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Original poster

Anyone with young kids had trouble adopting a cat/kitten from a rescue centre ??

38 replies

nutcracker · 13/02/2005 13:56

After looking several times on their website, we went today to a cat rescue centre to look and see what they had available. We were looking to adopt one or 2 cats/kittens.

After driving 15 miles to get there we were turned away after being told that they don't rehome to any home with children under 5 as it is too noisy and scary for them.

I pointed out to them that this info was not on their website and they said that it was the policy of most rescues, including the cats protection league. However i know someone who has just adopted a cat with from the cats protection league and she has an 8mth old.

I have now emailed them to suggest that they change there website to include that info, but now haven't a clue where to go to get a cat.

We don't really want a very young kitten and were looking more at the 8-18mth age range.

OP posts:

NotQuiteCockney · 13/02/2005 13:58

You may well have better luck talking to local vets - they'll know more about tiny tiny kittens, but you might be able to get a pair of siblings, maybe a bit older?

Also, that way, you'd get to see the cats in their original environment - if you get cats from a house with kids, they'll already be used to being handled.

Original poster

nutcracker · 13/02/2005 14:00

Thanks NQC, i will try that.

I can understand there policies but i though under 5 yeras old was a bit much, under 2 yes i could understand but not really under 5.

OP posts:

tatt · 13/02/2005 14:12

the cat protecetion league don't put kittens into houses with young children but they will let you have a cat. Don't know how young they will go but I had a 3 year old at the time we got our cat. They were more fussy about the (very quiet) road. They were also very good about saying that if cat and child didn't get on the cat could go back - although you sign to say you'll keeo it for 6 months. They did warn us off one cat that might scratch a child. The one we got is very good with children so I'd recommend trying them.

Slinky · 13/02/2005 14:16

We adopted the 2 cats we have now from the local Animal rescue (predominately rehousing cats/dogs).

At the time, DD1 was 6, DS1 was 4 and DD2 was 2 -and we didn't have any problems at all. The cats ages were 18 months and 3 years.

We actually didn't want kittens so I don't know whether that makes a difference. They were more interested in whether we lived in a quiet road/had other pets.

Original poster

nutcracker · 13/02/2005 14:28

Thanks, think we will try the cats proetection league then.

We don't mind not having a kitten, so thats not a prob and we live in a quiet cul de sac.

OP posts:

Freckle · 13/02/2005 14:36

We were refused even the courtesy of a home visit by the Cats' Protection League because we had young children. They just refused to even consider us, despite the fact that we had had cats for years with no problems. We found the RSPCA's system too uncertain and ended up getting 3 kittens from a colleague's cousin. Whilst I love our cats to bits, I would far prefer to have given a loving home to cats who really needed one.

Cats are very adaptable, particularly if you have them from kittens. I don't know of any cats which have had to be rehomed because they couldn't cope with children in the house. Cats are very capable of hiding themselves away if they don't want any attention.

Original poster

nutcracker · 13/02/2005 14:44

I was quite annoyed to Freckle as they seemed to making the assumption that my kids and their cats wouldn't be a good enough combination.

We would have been offering a loving home in a quiet cul de sac and yet they wern't interested, despite being full.

I think they should at least come and look at what you have to offer before refusing.

OP posts:

Lonelymum · 13/02/2005 14:49

I had heard that there was this policy. I would love to know why! I agree that under 5 is ridiculous. I have a 2 year old boy and I do wonder how he would react to a kitten (especially a kitten as they can be quite unpredictable) but I reckon a few days sharing a house together and they would get the hang of each other. I intended getting a couple of kttens this spring but may have to wait now as we are moving house and there will be enough upheaval as it is.

I don't know about older kittens, but I asked at our local pet shop (they don't sell animals but they said they do carry advertisements for customers and often have adverts for kittens) and also looked in the local free ad paper. I have seen a couple of ads for older kittens/ young cats so I reckon you might find someone in your area looking to sell an older kitten.

Aimsmum · 13/02/2005 14:57

Message withdrawn

Aimsmum · 13/02/2005 14:57

Message withdrawn

tillykins · 13/02/2005 15:02

That sounds a bit daft to me nutcracker, we have a 15m old and a dog and both of them are ruled by the cat Cats just clear off if its too noisy and despite my baby's lightening speed, the cat is faster!

Original poster

nutcracker · 13/02/2005 15:04

I will have to ring our local CPL i think and see what they say. They do have a cat on their website that we would be interested in. It is about a year old and has just had kitten so isn't quite ready for rehoming yet, which is fine with us.

OP posts:

Slinky · 13/02/2005 15:04

I'm surprised so many of you have had difficulties in getting cats placed - it's such a shame because cats and kids do get along so well

When we picked up our 2, the younger cat (18 months) was quite nervy understandably, and it was our 4yo DS who sat and coaxed him out of his hiding place - and 3 years later, they're inseparable (even now, they're curled up on the sofa together watching "Elf").

Original poster

nutcracker · 13/02/2005 15:06

Am more annoyed that they didn't put the info on their website tbh, and we wasted the morning finding the place for nothing.
Dd2 was really upset too.

OP posts:

Original poster

nutcracker · 13/02/2005 15:08

Exactly Slinky. I know some kids and pets don't mix, but i think they could of at least given us a home visit to see what we were like.

My kids are kids at the end of the day but they do know how to treat animals with respect and know when to clear off and give them some peace and quiet.

OP posts:

Slinky · 13/02/2005 15:11

I can totally understand when these places are reluctant to place dogs with young children, but cats are quite happy to run off for peace and quiet - and if they find it all too much they can hide under the bed

Have you tried the Vets? Our one has lists of cats/kittens waiting to be placed.

Cod · 13/02/2005 15:12

Message withdrawn

nightowl · 14/02/2005 02:36

i think its a daft rule really. ds was brought up with cats and kittens, dd has 6 cats around her, she tries to cuddle them but if they get fed up with it they just run away for 5 mins. the cats certainly never get hurt anyway, just peed off! we also had a kitten from a cpl foster-home when ds was one, they knew about this and it was never a problem. in my experience, cats get used to children...when i brought baby home for the first time cat sniffed her, looked at me as if to say "erm what's this?" and walked off!

Sheila · 14/02/2005 14:24

Funnily enough I've just got 2 mature cats from the Blue Cross. There was no problem about ds (aged 4) but they did check that we took cats who were friendly towards kids, which is fair enough.

If there's a Blue Cross near you I'd recommend them.

Chandra · 16/02/2005 05:40

Well... I was refused by the RSPCA in the grounds that they don't rehome animals with foreigners! . But that was the nice person, the nasty one was so rude to me that 5 yrs from then I can't bring myself to speak well of my city's RSPCA!

nightowl · 16/02/2005 22:48

they said what?!!! ffs! its strange actually as i had a few cats from the cpl and they were always lovely. but turn it around and they werent so nice at all. my friend found a cat in a bad state and brought it to me. (knowing id do something if i could). i bathed it and fed it and tried to take it in but it ripped my own cats to pieces and went for my (then) toddler. it was so affectionate to adults and really was lovely but i just couldnt keep it. cpl had no places so for a while i had to keep it at a friends house that she rented out. (no-one was living there at the time) i kept it there for months, feeding and looking after it every day until cpl finally had a space. what did i get? an arsy phonecall from them a week later accusing me of neglect saying it had a medical problem..did i know if it had its injections etc. i told them time and time again that i didnt know, i found it and was just trying to help and they were absolutely horrible, trying to make out that i couldnt be arsed to take it to the vets and had just thrown it out. they shouldnt be so quick to assume, im an absolute sucker for unwanted animals and theres no way i would ever hurt one. my own cats are pains in the arse but id never chuck them out on the street! fwiw there was no way i could have known it had a medical problem, they didnt know either until it went for a routine check at the vets. made me bloody angry at the time!

nightowl · 16/02/2005 22:52

that looks like im contradicting myself but this was an old cat, kittens usually are fine with kids and many other cats too. just unfortunate that this one wasnt! ive had around 30 cats and this was the only one ever hostile to my kids.

Cristina7 · 16/02/2005 22:53

Our cat is from Battersea Home. We got her when DS was 4 years 4 months. Most of the cats there had a mention on their tags that they'd only go to houses with children aged 9-10 (or none at all). Ours was the only one with no mention of an age. Maybe because she was quite young herself, they thought between 6 months and 1 year. She was taken to a separate room and set free to see how she and DS interact. DS adores her.

milliways · 16/02/2005 22:55

We were refused a kitten because we've got a dog! They couldn't see how we could stop him hurting a kitten. They also said (on phone with absolutely NO knowledge of circumstances) that we couldn't possibly afford to keep two cats!! Anyway, went through freeads & got 2 sibling kittens from house with 3 GSD's (ours is GSD) & 4 years later they are still healthy / happy.

stupidgirl · 16/02/2005 22:59

Haven't read all the thread, but when I tried to get cats we went along to the CPL who didn't have anything suitable. We went to another rescue centre (again, travelling quite a long way to get there). We looked round and then this middle aged man (staggering and stibking of alcohol, it has to be said) came out and basically accused me of being selfish, a bad mum and cruel to consider having cats in the house with ds who was then 18 months old. I ended up leaving in tears.

We went back to the CPL which is where we got our cats who were 18months and 3 when we got them. I wasn't looking for kittens, so I don't know their policy, but personally I wouldn't have any qualms about having kittens with young children, I'd just make sure there were boundaries and that the kits had somewhere safe to be away from the kids.

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