Adopting a cat *and* a kitten

[pepperminttaste]

My partner and I have fallen in love with a rescue cat we've met (age 3-4). She has kittens and is currently housed beside some other kittens from another cat. My children have fallen in love with the kittens. All the kittens!

I've had a look and found lots of posts about introducing a new kitten to an older cat but none about newly adopting both together at the same time. Not that we're necessarily going to do it but it would be useful to know whether it was even feasible.

My gut reaction is it probably wouldn't work but I'm not sure what I'm basing that on. Any advice?

If you adopt a mum and kit then that would be great. Mum will teach kit all it needs to know and they will have a great bond. Will also be company for each other when you are at school/work. Kittens are hard work but so worthwhile. Have you had cats before?

It would be fab if you could adopt her with one of her kittens, especially if there's any she has a special bond with!

As PP said the mum will teach the kitten what to do and cats (most of the time) work best in pairs or multiples.

We got a cat and kitten (not related!) from a rescue years ago, they bonded really well and calmed each other down when setting in and are good company for each other when we're out of the house. They love each other!

That's a brilliant idea!

Oh! I wasn't expecting all those positive responses. Definitely food for thought then.

I did know kittens were hard work and that was a small part of why we were keen to adopt mum. There's almost always someone home and, from our visit last week, it looks like they all know to use a litter tray which would reduce the hard-work aspect a little at least!

We have had a cat before. We adopted her 5 years ago and she was the most wonderful little kitty. We all adored her. She died almost a year ago, very suddenly.

My MIL adopted a mum and kitten from Cats Protection about seven years ago. There are photos of the tiny kitten sitting in a Christmas mug from that year, and now he is a massive black panther and a killing machine! The beautiful mama cat died last year but she definitely taught the kitten the way to behave and kept him in check.