Home check and exsisting cats question. Quick replies much appreciated!

[miserablemoo]

Morning

I had a thread not long ago about Whippets. I came to the conclusion with your help that due to my cats it would be better to introduce a puppy to the cats than an older dog. But I am not 100% that I am up to having a puppy. So I have been thinking of an older rescue dog that will be toilet trained and it will of been cat tested. Also with a 5 year old and a 2 and a half year old I don't think either of them would cope very well with a puppy biting. My only hesitation is the home check! We have two big gardens (one secure, the other is not but they wouldn't be off lead in that garden). My only thought is my older cat (the younger one is very confident and happy with visitors) she doesn't like people she doesn't know to go near her. She is older and happy to sit upstairs where she is not bothered by anyone but she can keep an ear on what is going on. She does not like other people apart from me handling her.

I have no idea what a home check involves so was wondering if they would need to interact with my older, grumpy cat! I don't think I could do it to her to be honest, it would stress her out. Thing is she loved our old dog in her youth. They were best friends. Plus we have stair gates on our stairs so if we passed a home check she would probably spend all her time upstairs until she got used to him her.

Also what else do they check? I am a bit antisocial myself with strangers coming into my house to inspect it! Maybe she has got it from me!

Thanks for reading if you got this far! Any quick responses would be great as our local rehoming dog centre has 3 lovely dogs that seem suitable and I know child friendly and cat friendly dogs don't hang around long.

Personally I'd stick the cat upstairs when they come to do the home check ,if the dog is not going to be going upstairs the home checker shouldn't need to either . That said I'm sure they'd be quite happy for you to say that its just a miserable cat so don't touch it !

Oh do they look upstairs as well? Not sure I want them poking about upstairs either! That is an idea, just put her out of the way I suppose.

Any home checkers on here?

Thanks Floral that was quick.

They don't go upstairs ,the only home check I've had they were only there a few minutes ,I think they're mainly interested in the fencing .

Won't go upstairs, interested in garden fencing, as Floral says, also will probably be asking about your working hours (if applicable) and stuff like that.

Oh right. That gives me hope. I had this idea that it would be an hour long inspection and interview. A bit of an interrogation I was thinking. I think we would be ok anyway, it was just the cat thing. I am home all the time. The longest I am out is 2 hours max. The dog would come on holidays with us. I might just fill in the adoption form today then. Thank you.

I don't think home checks involve an actual check up with your particular cats does it? I think dogs are cat tested whilst in rescue with willing owners of cats who are prepared to do it. Then the dog has simply passed the cat test and gets a tick to go to a home with cats. (Or not!)

Thanks LadyT. Getting a bit excited now. Been waiting a long time until we thought we were in a good enough situation to offer a dog a home. Just didn't want to upset grumpy cat!

Garden security, and no full time workers seem the main area they look at. As they will suggest things as well, rather than just turn you down flatly if, say, your garden isn't secure.

Hi Bowler. I have no idea but thought I would ask before contacting the rescue centre. Was not sure if they would want to meet my cat or thought they might think I was a bit bonkers if I said they could do a home check but beware of my cat! Never had a rescue before.

Thanks Bowlers I don't work and no plans to and our back garden is secure.

Good luck. It'll be fine.

They didn't look upstairs for me. They asked to meet my other animals and check the garden is safe and secure. Also asked how many hours a week I went out. Hope that helped :)

When we were home checked, they only met one of our three cats because the other two are antisocial gits. The one they did meet has been known to bite strangers who fuss him too!
Really, they were interested in the garden fencing more than anything.

We have a stair gate on the kitchen to stop lurcherboy hoovering up the cat food, and that gave the antisocial girl cats somewhere they knew they could sit and swear at dog from until everyone realised that dog was bottom of the food chain in our house. Bless him.

Thank you BowlerS Toaster and CMOTD. Do they want to meet everyone in the family as well? With DH working shifts this could be hard work to arrange (but not impossible). They do have a website but it gives no information as to what they are looking for on a home check or what they do. I am still umming and arhing about it! Have been all day. Need a kick up the bum I think.

My grumpy cat scratched and bit a home checker. I did warn her that he was a sod - afterwards she just laughed and said if we could cope with grumpy cat we should be fine with any other animals

Ours just wanted to see that the garden was safe

They didn't need to meet everyone. We had a homecheck with one charity, rehomed with another - the foster lady brought dog over to us after we'd seen him at theirs and checked us again while she was there and I was the only one home both times. Obv we'd all gone to see him