Where to find a kitten or pair of kittens

[RosesAndHellebores]

We lost our darling boy on 6th January. He was 15. Today I collected his ashes.

We need a cat or pair of kittens. I know it isn't strictly speaking kitten season but I thought there was always a surfeit of kittens. There appear to be none. We have registered and been accepted by a local cat charity, Cats Protection, Battersea, our vet. I look at ads (I know that's not the way to go) and they all seem to be for pedigree cats. I don't believe they are truly pedigrees.

Do ordinary moggy kittens just not exist any more or is it just the wrong time of year.

Our house so desperately needs a cat to be a home. I'd take a young cat but dd (23) wants a kitten(s). She has had MH problems and our darling cat was one of here safe spaces so I can't overall her.

kittens are fluffy and cute but buying them feeds demand so irresponsible owners still won’t get their moggy neutered, as people wanting kittens makes them £££.
Please have a rethink, you absolutely can overrule your DD. I’m sure as a cat lover she wouldn’t want to contribute to the continuation of back street breeding.

I’m sorry for your loss. I hope when you find a new fluff ball or two they help heal your heart

Keep an eye on all
your shelters, ours regularly have kittens come through the door, in fact we’re meeting a pair this weekend

Keep monitoring the rescues. The one near me is very good but the kittens do get snapped up fast. Literally within minutes of them posting on their website.
Your kitten is out there!

Whereabouts are you? I adopted a pair of 5 month kittens recently. There are still some about, just fewer through the winter and they get snapped up. I applied to about 6 different rescues for pairs until I got lucky with my girls. They are worth it. ❤️

I also was tempted to buy a pair and was losing faith, but the thought of handing over money to some arsehole kept me focused. Keep on searching and applying to every rescue you can, keep on keeping on.

I wonder if OP could offer to foster, as a placeholder until kittens easier to find

Unless you have young kids or dogs (ie environmental factors you’d want the cat to get used to from a very young age), I wouldn’t get a kitten. They’re a pain in the arse and it feeds demand.

We have rescued twice - once a nine year old Bengal cross, the second time a moggy kitten born on the streets. The moggy was the loudest, most intense cat I have ever encountered - even firm cat lovers found him a bit much. The old lady was the love of my life. She died of cancer at 15.

I have since adopted one cat via Pets4Homes. I say adopted because it wasn’t for profit and the circumstances were that the mum had got pregnant accidentally when she escaped the family home - she was a pedigree Bengal who had a liaison with the local moggy tom cat. We adopted the kitten for the cost of her vaccinations so far, at 7 months old, and she’s an absolute delight.

We couldn’t rescue this time because rescue centres wouldn’t allow us to adopt a cat with a baby (DS is now 18 months, we’ve had the cat for 3 months). But DS and the cat have become firm friends; he’s still rough with her sometimes but we have lots of spaces where she can get high and get out of his reach, and she’s worked out that he can throw toys for her and open cupboards for her! She sits beside him by choice when he’s playing sometimes, it is lovely.

So I don’t regret using Pets4Homes but I think you do have to be incredibly careful with it. There are lots of puppy and kitten farms. I don’t use the buy section, only the adopt section; make sure to ask lots of questions; and if possible have a test period with the cat to make sure you all get on. We agreed that the owner would take back our cat without any strings attached if things didn’t work out in the first month.

Good luck.

There are still some about. This week, our local rescue has a pair of 21 week old kittens looking for a home.

Mating season in the western hemisphere is March-September hence not many kittens around at the moment. Good luck in your search.

I agree it’s not the season yet. But it soon will be and then rescues will sadly be overrun.
Worth thinking carefully. Kittens can be a total PITA. We took on a pair and if I was suffering with my MH (which I have at times) they would have pushed me over the edge. (Torties!)
Could DD volunteer at a rescue? Maybe she would find a young bonded pair she really liked.

Blue Cross have some kittens, we got ours 2 years ago this month, have a look on their website.

What area are you in?

Can you give us a rough idea of the area you are in / distance you will travel.
I can recomed some but uts hopless if we are at opposite ends of the country

We are in Surrey. I'd travel to the moon and back but I wouldn’t make a cat suffer more than 30 minutes in the car.

Celia Hammond?

I've checked out celia Hammond and they are based in SE London which can easily be 90 minutes in the car over a relatively short distance with lots of stopping and starting for the cat.

Take a look at Catchat for Surrey - lots of rescues listed there: www.catchat.org/index.php/cat-rescue-centres-surrey

Some have pairs of fairly young cats/kittens e.g. www.cats.org.uk/croydon/adopt-a-cat?cid=356882

we went via the pets4homes website but you do have to be really careful to avoid the irresponsible owners who are deliberately allowing pregnancy after pregnancy for profit. you need to do home visits, ask a lot of questions and listen to your gut feelings to make sure you are going with someone who is definitely going to get their cat spayed as soon as these kittens have gone.

always get a minimum of 2 kittens. solo kittens do not grow up to be happy cats. google lone kitten syndrome. kittens need other kittens.

We got our kittens from here, based in Chichester:

crrc.co.uk/rehome-a-pet/rehome-a-cat/

They have a trio of male 5 month old kittens needing a home. Three might be too much though! 😁

I get what you are saying re travel distance, but you are really restricting yourself by limiting it to 30 minutes. Our limit was an hour, and our 2 travelled happily together in a carrier, the odd meow but no squalling. Definitely worth an hour's journey for hopefully 15+ years of a good life.

You could also try New Moon in Coulsdon. We have some (allegedly!) feral cats at our stable yard who came from there. No kittens on the website but if you ring they might have some fostered out.

www.newmoonrescue.com/catsandkittens

I wouldn't worry so much about the car journey. Our kittens did a 3 hour journey and simply slept.

If you use Facebook look for local volunteer cat rescues, I got mine via them. Check out lost and found pages as they often post advice or look for owners of strays on them before taking a cat in.

OP contact your local Cats Protection and register your requirement, they will get in touch when they have kittens nearby. They probably have them now. I volunteer at one branch we currently have around 12 younger than nine weeks and reserve lists. I’m not in your area but I promise you if you register an interest they will come back to you!

www.cats.org.uk/caterham/adopt-a-cat

Have you put the word out to all your friends and family? We took on two kittens last autumn from a local farm, via a friend of a friend. They were a bit handshy to begin, but are darlings now. Free, because they were unwanted not bred for sale.

Otherwise just keep the faith until April/May, when it’ll be much easier to find kittens in rescue.