' - no idea when that might be. This is for a specific cat they currently have - no sense of urgency to get her in a home. What on earth is the point of a video appointment with a cat?! What will it reveal that a picture doesn't? Just more time wasting.

I appreciate they are run by volunteers but this is ridiculous. Last time I adopted (10 years ago) you could go into local centres without an appointment and make the arrangements there and then. Obviously they weren't just handing them out to anyone but you could get the process moving.

At this rate I'll be on Gumtree, which I really don't want to be. What's going on?

I read every word. Rescues are shooting themselves in the foot and denying animals good homes because of their unrealistic expectations and batshit rules.

Cats protection mansfield is brilliant. Got a cat from them a year ago when my youngest was 3. Smooth process. Applied online, they called and we saw cat same day and picked her up few days after.

My DD and DSiL own their own home. They both work part time. Both have been brought up with dogs and his family also have cats. They wanted to adopt an elderly dog. The plan was to adopt an old dog and give it the best life possible in its last years. They live across the road from the beach and both love to walk for miles. They were turned down "because they were too young". They are 24 and 23. They ended up on Pets 4 Homes and rescued a young dog there.

Ah, I'm sorry that you think we should send a dog to a home with young children (a home that probably cannot commit to giving the dog their all) instead of to a home where the dog will be treated as it deserves.

None of our 'animals' are denied 'good homes.' They all get adopted - usually within a month and in the meantime are in foster placements. And they are never re-homed afterwards (we do six monthly home checks for the first two years and then yearly home-checks after to make sure everything is going well). Why are they never rehomed? Because we pick the best homes rather than 'good' homes.

Also rspca Radcliffe animal shelter is easy to adopt cats from.

I've worked out that one of the rescues local to me will only let you adopt an animal if you meet the following criteria:

1. No other pets AT ALL but you must have recent experience with cats/dogs, preferably breed specific and/or veterinary experience

1. You must be independently wealthy to cover food and vet fees for the pet but can't work for said money as you need to be available 24/7 so they don't get lonely

1. You must have no children nor any plans to have any in future

1. You must be single and intend to never enter into a relationship that might, in theory, end and result in a custody battle over pet

1. You can't be too young (you'll be irresponsible and might change your mind about being celibate/decide to procreate after all)

1. You can't be over 55 ish as you might die and leave the poor animal orphaned

1. You must have at least an acre of securely fenced land for your pet to roam (dogs) or a catio for felines who will of course never be allowed outside unless via said catio (because roads)

So to summarize, in order to adopt an animal from the rescue, you should be a fully trained vet who has always had pets/specific breeds (though none currently) and very recently won the lottery (minimum £5 million) and relocated to a (securely fenced) rural castle (with a catio) and who hates people and never wants to be in a relationship or have kids. Please note, you can't be a retired vet as you'll (probably) be too old.

A few years ago I gave up work and my husband and I decided to adopt a dog. I had had several dogs growing up and knew what was involved. Had own house and garden with fence. Could not get a dog from PDSA, Dogs Trust, etc. Never got replies to emails or phone calls. After a while we adopted one from Romania. I know I will get a lot of flak about doing that, but she is a gorgeous well behaved dog.

Thornberry OP. Great rescue, we got our dog and meeting them was a given.

Fair enough. As long as this is indeed the case and dogs do get adopted I’m fine.
Will have to keep buying then.

I’m in Scotland, and I found CPL very good too. Spotted my boy on their Glasgow page on the Monday and he was installed at home by the Thursday, where he is now King of all he surveys!

I adopted a dog about 2 years ago but it was eye opening - in the end it was a surprise I was given a dog at all. The way things are being run overall seems ridiculous and as if there is a new group think about what animals need which is getting silly. I have even seen comments that animals should not go to homes with single occupants!

we enquired about rehoming a cat in the SE and was turned down by 2 charities due to having children and another cat, my children weren’t small all the time and aged 9 & 10 years old. Ended up getting a kitten from Facebook

lol. But if there are such homes it’s fine.
One of my elderly neighbours wanted to adopt a dog when hers died. I was often meeting her in the park as I also have a dog. She complained to me that no rescue would let her to adopt as “too old”. I think she is in her seventies, but not late seventies. Then I met her with a new dog and she told me it came from a rescue abroad (Romania I think but not too sure) and they weren’t too picky, her age was fine for them to adopt

Our previous cat got very offended when lockdown started because we were all at home all day in HER HOUSE!
We got her from a small local cat only rescue. Second cat was from a friend of a friend who was moving abroad, but friends got their kittens from another locally run cat/dog/other rescue.

We had to jump through so many hoops with Cats Protection before we were finally allowed to adopt our gorgeous cat.

First, the local Cats Protection had nothing and told us to contact their branch in the next town but they turned us down because it was a different county and allegedly too far for an adopted cat to travel (1 hour). Another rescue centre rejected us outright for being too far away (45 mins), another one was fine with everything until I mentioned DS was autistic and they then turned us down flat 😡. Finally we got a referral to a Cats Protection 1.5 hours away and they approved us, finally, after initially turning us down because we had a week's holiday coming up and they disapproved of that.

We had to send them photos of every room in the house, the garden, the road outside, and describe how close we were to open spaces and main roads.

I got a bit snippy with them after the umpteenth request for photos etc, suggesting that they didn't actually want anyone to adopt their cats.

We finally got DCat after all that and he's been with us 3 years now. He'd better live for ever because I don't want to have to go through that again.

I think I can confidently declare myself the 'winner' or greatest loser of this thread.

After our previous cat died aged 17, I got in touch with my local cat rescue. We passed the home check no problem at all, they were really happy with our house, garden, work patterns etc, we were perfect apparently, they'd give us a call as soon as they had a suitable cat or kitten, blah blah. Still waiting, 18 years on!

I contacted them twice and each time they said that they still didn't have a suitable cat for us.

In the meantime, we gave up and took on another 4 elderly or a bit wonky cats - 2 via our vet, 1 from Gumtree and 1 from Pets4Homes. Sadly all of those cats have now died, but we're not looking for another one. Just as well really!

We did this when I was 10 (back in the 1990s). An abandoned dog. We took to him because he was so obviously friendly through the netting of his kennel. He had been found 6 days before, by a main road. We went back the next day because the RSPCA needed to wait 7 days in case he was claimed.

He was the best ever best friend throughout my teens. I cried when he died, he was such a big part of my life. I have a lovely portrait of him my mother commissioned as a birthday present.

A couple of years ago I approached several well established dog rescue charities as I was in a position to have a dog.

None replied.

In the end I went with a private rescue and got a lovely and affectionate young dog from overseas, and am so happy with her. She is very tuned into human approval, and has been perfect for us, although started as an overseas street dog.

I think very few dogs are given up in the UK unless they have significant medical or behavioural issues, because neutering is routine (which is good!).

In other countries neutering isn't the norm, so there are more strays that would make good family pets

Have a look at special paws cat rescue at Alfreton and woodland nook at Swanwick.

I work in rescue (on the floor directly with the animals rather than the rehoming side ) and I can get frustrated with the rules and the fussiness. I don’t agree with the just being able to turn up to a rescue and able to take something home there and then . At my rescue it’s 1. Application 2. Home check 3. Invitation to the rescue to visit the animals . We are overrun and vet fees are astronomical so it does frustrate me when people say we just want to keep the animals . The regular staff / volunteers really want these animals to be homed . We don’t always agree with management or certain rehoming rules . It’s pushing adopters to look at more unsavoury places .

In that case as a single (no family or close friends) childfree but with large home and property in a semi rural quiet location with good FT WFH paid work age 52 and no previous experience will never get approved for a rescue.

And I get it for adult rescue dogs you likely need experience but non-working breed or mongrel puppies? Really? Just seems ridiculous rules so many of these rescues have.

Luckily for me, I have my heart set on a particular breed which is so rare it will never pop up in a rescue and knowing how I’m likely to be discriminated against doesn’t make me feel bad about going straight to shop when my life is fully prepared for my floof ball 🙂.

I don't understand - pp posted saying how they have 100s of applications for each animal and so of course will always only have time to respond to the best few - ie: applicants who are retired couples with big houses. This explains why you won't even get a response if you've got kids ect..

If that's true then why are there dogs and cats waiting for YEARS in rescue? It doesn't make sense. They all get 100s of potential adopters but are still there 2 years later??

Seriously...wow ..
I'd not considered that ,.but it would make sense

My DB is a vet, spent a number of years treating animals at our local RSPCA rescue place. When their dog passed away he thought, I know I’ll go to the rescue place to get another dog …. They turned him down as unsuitable, because he had a job!! (a job that let him take any dog he owned to work with him to play in a field with the dogs of the other staff) utterly ridiculous

The Cats Protection wouldn’t let us adopt a cat because we were “in the wrong postcode”. The cat we have now was given a home by us as his owners were ill and unable to look after him. He loves it here. He doesn’t care what the postcode is.

Same as you OP, we gave up, shelters make it so hard won't bother with them.