We found ourselves in a position to adopt an animal a few months ago so did some research and decided on a cat.
We have two young dc (4 and 1) so visited our local branch of the RSPCA a couple of times and asked for advice on which pet would suit a home with a young family. I found myself drawn to a lovely girl in a cage on the floor who was purring and letting us all say hello to her.
But when we asked we were told 'oh no, definitely not her. Sooty is the one you want (not his real name)' They got the male cat out (he is a beauty, a big ball of black fur) and he seemed quite happy, but he put him back in fairly quickly. We were reassured that he was great with children. So we adopted him.
Fast forward to today and I've tried everything I can think of. He just got increasingly aggressive with the dc. Firstly he seems quite stressed most of the time. He started ripping clumps of his fur whenever we are out of the house (never for more than two hours and mostly much less than that)
We have been to the vets numerous times, first she said he may be allergic to his food so we bought a load of expensive food that he refused to touch (he went on a complete hunger strike until we gave in) then she said he may be allergic to fleas. We had been regularly de-fleaing/worming but we tried the things she sold us, it made no difference.
But the dc are now terrified of him. They have never been allowed to pester him but he lies in the middle of the floor and goes for them the second they go past. He stalks them around the house and has scratched ds. The final straw tonight has been him scratching dd's legs badly as she just got up to go to the toilet. She's cried and begged me to get rid of the 'bad kitty'.
I googled everything I could. He is regularly played with, he has two massive cat trees in both the kitchen and living room, and all his bed, tray and food dishes are in a private place (separate places)
He is a big softy after the dc have gone to sleep and he is curled up on my lap. It's heartbreaking and I love him to bits. I genuinely believe he would be happy in a home without children and am so cross he was sold to us as the best family pet there (when I should have listened to my own instincts I guess, but I trusted them to know)
What do I do? I've seen that it is extremely difficult to get a cat rehomed and have no idea how to go about it. If I'm honest with myself I've seen this coming but I just hoped he would settle in once he realised the dc weren't going to chase/poke him.