How long would you wait?

[Pegase]

We lost our beloved senior cat in tragic circumstances earlier this year. We had had him since he was a kitten and miss him, and having a cat dearly. We had also just had our second child when this happened.

Our cat was very good with children - obviously we kept DD1 away from him for his own sake when she was a baby/toddler but we had him long before children on the scene.

How long would you wait before replacing? We never expected to be in this situation but miss having a cat so much.

So sorry for your loss
I too lost my gorgeous boy age 2, he was hit by a car last year. To say I was devastated is an understatement. Not having him welcome me when I came home meant I cried every day. It was around 6 weeks later when I couldn’t stand the emptiness any longer and started showing DH pictures of cats that needed re homing. It was another couple of weeks before we made the decision and adopted our new cat.
She was 8 months old, scrawny and timid. She is slightly less timid and definitely no longer scrawny and she has helped heal my heart.

Thank you for your reply @Blankblankblank and sorry for your loss too. My main concern is introducing a cat into a house with a baby which we weren't expecting to have to do. Otherwise I think I'd be ready to start building a new bond

I got my kittens six months after my cat died. Turned out I was using him like a weighted blanket and couldn't sleep without him.

I got a cat (re-homed from a good friend) 2 years after losing my first cat. I held off a bit as we had some holidays planned, then we did some house diy, the months go by and here we are with a very settled feline member of the family.

One thing though, she is very different to my previous cat & im so attached to her, I regret waiting so long to get another cat. I didn't realise how I missed having one. They're so precious.

I was going to wait, but the right cat was in the rescue and she came home 10 days later .

Started the search - can't wait to have a new cat to cuddle. Might be a long search with the current pet situation due to Covid however.

I waited 4 months after I lost my old boy. You don’t replace them, you just get a new friend :)

Nature abhors a vacuum. We’ve always found cats and dogs seem to know that someone needs purrs and cuddles and they walk into your lives. Sounds like the time is right for you to look for a feline Mary poppins. If it feels right, it probably is.

@Bargebill19

Nature abhors a vacuum. We’ve always found cats and dogs seem to know that someone needs purrs and cuddles and they walk into your lives. Sounds like the time is right for you to look for a feline Mary poppins. If it feels right, it probably is.

I strongly believe that your old pet will send you the one you need - and the one who needs you. Start looking when you can't bear it another minute and see who your loved one puts your way.

Definitely actively looking now. Sounds silly but felt sad walking through the pet aisle at the supermarket knowing I couldn't buy anything for him. I never even used to buy his food/toys there!!!

There is no short or long time, each to their own. If you feel ready then I would most certainly encourage you because you sound like you can provide a very loving home and there are so many cats in need. Start the search now so you don’t leave it until you’re absolutely desperate.

I lost my beloved little Dolly on the first of June after having her for almost thirteen years since a kitten.
I get my new kitten the very end of September.
She is quite like her and I just knew when I saw her.

Have discovered that DH is also ruminating about DCat still. He showed me something he wanted from his Amazon wishlist and above that on his wishlist was a selection of cat statues for the garden!

The reason for waiting was because we have a baby at the moment but it is our second and she is fairly chilled so I think it'll be fine to care for both. In a way mat leave a good time as I'm there 24/7 for both cat and baby

I got kittens straight away which surprised me, I thought i'd 'mourn' for longer. I did mourn but hated the emptiness of the house without cats. Anyway, rescues might have an issue with rehoming kittens to a home with a young child. Worth checking out.

I waited nearly 3 1/2 years from losing Troy to welcoming Haribo. Troy was a special and gentle cat and died too soon from HCM. I couldn't bear the thought of losing another cat or ending up with a horrible mog that I put it off. That is until Cats Protection had a homing day and I'd made the first step of being ready for a cat.

Haribo is far from a horrible mog. He's a softy and a complete joy (except for the sick I found in the bedroom yesterday). He also caused a lot of worry in May when he went missing. See the thread Haribo is missing. When I was ready for another cat I'm glad I waited.

@MonsteraCheeseplant we have a particular breed so will not be rescuing unless an adult comes up through breed rescue. I agree that normal rescues wouldn't choose us for their kittens. The ones near us have no kittens or older cats that can live with children. Mostly seems to be semi feral cats sadly.

I've always waited a year or so but when we lost Ernie we knew straight away we needed another cat. It was actually a few days before we mentioned it to each other and realised we thought the same thing

We left until after our holiday but a few months later we have an 11 week old kitten

He's a loving terror and we still miss our Ern

We got our Bro/Sis cats from CPL about a month after eight years of guinea-pigs finished . We'd decided not to get more guineas and my DH had out up with years of rodents and wanted cats (though TBF , he would feed/clean/cuddle and buy them veg)
When one of our guineas died and we had to get a new cagemate (they are highly sociable ) I felt really bad getting the new one when I was mourning the old one , but we were getting the new one for our lone piggie .

They do burrow into your heart

We had a short while with no pets and knew 100% that we were ready to basically sacrifice our home to the little vandals

With our cats we saw them online and reckoned we could offer them a home and they needed a home . They didn't know they needed us though

When one pet goes there are many waiting patiently to step into the empty space and prove that you need them .

Wow no kittens in rescues near you? There's loads near me. 40 kittens in one rescue alone in Coventry.

The two big ones near me- both say that because of lockdown they do not have enough kittens or friendly adults to meet demand as they have been inundated with enquiries. That is pretty much word for word!

Well I guess that's a good thing that lots of people want to adopt. I do think that rescue centres could communicate with each other and find homes for more cats and kittens. I was too far away for some places that had kittens when I was looking. They wanted to do home checks which is fair enough but in the UK, nowhere is a million miles away and it seems silly to let people go to breeders when there is plenty of supply, just in random areas.