Anyone moved abroad and had to give away their cats?

[naturelover]

We are faced with this later this year.

We've had them six years, they are brother and sister, adorable.

How would I go about finding a new home for them? It's heartbreaking enough for me, but I tell myself they will be fine and probably won't even miss us.

However I need to know that the home they go to is as loving and caring as our home. What is the best way to proceed?

Why can't you take them with you?

Will you know who is moving into your house. Will they take them on?

My experience of army quarters as a child - The cats stayed put and the owners changed every couple of years.

We could take them with us but if we came back they'd have to go into quarantine which we feel is not fair on them.

We don't know how long we are going for. It could be 1-2 years, it could be forever.

We will be renting out our house via an agency, so wouldn't really know the people. I'd rather give them away to a family who own their own home, who are more settled and likely to keep the cats the rest of their lifetime.

My dilemma is how to find a family such as this.

What area are you in? There maybe a mumsnetter who is looking for cats?

SW London suburbs

Yes, unfortunately we had to do this when we moved abroad.

We asked all family and friends and noone was in a position to help, it was a truly heartbreaking decision, but the right one for us.

I contacted the Cats Protection League who were fantastic. We stipulated that as they were brothers they were to stay together no matter what. They were placed with a foster family, and then eventually adopted. We recieved emails from their new family letting us know they were happy and settled, that made us feel so much better. We did give the CPL a substantial donation but what did they for the cats was priceless.

I had exactly the same experience as MrsMills. CPL were excellent, and my lovely cat was adopted from the shelter within 10 days.

yes we did as we didn't want to put them through the trip to NZ. Really we knew if we did we'd be doing it for US not them, and they would be happier not doing it and would forget us pretty soon (unlike us, we still miss tehm terribly and haven't managed to get new ones yet)
I emailed EVERYONE I knew (and posted on here) and asked them to ask everyone they knew, and managed to rehome one with a friend (she is SO HAPPY - she really went up in the world TBH) and the brother and sister to a friend of a friend. I am really happy with the homes we found and checked them out etc., also I still get news of them now .

Actually in the end I had to disappoint some people who wanted them

how adorable? we "need" a cat or two. Both our old cats have died in the last few months.