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??

www.facebook.com/gingercathouse118/

Email there adoptions specific email address xx

I don't own cats, im a dog person. If its the same as trying to adopt a rescue dog you would probably have an easier time adopting a child!!! The prerequisites and rules make it near on bloody impossible!

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.

Both DD and I own cats which have to be indoors - I live in a flat and she lives in a house that opens directly onto a narrow pavement and busy road. They live very happy lives, especially if like us, you are home most of the day and are company for them.

OP I also found the charities take forever to respond, if at all, but as they are run often only by a small group of volunteers I understand. Besides actually going along to Battersea I would try the following rescue:
www.london-inner-city-kitties.org/

Zelda came to me a year ago after one rescue attempt fell through with Croyden Animal Rescue, when one of the staff rang me and put me directly in touch with a family looking to rehome her. She is now 8 years old and as you can see from the pic, thriving!

I think also having a 3 year old can make it tricky.

We adopted from Battersea. Although it was a few years ago I basically viewed their site everyday using the search option for a cat that could live with any age children. As soon as a suitable one came up as available I phoned them and named the cat I wanted.

I had a phone interview and as soon as we finished that, the cat I wanted was marked as reserved. We only had a few days to collect her once she was confirmed as ours or she'd be marked as available again on their website.

They have a lot of cats but they rehome fast. It's a definite production line, although I found them very professional. I expect they have a lot of applications but I think to get to the top of the list you have to do the checking of all the cats that are available and match yourself to the cat, rather than them doing it.

Our cat is the most perfect addition to our family.

You could also try "Here for Cats" in Surrey. Our local cattery often fosters cats for them and DD who volunteered there, had a lovely summer socialising feral kittens 😊

Contact them and say you are an experienced cat owner and would like to adopt a pair of senior indoor cats. They do often get older pairs, usually with FIV so have to be kept as indoor cats. You might have more luck with the shelters then, as they find those ones hard to rehome.

Try the Mayhew @kirinm they are London based

I had the same thing with thar Celia Hammond. The irony being that four years earlier they had let me take an old cat that they had really wanted to put to sleep, who lived with me very happily with no issues until he died of old age. They never even bothered with a house check for him. Then just point blank refused me one later on because of the road, even though the cats that lived round there never went near the road as the other way was green and riverside. Inconsistent and lazy. No way they could tell me those cats in cages wets better off than in my house.

No wonder there's so many animals in shelters. I've been looking for another terrier. My terrier gets on great with our cat but most adverts say no kids, no cats, must be at home all the time. Their lists are endless!

I bought my cats from a lovely lady I met on gumtree and my cats and me have had a lovely decade together 🤷‍♀️

Rescue if you can but if you need to buy remember that they aren’t all evil.

Same story in Suffolk. Apparently they are overrun but the adoption standards are bonkers. I got really annoyed and pointed out that everyone lives near a road of some sort and they were essentially sending me off to gumtree.
Plus the longer they hold onto the younger cats the harder it is to adopt them when they're not small and cute, but haring up your curtains instead.

So I'm waiting on kittens to be "ready".

Try new moon rescue in Coulsdon, they have loads of cats desperate for homes.

Cats Protection League were awful. It's like they don't want to find homes for their cats. One of the workers was a nasty piece of work. All the Google reviews for that shelter mention how horrible and difficult she was. I hope she reads the reviews.
We ended up adopting from a small independent local shelter.

You might try Feline Friends if you haven’t already. Celia Hammond wouldn’t rehome to us because they deemed our road too busy. Feline Friends said it was fine.

felinefriendslondon.uk/

Croydon Animal Samaritans have Primrose and Ellie 'still waiting to be rehomed' according to their Facebook page...

They've said no to me (at least they were polite enough to respond).

It has taken quite a lot of willpower not to make a comment under their post.

Madness. Cats don't need constant company like dogs do.

Freinds cat went missing years ago.

Turned out it had moved happily into another house 2 streets away and been living its best life!

Shes had her current cats chipped now!

You won't get through to them.

Just put a call out on facebook locally and in some local groups saying you want to adopt. I adopt all mine and this does the trick. Back in the day we used the Loot, now it's Gumtree or facebook. My two were free of charge, owners moving away.

I wouldn't want to support the buying and selling of living beings.

Are you in FB? When we were looking I followed all the small local rescue pages - there were lots more than you'd think - and we rehomed via one of those.

Had we hit too many blocks I wouldn't have thought twice to adopt via Gumtree or Pets4Homes. They're still animals who need homes at the end of the day.

came on to suggest this. Got ours from there and they are really inundated these days and have no centre as such but a network of foster carers who assess the cats to check they are well, suitable for pets etc.

Celia Hammond are absolutely mad. We lived in a rural area in a house down a track next to woodland. They refused us adopting outdoor cats as “there might be dogs off the lead in the woods who would attack them.” They said we could adopt an indoor cat though.

We adopted instead from RAIN (Rescued animals in need) based near Orpington. When they visited the house to drop off the cats they commented on what a perfect area to have cats and how much they’d love the woods!

Our girls came from a local independent rescue, once I followed one on Facebook suddenly loads of others appeared on my feed! Had no idea there were so many. RSPCA no good as said cats couldn't be left for more than 6 hours 🤨

Watching one of cats climb over an 8 foot fence I'm interested to know how you're supposed to have a cat secure garden...