Should I get a cat and where from?

[blackmilkofdaybreak]

I had my heart set on a cat from a local cat's home and reserved her. When they came round to do the home assessment we failed as the woman had already decided before she came that she didn't want to home the cat in an urban area (we are in one) and we ended up having to convince her over the phone to even get a home check done at all .

I know I shouldn't have fallen in love with a cat before we knew we could have her and I'm an idiot etc. etc.

But, it has thrown doubt on whether or not to get a cat. We have a large house on a long street of terraces with another terrace behind and small city gardens inbetween iyswim. We live on a road that has some traffic at rush hour but it is fairly hard for the cat to get to the front of the house tbh.

I am now looking into buying a kitten but many of the adverts online (gumtree etc.) seem so dodgy and I don't trust many of them. Should I get a cat and where from? How did you get yours?

I've got two pedigree cats after having similar experience to you. I bought "pet quality" and visited the breeder, etc.

To be honest, I'd try another charity first - RSPCA, Blue Cross etc. Cats Protection League can be very, very fussy (which is their prerogative) but makes it hard when you just want to care for a cat. Whichever one you didn't try, I'd try the others. Also, have a look online or in yellow pages and see if there are any small rescue places near you...

Sorry you didn't get the cat you'd set your heart on. Though tbh I'm a bit [hmmm] at the attitude of the cat home. If you live in a relatively urban area then surely there are 'urban' cats who need re-homed.

I got two cats from an urban Cat Protection League Home (albeit 15yrs ago). I stated that we lived in a tiny flat (no garden) and they found us two 'flat cats' ie cats who had never been outside in their lives because their previous owner was an elderly lady who lived in a flat! While I think it is totally tragic that some cats NEVER get out in their lives I don't think you are in that situation. You have a garden and plenty places out the back where a cat could have a whale of a time. Def try other cat homes who aren't so uptight and look into things like whether you will feed your cat, love it, take it to vets etc.

Footnote. When I met DH he was allergic to cats and I had to re-home my two. They went to live in the country where they were let out all the time. They were both dead within in a couple of years because they walked out in front of traffic. Don't know why I feel the need to include that point - either because I feel bad about keeping them holed up in a flat or because I feel bad about letting them roam free! On balance I feel happy that they died having seen a bit of the world.

I think the attitude of the charities who rehome cats is absolutely bloody ridiculous; I was going to try at Battersea but I would have had to go to at least one interview! I have had cats all my life, my present cat has access to a garden even though I am in the middle of Brixton. If she gets out round the front and gets squashed by a car, I will be sad, but she has a lovely life and surely this is better than being shut up in a small cage in some rehoming centre?

In the end I did what you are absolutely not supposed to do, I got a kitten off Gumtree and never met her mother; she had clearly been taken away quite early. So I feel guilty about that, but I do have a very lovely affectionate cat.

More people would rehome cats if those organising the rehoming didn't have such ridiculously high standards. I am not sure how anyone in an urban area is supposed to qualify, unless you are able to take a cat which has never gone outside.

Yes, keep trying other rehoming charities. We had similar problems by phone even though we have huge garden because I mentioned that a little local bus passes the front door. Eventually our homecheck guy (who knew the area much better) said our location was perfect for a cat.

Also, I think your timing might be slightly early - after May there's likely to be an influx of kittens and they may be slightly less selective about road types then.

Persevere with the rescue route, it took us 6 weeks to find our cat but she's lovely and I'm so pleased we didn't buy a kitten from the classifieds which I almost went for as I was getting desperate.

Thanks, that's good advice and makes me feel better about it. I did mention to her that some cats are indoor cats and some of the pedigree breeders won't even sell you a cat if it will have access to the outside world. The re-homing officer was very clear that they never let cats go to indoor homes - even cats that have been indoor before.

For FIV cats (Feline AIDS), they expect you to cover and cat-proof your garden whereas RSPCA/Battersea just home them indoors - so it is possible that this charity are on the extreme end of things but I do understand their position.

This cat was from a rural area but was very young so could have adapted. There is a busy-ish road about 200m away but this wasn't clearly a reason (and hard to get to) - felt she had already made up her mind but I guess I should get over it. It's a good point re. rural areas not necessarily being safe. I've lived in the country and obviously there are roads and people tend to drive quickly.

It will be sad if she does sit in the cage for the next 3 months - they do seem to have cats that hang around a while and perhaps I know why. I'll look into other charities. Thanks for the opinions.

It might be worth appealing to the manager of the centre? When I was turned down, the manager then contacted me after I'd bought the cats I now have to say that she thought the home visitor had been too strict and I could have them if I wanted them. I did want them but didn't want to end up with four cats so I declined. I'm about to get another kitten, however, as my cleaning lady is looking after a mother cat with three kittens and I said "oh I'll have one" immediately - where did that come from?

Don't suppose you're in the Huddersfield area are you?

blackmilk, the charity's attitude seems v extreme and over-protective. I have also had cats all my life and have sadly lost a few to traffic. But the years that those cats did have were fab - they were loved, spoiled, played with and had company of other cats. I would try another few charities near you before giving up. Of course, pedigree cats can be lovely too. I had a Siamese who lived to be 18 (died of old age last year) who was gorgeous. He did go out and lived his life just like a normal pet cat but used to 'talk' to me and was more like a dog than a cat

Belle Dame - I'm not in Huddersfield I'm afraid.

I'm very attracted to the more 'vocal' cats. The pedigrees are so darn expensive though...was looking into an abyssinian.

I've been to another cat's home and put a reserve on a sweet black and white boy - I'll await the home check but if it fails again I'll buy a nice kitten - it is kitten season after all.

Hi

We've got 2 somalis (long haired abys) and they plus their somali predecessor both came from the somali cat club welfare. Check them out plus the abyssinian cat club welfare. They can and do have adult pedigrees that need rehoming.

The current 2 we have could have been kept as indoor cats but one of the was a persistant escaper so we gave up! Only condition of ownership is that they have to kept in overnight and if we ever need to rehome them we need to contact the somali cat club and we need to keep their vacs up to date.

Have no regrets all 3 have been gorgeous cats, first one was rehomed as his owner was taken very ill and had to have all her cats rehomed . The current 2 the owner has remarried after being widowed and they are now going to spend winters abroad and they accepted fostering them every winter was unfair on the cats.

There aren't a huge number that get rehomed with either breed as they are generally very affectionate and friendly but if you are patient the right cat will find you.

They cost us £50 each.

they are looking for a house cat home

www.somalicatclub.com/Welfare%20&%20Rescue.htm

info on Aby welfare www.abyssiniancatclub.com/Welfare.htm

None of ours had lived with dc previously they are so stupid loving that they don't seem to mind at all, it's just extra people to give them attention even when the stoking is backwards and sometimes accompanied by shreiks!

We've been looking for an older male cat recently (we already have two females, both 4 years old, and didn't want to go down the kitten route) but we've had no luck whatsoever. I've tried a few places but they wouldn't rehome to us because we have two labradors - gentle, soppy dogs who adore our two cats as much as the cats adore them! I can understand their position if our dogs had never lived with a cat before, but they have grown up around cats and I trust them 100% to never chase or hurt one them - they even cuddle up together to sleep. When I explained this and offered references from two separate vets (both of whom know our dogs and cats very well) I was still turned down. It's absolutely disgraceful. I'm trying to give a needy cat a loving, caring home - you'd think I was planning to use them for dog food! This isn't just one shelter - it was the SSPCA, several local CP branches and a local independant shelter. Last week our local SSPCA was advertising a gorgeous 1 year old male and his description said he was very confident and would be suited to most homes, including those with other pets. I called up and the woman told me the same - very confident, not afraid of anything etc etc. As soon as I mentioned the two dogs, she said we'd be better off buying a kitten!

Recently the cleaner in work told me her daughter's cat is pregnant, and is due any day now. I've told her if there's a boy in the litter, I'll have him. I would have much rather given an older cat a loving home, but I'm done jumping through hoops - and I wonder how many people have been left feeling the same way. I don't believe for one second the shelters are full due to lack of homes, but rather lack of common sense. It's a very sad.

I too feel a bit frustrated at the number of people who come to me desperate for a cat/ kitten but who have been turned down by rescue centres like the CPL- it seems that many cat rescue centres won't rehome kittens to families with children, which seems a bit odd to me, as IME it is older cats who are more shell-shocked by having to deal with children, while kittens pretty much get on with it.

As a result of the strict rules regarding rehoming, lots of clients are bringing me kittens they have bought, sometimes for up to £100, from farms, which are basically feral, full of fleas and worms and unsocialised. A good few of these probably end up back in the hands of the cat rescue societies, so I think they need to be a bit more realistic!

BTW, your situation sounds fine for a cat. There is always the risk that a cat may get killed on a road, but unless you restrict them to indoors it's a risk you have to accept. My best boy survived the mean streets of Edinburgh, before moving to the back of beyond, then back to a busy main road location and was finally hit by a car when we moved to a quiet no-through cul-de-sac . Such is life.

We've been knocked back from shelters due to being near the road, having a dog and having kids. The RSPCA are awful for being overly cautious about giving out cats and dogs.
The three cats we have had have been from friends litters, the first and second were from feral mothers but were great family pets and being feral were pretty adept at catching their own food. The last one is more domesticated and great wity the kids and dogs if a little psycho sometimes.
I don't think there is anything wrong with getting a cat/kitten out of the paper/gumtree. I know you don't always see the mother but these kittens are often the ones that end up in shelters anyway

We ended up not pursuing the shelter route, the attitude we got from CPL being so - we wanted indoor cats, and they were not at all keen. So we got kittens from a friend-of-a-friend, and they've ended up being outdoor cats because one in particular was NOT having the indoor thing. He was going out, whether we liked it or not.

Meanwhile, am American colleague told me that in the US shelters will generally not let you have a cat if you're going to let it out!

I remember trying to rehome a cat once from a place in Bucks. The lady running it wouldn't let me because I was a nurse working shifts and she said "cats are like children, you know, they can't be left".
In the end I took a couple of kittens and they had a cat flap - 11 years on I still have them, big cuddly boys and they don't seem to have suffered.

Crazy, isn't it . I truly believe that even a couple of years of being loved, free and happy is better than 2 years in a cage and never really knowing what it is to be a cat. Our first dog was from a shelter and was 2 yrs old when we adopted him. We are in Holland where the rules are not so strict but had we been in UK, we probably would not have been thought suitable, being first time dog owners and having kids and cats. However, our dog had the most fabulous life - everyone we know thought so - and tragically died from cancer a few months ago, aged 7. But he had an incredibly happy 5 years and was SO loved.

Really, I don't understand the UK pet rescue centres and their rules sometimes

"cats are like children, you know, they can't be left".
I have never heard that before, it is usually the oppsite. A dog yes would find that a bit strange but most cats don't care where you are as long as they get fed and can have a cuddle once a day.

exactly! mine will have a cuddle but soon let you know when they've had enough and want to go out mousing!
this lady ran a really big cat rescue aswell, probably still has hundreds of cats bless her!

Come back everyone, anyone near Surrey willing to rehome a pair of cats that need to go due to allergies?????