Where can I adopt a cat when I have a young child?

[Fuckwhatdowedo]

Our DCat passed away in January. It was a huge shock, he collapsed suddenly and was rushed to the vet, but they couldn't save him. I'm not over it by any means, but I'm feeling ready to start looking into adoption, knowing it will take a while. Especially with covid restrictions.

He was DDs best friend, she's 4, he was about 12 and treated her as a kitten I suppose. He would sit with her while she played, bring her leaves in from outside, had just started 'disciplining' her by tapping her with a soft paw of he felt she was overstepping. He obviously felt she was old enough to start being told off!

She would never be rough/harass him, I don't want to give that impression, just if he was fed up with her stroking him or something he'd tap her and walk off.

Anyway, she's well behaved, not boisterous, knows if an animal walks away you don't follow them. Let them come to you, certainly never pick them up, ever.

But every adoption site either has a blanket rule that they don't rehome to kids or every individual listing has 'home without young children'.

I don't want a kitten, I'd like a young adult cat or two. Even 3 if I can convince DP!

I don't want to 'buy' a cat from some random place, I really want to rehome. But how? Is there anywhere that rehomes to places with children?

Sorry, for the loss of your previous cat.
Cats Protection home to families with children. I think the adoption centres are more likely to than some of the branches. I volunteer at an adoption centre (well in non Covid times). However, you can't go in to meet the cats first at present which makes it harder to judge how a cat would be with your DC but cats may come in due to moves/allergies and have lived with kids beforehand. Obviously, not all cats are suitable to live with children (which is the case with all rescues). The CP website may indicate a no to living with a family but it's a box which has to be completed yes or no. I think an email if you have one local would be a good start. Don't expect a quick reply as they're running with fewer humans.
I think most sensible places do it on a cat by cat, home by home basis. Have you looked on the catchat website? They will list rescues near to you so that could be a good starting point.

Thank you.

We have a local Cat's Protection branch - they only ever seem to have 1 or 2 cars on their website, always marked as reserved. Tbh, I'd stopped looking as it seemed pointless.

The person running it has retired in the last few weeks though so perhaps things will change. I'll keep an eye out. I was a little reluctant to use them anyway as the previous manager had a bit of a reputation for very proactively taking 'stray' cats and rehoming very quickly without attempting to find the owners, which had put me off, but with a change of management I'd hope that would be better managed.

Dont worry too much about the cats on the websites.
Contact the places nearby, let them know your household and situation, and see if they have any suitable cats. Maybe not the places that are totally "no young children", but the rest are worth contacting. Not all cats are on the website.

I'm a lifelong cat owner, currently have five, and I would not adopt an adult cat with such a young child in the house. I would definitely get sibling kittens. There are good reason the shelters won't adopt out to households with little kids, the cat's wellbeing as well as the safety of children.

Try a small local rescue. We got our cats from one of those and we have young kids and live near to a busyish road. Major rescues never even bothered getting back to me. Our cats were never on the rescues website.

We got our cats off cats protection. We called and spoke to them and then brought the kids to see how the cats would react to them. We got a mother and son duo aged 12ish and 1. I think it was a tricky rehome for them so they were willing to be flexible.

We got ours from the blue cross last year and I have young children (3 and 6 at the time). He wasn’t on the website, I filled out a form and they contacted me, asked about our requirements and suggested a kitten who could be a good match.

We got ours from the RSPCA, she was about 2 when we got her. The kids would've been 3 and 6, I think. The centre had no problem rehoming cats to people with young children. I think there were three or four suitable for rehoming with kids when we went in.

Try CatChat for a wider list of rescues.

www.catchat.org/index.php

We got out last rescues (aged 8) from Cats Protection when ds was 2.5. He had grown up with a cat and knew very well what behaviour was and was not acceptable. If they know the child has been around cats from birth they may be calmer about it. I think the child blanket ban thing tends to be because small screaming children will stress cats out but if you've got a calm child I don't see why you shouldn't be able to go down that route.

Agree with everything everyone has said, but also want to throw www.ra-na.com into the mix. It's a British charity that rescues strays in North Africa (mainly Tunisia) and brings them over to Europe. They are often more flexible with rehoming requirements. I know lots of people are not convinced about importing rescue animals, but it is an option.

I got mine from a small local rescue centre - they had some nervous cats for child-free homes and boisterous ones who would thrive on attention and noise from families. Check facebook to find ones near you and contact them directly.

I agree don’t judge by the website listings - I think all rescues are flat out at the moment and may not have time to update the site. They will probably have loads more cats than listed. Calling up is probably your best bet.

I would imagine it will help that your child has had a cat before and is used to the rules eg not grabbing them.

Following as have same concern. Have held off getting a cat until my DD was older but at 3.5 I think she's ready, however most rescue websites are saying school age kids only, if any kids. I'm not in a rush but interested.

Another thing - I love black cats but apparently they are less popular than other cats because they're harder to photograph (not true in my opinion, but hey-ho). If you don't mind about coat colour, be sure to mention this. I found it very easy to get both my lovely black cuddle-machines!

Thanks everyone I'm feeling a bit more hopeful having read your experiences!

I do hope you find the right cat for your family. I know what it's like to have a cat-shaped hole in your life and I've always found, in time, that learning to love a new cat in a new way is a great solace in the grieving process for the dear cat you have lost.

Do make sure you stress your DD's experience with cats when you speak to rescues. It's very natural for anyone inexperienced with cats, whether child or adult, to want to pet them impulsively - it's only experience that teaches you when it's OK to approach a cat and when to leave them alone, so you need to emphasise that your DD already has this experience.

If you are south London Celia Hammond

Just wanted to do a quick update, I looked at all the rescues you all mentioned, thank you, and I emailed RANA who got back to me yesterday for a long chat and have sent me a list of cats that would like a home like mine. To say I'm excited is a bit of an understatement!

It is a long process with RANA though, so I'm just going to have to be patient!

Aaannd...name change fail! 😂