There are no rescue kittens

[ThinkAboutItTomorrow]

I posted in May about looking for a kitten. On the advice here we've avoided breeders and gumtree etc but there are no rescue kittens. We've been signed up since May with all the ones on catchat and Battersea dogs and cats home (they vetted us and approved us). No luck.

We have 2 older cats and really want a kitten.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Bloody hell £300 for a kitten?. Of course their breeding for cash & what do you think happens to the mums when they can’t breed anymore?.

Did you PM the cat neuterer up-thread?.

Don’t know where you are but Freshfields Animal Rescue is based in Merseyside. They’re not huge and have a FB page so you may have some luck with them.

Our local CPL has been overrun with kittens although most are homed direct from the foster carers so never actually go on the website or through the official shelter. I contacted the lady that runs our county branch.
We picked our 2 up today ( they’re 5 months old).

Yes, hoping Celia Hammond will come back to me.
I'm in London & rescues are quoting 3 year waits.

I think we've found a couple of gorgeous kittens. They're on gumtree but we've emailed back and forth with the woman & feel confident that it's just her cat has had kittens. She seems keen to check out our suitability so I don't think the mum is being abused.

Lots of kittens in a rescue near me that 'specialises' in mums and kittens, but we're NW Lancashire. Would you consider a young cat instead of a kitten, never usually a shortage of those? They're still usually full of kitten fun just slightly less bonkers.

Why has her cat had kittens though if she's not a breeder? If rescued a pregnant mum fair enough but otherwise she's just another irresponsible owner that's not bothered to get her cat spayed surely?

Yep.

Can you not wait for ch to get back to you before funding black market kitten farming.

I’m in the Southwest if that helps anyone. I know there’s still at least 8 looking for homes .

Coventry had 40 in one shelter last I heard.

By the way, these places don't advertise their kittens on cat chat. You need to call. Get on the waiting lists. Be proactive. I rescued 2 kittens, my sister also got one within the last 2 months.

If you don't get anywhere with your current enquiries, look outside of London.

@Scattyhattie

Why has her cat had kittens though if she's not a breeder? If rescued a pregnant mum fair enough but otherwise she's just another irresponsible owner that's not bothered to get her cat spayed surely?

It’s not necessarily being irresponsible. A friend of mine had 2 sisters about to be spayed when they were catnapped for a while by a neighbour - both had litters. Some cats come into heat early and manage to escape (& some vets still won’t do it before 6 months apparently). Traditionally some people think it’s good for a female cat or dog to have one litter first.

Well yes @Scattyhattie I guess she might have been a bit lax as an owner, slow to get her cat speyed but that doesn't mean the kittens don't deserve a good home. I want to avoid a breeder because giving them money incentivises / rewards cruelty. As I'm pretty sure this is a one off accident I don't think it matters?

We got two lovely little girls. Sisters.

@GetRid

Here are my tips:

• be willing to take a pair
• find small rescue centres on catchat (I discovered there were about 30 little ones in my county I didn't know about)
• email rescue centres direct, as they won't put kittens on website or Facebook
• look at rescue centres in nextdoor county if you're willing to travel

There's a lot more places than just Cats Protection and blue cross.

Good luck 🍀

i was looking for weeks for my 2, we didnt care about sex or colour at all, just wanted 2.

We ended up going on Gumtree, visited the people selling and were happy that they weren't kitten farming. Also, they were the only ones not charging over £300 for a 'british short hair' or similar

Aw. Very cute

@ThinkAboutItTomorrow I am on several rescue groups abroad, they are flooded. It's more expensive to rescue from there (about £200-300) but it's literally saving them from terrible death. They have anything you'd ever want from bengals to persians to street cats (my favourites). Older, kittens, anything.

OP,
How old are your two older cats? What if they don't share your enthusiasm for kittens?

We're following Battersea dogs& cat's advice on introducing the kittens slowly.

The elder of the 2 is 9 and has obviously experienced a kitten before. He's also pretty chilled.

The older cats have had quite a lot of change. From living quietly with an old lady (my mum) to a home with 2 small children. They've adapted brilliantly so I'm fairly sure they'll take kittens in their stride.

There are 29 kittens in London on the Rspca website that can live with other cats. About 1/2 to 1/3 are reserved, the others aren’t. Didn’t check if they can live with children.

Ours came from Rspca so they’re worth checking. Like you op I had no luck with small local centres or some of the other names mentioned on this thread. I checked the Rspca website randomly one day and there he was....

I really wouldn’t go with gumtree or a non rescue. Even if they sound nice on the phone.... at best they have been irresponsible about spaying.

We got our kitten from the SSPCA. I called, they told the whole family to come in. At the time, I was very open to an older cat and wasn’t too bothered about a kitten. They took us through all the cats but they all needed quiet houses with no kids. I was standing there with my three kids so wondered why they bothered. I was sad thinking there was nothing for us. At which point, they said they had kittens and would we be interested. We went and one little black and white went crazy when she saw us and came home with us. I still wonder if they took us to see all the cats to vet us. My point is, I think cat rescues might say they don’t have kittens until they meet you and see you with other cats. Maybe pop into one.

@newmumwithquestions thanks for trying to help but we're signed up to alerts from the RSPCA and just get regular mails saying 'sorry no pet matches your search'. I think it's the children issue.

And sadly we can't pop in to the centres because they are closed to visitors due to Covid.

Anyway, we got our lovely two girls on Sunday, they're settling in well and having visited to collect they weren't from a breeder.

Have you looked at Wood Green cats shelter @ThinkAboutItTomorrow?

Very cute, is the owner going to get her neutered do you think?

@EachandEveryone I think she will, they are keeping one of the boy kittens and I think have found it hard to part with the others so I do think this will persuade her to spay the mum.

My only problem now is how I get any work done!