Rescue centres refusing to let us adopt

[kirinm]

I have had cats for the last 20 or so years. Unfortunately my last cat died - about 3 years ago - from an aggressive cancer and because we had a very small baby at that time we didn't want to get another cat because we thought it would probably be unfair.

Anyway, fast forward 3 years and we are interested in adopting. We have a large garden, had french doors installed with a cat flap in them and I wfh 3 times a week.

We've contacted Celia Hammond (who haven't even responded to either phone calls or emails), Croydon animal samaritans and another South East London rescue centre along with Battersea. Only CAS has responded and said we live too close to a main road presumably to ever adopt from them.

I really do not want to buy a cat but what are we meant to do? Most of the centres won't even respond to us and if they're going to complain that we live too close to a main road, that is going to be the case for a vast amount of inner city London.

Our neighbours have cats, we had cats, I see lots of cats in and around our garden. Does anyone have any tips on how to get through to these rescue centres or make them see sense in letting a family adopt a cat because it is vastly better than living in a cage??

@StopGo Thanks for that, I have contacted them.

@ParbadosBeach I hadn't thought about cats protection league. A few years back we actually found a stray in our shed and CPL helped rehome him. (We couldn't at the time because I was just about to have a baby and our then resident cat would not have been on sharing a house).

Yes, l agree very hard work re recue centres, esp if like me you already own a cat. You see alot of younger cats , mostly under a year/ a couple of years old being given up for adoption by owners on Pets4Us and Gumtree etc for one reason or another so you are rehoming them in that sense.

The way you can completely avoid a cat being hit by a car is to have indoor cats. Unfortunately cat rescues won’t allow you to home a cat if you don’t have a garden. I resorted to buying my cats from eBay. Such a shame when you hear about cats desperately needing homes. My cats could not be more loved or contented.
good luck op!

Another popping on to say we had the same thing .SE London ,last 2 cats lived into late teens ,garden ,cat flap .

Happy to take 2 cats ,any age .

Battersea wouldn't put us on their waiting list ,a no from Ceila Hammond because we live near a main road .

In the end a friend gave us a stray she had rescued and had for a year and who wasn't getting on with her 2 older cats .

There was a post on a local SE London forum a week ago looking for a home for a cat

www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=2287844

I've been turned down by rescue centres for almost 10 years. Reasons being:

You have a dog
Your garden is too small
You work out of the house
You have children
Your new bigger garden is not secure enough
You don't have enough experience 🤨

Not sure where they're expecting to find all these experienced, work from home, single, childless cat lovers in perfect sized houses with fully secure gardens nowhere near a road.

You could also try Foal Farm in Biggin Hill which is not too far

One of our local rescues wants her cats to go to indoor homes. I get the heartbreak when cats go missing or are hit on roads, but come on let cats be cats.

I agree here with ThisShip. The number of people advertising for homes, sometimes in desperate circumstances, is huge. Sometimes people will advertise non-neutered young animals for free or very cheap and it makes my blood run cold. The owners often mean well, but a lot of those animals face a horrible future and so by taking one of these you are doing the pet at least a service. The rescues are shooting themselves in the foot if the only people who are allowed to adopt are a vanishingly rare group of energetic healthy retired people with lovely houses far away from main roads, who don't travel or leave the house in the evening and have no children or other pets, which seems to be the standard hope around here.

Suggestions:

Put the word out amongst friends and locals that you are looking for a cat.

Ask the vet that your previous cat saw, talk to local veterinary surgeries and keep checking their notice boards.

Check your local Facebook group.

Go to Battersea in person and make it clear that you are willing to adopt an older cat or one with health issues.

I bought a cat from pets4homes. It was a kitten of 12 weeks. Lady had bought it as company for her older cat but her older cat kept attacking it. She is much loved by all of us.

Thanks @FlowerArranger our local facebook group have had the same issues with the same rescue centres! Our next door neighbours ended up adopting from Leeds.

I shall speak to our previous vets though - that is a good idea.

How busy is the road near you? Like super busy dual carriageway or a busy residential street? To be honest I'd be nervous about getting a cat on a REALLY busy road with loads of cars whizzing by all the time. We live near a fairly busy road but not right on it and I think our cat is quite scared of it. I hope you get cats soon. Sounds like you'd offer them a loving home.

@kirinm
I have high hopes for you and new moon rescue

They seem to be fairly laid back from what I can see !

@SallyWD our road isn't that busy but there is a much busier road at the bottom of our road. It depends how far a cat would wander. In the 6 years I've lived here, I've never seen a cat on the pavement of the busier road let alone in the road itself.

There are a lot of cats on our road though. I know that because a lot of them like coming into our garden and often attempt the catflap.

Adopting a cat that needs to be indoors for health reasons might be an option to consider if roads are an issue, especially if you don't have existing cats - a cat with sight or hearing loss, or an FIV cat for example.

I'm also wondering whether sight of your old cat's veterinary records - if you still have them - might persuade rescues that you are a responsible cat owner servant.

@AnApparitionQuipped we did think about an FIV cat but our flat gets warm in the summer and we couldn't ever commit to never having the door open.

@FlowerArranger I'd definitely say we were responsible owners for our two cats. They were the soppiest things but both got sick when they were older and needed a lot of extra care. I still remember the day the vet told me I needed to get a urine sample from one of them...

Cats Protection in Mitcham were fantastic when we adopted our two rescues

Celia Hammond are absolutely useless in communication. I’d go down there if you can and speak to them. I did that and they gave me a cat the same day to my surprise. I’m Lewisham too

As animal lovers it is so upsetting when we try to do the right thing and rescues put blockers in the way of what would otherwise be wonderful homes for a pet in need..
I found 2 of my older rescues through preloved. The owners were not charging anything, so wasnt a money thing, but their circumstances changed and they wanted control over who the cats went to so removed them themselves.

Maybe that would be a good place to look or pop adverts up saying you are looking for cat in need of remoming, are open to inspection and are willing to pay a nominal fee to transfer ownership.

Best of luck and I hope you get a new in need addition to your family soon.

I had this with my dogs. Had to get them from abroad. Got my cats from Cats Protection - but I think the roads thing would be an issue with them too. From friends, or friends of friends?

We successfully adopted from Celia Hammond but I found the vetting a bit over the top. I know they’re doing it to avoid people returning the animals but I had to do a full video tour of my house including showing the person (over the phone) how bedroom windows opened and closed and if they had catches to avoid the window opening too far!

Celia Hammond are ridiculous. We had a small enclosed back garden that backed on to a small river and park. No access to the road. They wouldn't home cats to us in case they drowned in the river. It was about 10cm deep! We got ours from cats protection.

Just because this thread has been making me think of our old two!

We were turned down flat by the RSPCA for any cat because we both worked outside the home. A very local charity were more accommodating.