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??

Are you in SE London? We got ours from catcuddles www.catcuddles.org.uk/
They do vet owners but weren't ridiculous about it

I live in a flat, and approached Celia Hammond about cats who need to be kept indoors for health reasons. They said they'd put me on their register only if i put mesh screens over every single window.

In the end, I adopted from www.ra-na.com/, who rescue animals in North Africa and re-home in the UK. I now have two completely mad blind cats who definitely prefer being in my flat to living on the streets in Tunis.

I volunteer for a Cats Protection adoption centre in London and they'll look at a case by case rather than a blanket no. Perhaps an adult cat would be better, you may need to wait for one suitable to live with young children. Kittens aren't the best with small kids. There's a centre in Mitcham (which I assume is your nearest) along with Archway and Harrow.
Rescues are very busy so it can take a while to respond.

I don't live near Mitcham but that is probably closer than either Archway or Harrow.

Why don't you think kittens and children go together? I find the assumption that all cats hate kids really weird.

It’s a tricky one as the rescues obviously feel a responsibility, having rescued a cat once, to keep them as safe as possible. But I feel it is somewhat unrealistic, especially in built up areas like London where basically everyone lives near a reasonably busy road, and especially if they want to encourage adopt-don’t-shop.

People will find cats one way or another. Buying a cat is wrong only because there are too many cats in the world and if people know people will buy on the open market they are more likely not to neuter their cats. But I can see why they do it. So being so strict becomes counter productive.

My place has been home checked by three rescues, and Celia Hammond was the most strict. We got our cat from the RSPCA.

I volunteer for CatChat, maybe take a look there as you can search multiple rescues across your area.

We have had this as well. Some rescues just say no. We got a lovely cat from a rescue in west London on the basis of going down there. She had been injured and no one had wanted her. Best cat ever though.

I actually looked at Gumtree and really don't want to buy cats although feel very sorry for some of the kittens who are obviously ones they've not been able to sell.

I shall keep looking at the smaller rescues for now

Young kittens are so small and can easily be injured by young children, not intentionally but it is a risk. A bigger kitten, say over 6 months, is a lot sturdier! Also, you have more idea about the character of a cat once they're older. Where I am we have and recently have had some very nervous kittens so a home with young kids wouldn't be ideal.
It's not about cats hating kids. The issue is certain homes aren't suitable for certain cats or kittens. Often rescue cats haven't lived with kids or full background is unknown so it's hard to know how they'll react. Rescues want to reduce the chance of a cat being returned. The staff aren't being difficult, they are keen for cats to be homed.

even if you take the fact that not all homes are suitable for all cats, you have to admit that the rescue criteria for most rescues are ridiculous.

No kids, no dogs, no people who work outside of the house. In truth the only people these charities want to rescue kittens is the volunteers themselves. Hence why most of them have 10 plus cats and never say yes to anyone else.

I have looked at that blue moon website and it is absolutely awful and practically unuseable. How anyone adopts a cat through them I shall never know.

I agree with a PP, I won’t contribute to the buying and selling of animals online and as such I just won’t be getting a cat. h

Absolutely, care must be taken with these pets to ensure they go to suitable homes. But in our case we were told that we were an unsuitable home for any adult cat because we were out of the house for a normal working day. Hard to agree that they really did want their animals rehomed.

I would actually have much more concern about adopting an older cat / cats because I could see that, in theory at least, if they've never been around a child they might not be impressed by the noise etc (ignoring the fact that so many families with children have pets and we also had a cat when my DD was born).

I saw an advert yesterday for a home but only with children over 16. Where did that arbitrary age come from? Or even 8. It is the view of the rescue centres rather than anything scientific.

Rescue centres do get it wrong. They don't know the personality of every cat. I had a friend who rescued one from CH. they were told he was very friendly, would get on with other cats, about 8 years old. Turns out he was about 2 years old and hated other cats which ended up with two very stressed out cats and ultimately rehoming after failed integration.

I understand that they're trying to do their best for cats they think have had a rough past life but I don't believe that a cat is better off spending it's life in a cage.

No kids, no dogs, no people who work outside of the house. In truth the only people these charities want to rescue kittens is the volunteers themselves. Hence why most of them have 10 plus cats and never say yes to anyone else

Exactly. One loony CPL lady shared that she had 8 cats living in her bedroom with litter trays 💩

I have had cats all my life, as have the DD's, though both now teens. Large garden, fields all around, 24/7 access to outside. No dogs. I am a SAHM. They refused me, because the rural road outside our house has a field opposite, and a cat would want to go and play there...... and so have to cross the road. I was not prepared to lie and say I would lock the cat flap.

So I got a kitten from a school friend. He is now 9 years old, fit and muscly, has a whale of time in the field, brings in lots of mice. I have watched him cross the road. He goes to the edge, sits, looks up the road and down the road. He won't cross if there is a car even a long way down round the corner. He waits until it is completely clear. Clever boy.

OP when our local Nextdoor (app/website) isn't complaining about traffic/local politics there are often people needing to rehome cats because they have to move to a "no pet" rental or are working abroad. Is that worth a try?

We've owned cats on mainroads for over 30 years. I think the road is busy enough (and plenty of dogwalkers) that they stay well away (though they do have a good run of gardens to explore and no real territory wars/nearby cats.

One thing I would observe though is that our cats really didn't get on well with pre-school friends. Make sure you have a "safe/quiet space" if you do manage to get a cat.

I lied and said my house wasn't near a main road. They didn't check.

Four Paws Cat Sanctuary in Oxfordshire are an excellent small sanctuary.

I volunteer for a rescue centre & our criteria are nowhere near as strict as some of what's been mentioned. Definitely see if there are smaller, independent ones you can go to. Ours covers a radius of about 40miles & on occasion I've done checks for another rescue really far away when for some reason the local adopters wanted the cat from a particular rescue & the cat had to be transported.

Are you anywhere new wood green? We goy ours from them several years ago. They asked questions but weren't crazy strict.

I ended up buying a kitten from Gumtree and never in a million years did I think I'd do that.. But the rescues were insane. Most of them refused to rehouse the cats they had. They never got back to me. One place stipulated cats couldn't leave near 'rivers, roads or railways'. Roads & railways- we live in a city. But RIVERS? I grew up in the heart of the country and no cat was ever dumb enough to go near a river.
My kitten is absolutely beautiful, ad though the house he came from was a little chaotic the family were lovely and he's perfectly litter trained.
and Im single., work from home, have an enclosed garden and have had cats all my life.

We live not on but v close to a main road in S London and adopted recently from CP Mitcham without difficulty. I completed the form online expressing interest, sent in a few photos of the house, went to collect. I imagine they did a streetview of the road since they had the post code. But it was v straightforward. Nikki I think was the woman we dealt with.
Never got a response from CH though, either.

And on paper we were less desirable than you I expect We're all out all day, and child has SN. But we did go along to the centre for a couple of hours so they could see how DC interacted etc etc.

I volunteer for a rescue charity, we have cats available and we wouldn’t automatically disqualify you just because you live near a road! PM me if you would like and I can see about getting you a homecheck 🙂

I didn’t hear back from a lot of the larger places (or we were turned down) but Wisteria Cat Rescue is brilliant. It’s where I got two of my beautiful cats from last year. Based in Walderslade (Kent), it’s a lovely rescue place. I work FT, have two kids and already had one cat when we got two from Wisteria.

I was just looking for their link as we got our two bastard cats from them.

Unless you live in a rural area then a cat is always going to be at risk of being hit by a car. Do you just keep them caged up forever because of that risk? It seems ridiculous to me.

My cat got clipped by a car in a quiet country lane. I wouldn't have a cat on the side of the M25 obviously but it's just luck really.

You could try second chance animal rescue in Crockenhill. https://scar-crockenhill.org/]

Not sure I've done the link right, I can't remember how you do them.

I’m in the same situation.
Had a marvellous cat from Cats Protection for 13 years; she was about one year old when she came to me. Remember being a bit 😮 at how complicated it was, but things seem to have got worse.

Have been ready for a year for to adopt another cat but either I don’t hear back or I’m too near a road. I live in London. There are roads.

have contacted loads of places to offer to foster, too, with an undertaking never to let the foster cat/s outside. Last contact was someone saying they would ring me; that was two weeks ago.

Really missing having a cat and would offer a lovely home and lots of love.