Finding it difficult to get a cat from a rescue centre, should we buy instead?

[Snozzlemaid]

I've been looking to adopt a cat from a rescue for a while now but not having any luck.
Our closest rescue won't even entertain the idea as we don't have a cat flap. There are a couple of others around but any they advertise are reserved almost immediately.
I've registered with one and they keep our details for a while to see if we match with any they get in. But not heard anything yet.
I never thought it would be this difficult. We're an all adult household with no other pets.
So I'm considering buying a kitten instead but I'm very wary of encouraging breeding.
Is there anything in particular we should look out for? I don't think we'd be able to visit the home now with COVID so it may be hard to know the set up.

We have never had a cat flap and I never would have one. I don't like the idea of having one for starters. Our cat is perfectly fine and we just let her in and out - remember, they're generally creatures of habit.

Just get one from an advert or word of mouth for goodness sake. It's not like you haven't tried via rescue centres who place these ridiculous demands on people.

@borntobequiet

I’ve rarely had to speak to anyone as rude and unhelpful as a woman from Cats Protection seventeen years ago when I enquired about taking on a couple (preferably) of elderly cats, perhaps ones they might find difficult to home otherwise. You’d have thought I had some criminal intent in mind. Eventually I accidentally found an independent animal refuge and took on two lovely kittens. Sadly one of my beloved cats died two years ago but her sister is still around, my cherished companion and very happy. Look around, you might be lucky like me, or buy.

The Cats Protection group round here have form for not wanting to let go of any cats either. Unless you want one that can't go out of the house.

Kitten season starts at the end of May, and there might be a lot of them this year, so if you find a local rescue which doesn’t mind your lack of cat flap and go on their waiting list you’ll get an adorable pair of kittens eventually.

Rescue centres are a mystery to me. I imagine there will be a glut of kittens soon as vets were so fussy about what they would treat in lockdown.

Would you consider an older cat? There is a " neutered registered pedigree cat regime group UK" on Facebook. Some are quite young/ex breeder.

@Snozzlemaid we put a cat flap into our shed and set up a little table in their with bed, food and water. This seemed to satisfy the cats protection league. Is this a possibility? We have put a cat flap into the garage door before as well.

I got mine from a council rehousing service, they were just desperate for people to take them.

We have a cat flap and a cat that refuses to use it.

We don't have a cat flap (listed) and the cats manage fine. I wfh and have done for years. We have a window open and in the summer at least one door. Unfortunately never the right door for one of ours who has yet to master the art of walking around to the door they have just come out of. They are always in at night with litter trays. Seeing as we have previously had to mime opening an open door for daft cat I really do not think she would grasp the concept of a flap which she had to open. There is plenty of shelter for them in the garden if they want it with sheds/greenhouse, but usually they sit under a bush if they can't be bothered to run for it then meow forlornly until a human comes to pick them up.

I would try some other rescue centres.

Interesting how evolution seems to have created a much more dependent creature since humans got entangled with cats.

@FurryGiraffe

I'm always puzzled by the insistence on cat flaps- most cats I know insist upon having the human door opened for them at least 50% of the time. Might as well save yourself the trouble of fitting the cat specific one!

We had the same issue OP, plus busyish road, plus (cat obsessed) child under 5 (an issue for local rescue). We've just bought two kittens. I feel a bit guilty, but we really missed having cats.

Not all rescues insist on cat flaps. Ours doesn't. It does for nervous and ex feral cats as they tend to be more happy to stay inside if they feel they always have an escape route if necessary. Other than that, particularly if there are people around most of the time, while it is desirable we certainly don't insist on it.

Cat flaps can be fitted in patio doors. You don't need a new door, but you do need a new pane. The average cost would be around £300 to £400 depending on the size of the pane.

OP, if you hang on just a few weeks more there will be thousands of kittens needing homes in rescues - literally thousands. And I'm sure not all will demand a cat flap.

Our rescue are currently taking in around 4 litters of newborns or very young kittens a day (in just one branch). But they all need to be at least two months old before they are homed, so in just a few more weeks there will be so, so many available even though it doesn't seem like it at the moment.

I'm sure it must have been mentioned on the thread (haven't RTFT) but a list of all rescues near you can be found here: www.catchat.org

Find a local independent rescue. The big 'chains' would rather tick boxes than rehome cats!
Register an interest with them

I adopted from Dubai - couldn't be happier with Grubby Cat. Silky Cat isn't exactly thrilled but 4 weeks in they are able to sit on a sofa together so it's going pretty amazingly.

I wasn't prepared to spend ££££ on a backroom bred kitten or to wait for kitten season. And local rescues all seemed over subscribed.

Had and continue to have great communication with the organizer.

Pre-lockdown I'd never have considered it, now I think it's the only way I'll adopt in future. I've PM'd you the details.

Ive had cats in a flat for years, my 1st two I got when they were 8 weeks old so never knew what it was like to be outdoors

Cat 2 we got from a family and he had never been outside though he had access but never went out

New cat is almost 9 months and lived in a flat before we got him, he never went out either, he does like sitting on the window sill watching the world go by

Here are two of the kittens we’re currently fostering. They’re 9 weeks old now so more or less ready for adoption and right at the beginning of the 2021 kitten wave. Every year in March and April there are threads saying “why can’t I get a cat/kittens from a rescue” and every July/August the rescues are full to overflowing with kittens needing adoption.

Fostering kittens is a great way to end up with quite a lot of cats, tbh.

In our experience, a rescue that has approved you to foster (inside only, and usually confined to one room) won’t insist that the exact same kitten has outside access and a cat flap the moment you adopt it.

Yours have gorgeous wicked little faces, Aint!

They are very wicked indeed Guppy. When you open the door of their room all four of them swarm out, so you need to do it in pairs with one person standing behind you as a backstop. They also all climb up your legs simultaneously if you’re wearing trousers so you need to be either bare legged or wearing sturdy jeans without holes in the knees - lightweight harem trousers or similar are a recipe for disaster.

I would put a simple non-locking cat flap through the wall from the main house into the garage (ideal place for a cat litter tray so you don't have to have it in the kitchen) and a second cat flap, again through the wall, from the garage to the Great Outdoors which could be a micro-chip recognising one. As PP say you will need a cat flap eventually anyway, and tunnel cat flaps through walls are fine.

But YANBU to consider buying rather than rescuing if the rescues don't want you. We were rejected by our local rescue because whilst we are on a quiet side street, we are only 3 houses away from the busy main road and a cat's normal exploration range from our back door would probably include venturing as far as the road. It's ridiculous because loads of other houses in the neighbourhood have cats, it's a perfectly fine area for a cat to live.

We used www.pets4homes.co.uk/ rather than Gumtree. We kept an eye on the site for a year when we knew we weren't ready to have kittens yet (we were having building work done) to look out for usernames that might crop up numerous times and therefore indicate a possible breeder. We didn't get the first kittens we visited because of too many alarm bells ringing in the home visit - yes the kittens were lovely but all kittens are lovely and the owners seemed very irresponsible and clearly had no intention of neutering their older cats and didn't have any problem with their male impregnating his own daughters and granddaughters as often as they came into season - tbh it is only a couple of months now till home visits will be allowed so I think it would be best to hold off a bit until you can do a home visit. The second time we had a visit it was a much less chaotic home environment and the owner had already booked the spay appointment for the mum to have as soon as the kittens didn't need her any longer, so we were confident that we weren't supporting an ongoing supply of excess kittens.

I would put a simple non-locking cat flap through the wall from the main house
Can you actually just make a hole in the wall like that? I imagine it's a bigger job that you'd think, with lintels and stuff...

@GreyhoundG1rl yes you can. You need to check that there aren't any electricity wires at the point you want to cut through but otherwise it is fine. The hole is small enough that it doesn't affect the integrity of the wall so no need to worry about lintels. Most popular cat flap manufacturers have a "tunnel" accessory that can chain link numerous ones together (we needed 4 to get through our wall) like this

[quote KihoBebiluPute]@GreyhoundG1rl yes you can. You need to check that there aren't any electricity wires at the point you want to cut through but otherwise it is fine. The hole is small enough that it doesn't affect the integrity of the wall so no need to worry about lintels. Most popular cat flap manufacturers have a "tunnel" accessory that can chain link numerous ones together (we needed 4 to get through our wall) ]][/quote]
Oh, ok. Thanks, that's interesting.

I find the homing of cats by some organisations illogical - the restrictions that are sometimes put in place make no sense and to be honest at times the visits by the homing person are quite lacking in common sense. Some don't want you to have cat flaps some so etc etc I totally support the fact that people need to understand the commitment when adopting a cat but the rules and attitude of some organisations really isn't in the best interests of the cats they are seeking to rehome

Nowhere to put a hole through to garage as that wall is filled with kitchen cupboards in kitchen and then enclosed stairs in living room. There is no bare wall to do so.

I'd enquired recently about a gorgeous cat with Cats Protection and just clicked refresh on the page and she's been reserved. Am now wondering if the fact that I didn't put that we have a cat flap counted against us. Are CP insistent on cat flaps? FWIW we just moved here a few months back so have been "casually" looking at cats & dogs. Wondering if rescues are still being inundated with enquiries.

I'll check out the pedigree cats for rehome FB page - thanks!