Weird experience getting rescue cats

[CatlessKatie]

My old cat died a year ago (of old age, she was 20) and I have recently started to look into getting a new cat - companion. My old girl was a rescue, but so far I have had really weird experiences contacting other rescues.
RSPCA never got back to me
Battersea rejected me because I did not have a cat flap (I often leave my window open so cat has free access most of the time)
A local farm rescue place never got back to me, when I sent 2 inquiries about wanting to adopt cats. I went to the farm to speak to them and expressed my interest, but they were too busy to speak to me and told me to email. I did again and they never got back to me.
A London rescue rejected me because they thought I had too many windows and that the cat would fall out of them.

I live in leafy suburbs, fairly big house, on a quiet street, lots of experience with cats, responsible owner, no young children, other pets etc I am really gobsmacked to find rescues think I am unsuitable.

I have now called CP back who was delighted to hear from me and I was also approved straight away by Celia Hammond who did a house visit, but I find the experience so strange. All the people who interviewed me were incredibly rude and condescending and treated me more as a cat murderer!

Has anyone else had the same experience?

I was turned down by my local CPL because we were “too busy” for a cat as a family …. no idea what evidence they had for that judgement (in one conversation on the phone) and more annoying , I’d adopted from them before and my boy lived to be 16. The local RSPCA on the other hand couldn’t have been nicer and welcoming . We got two cats 🐈‍⬛

As a pp said, I think with the larger rescues (with branches rather than single sites) it seems to be very much up to the individuals who run that branch.

When DSiL asked at the RSPCA about an indoor only cat, she was immediately invited to view not 1, not 2 but 3 cats they would be happy to rehome as a companion to their existing cat. When a few years later I asked at a nearby branch about a companion for Girlcat indoor only, I was given a flat "no, we don't rehome indoor only".

And with the smaller rescues, it's even more down to the individual owner of course. I struck lucky when I found Ruth at Rolvenden when I got my first 2, and doubt I will ever go anywhere else.

Yes! It was all so odd. It was Covid times so I had to do a video tour or my house and show the rescue centre lady how our windows didn’t open too far incase Kitty randomly decided to jump out. She also looked at our house on Google maps satellite to see the roads and asked me 100 questions about how busy it was and would the cat be able to access the road. Bit of the third degree! Id had cats growing up and they’d just kind of got on with it and never shown interest in jumping out a second story window! In the end we went with Celia Hammond.

Have to disagree with this from a CP PoV. I volunteer for CP and we try our very best to make the home for our cats a forever home. All cats have different personalities and some massively so, rehoming a very timid cat who is appealing because they are ginger or a tortie into a house with several young children isn’t fair on the cat and a return or disappearing cat is not uncommon. Letting a young, healthy cat be adopted by someone living on a main road is also a death sentence for the cat or it will end up living an unfulfilled life indoors.

Lots of cats come to us from multi cat households where they were stressed or bullied and need to be in an only pet household.

We write our cat descriptions based on our knowledge of their personalities and history, which is why I’ve ended up with a very timid cat, on lifelong medication in our child free, quiet home. Because we are a match and I can offer what he needs.

That said, I did fall out with the RSPCA who wouldn’t let me adopt a kitten because one of my adult DC, away at Uni, couldn’t come and meet him as everyone in the family had to meet the kitten before we could adopt. The same adult child that never came home again to live.

Same. I have had two that lived to over 19. Have fostered cats and kittens. Live in a town house backing on to a stream and woodland.
When we moved here I waited a few months then excitedly applied to local charity. Said I would prefer a black kitten which should be easy as often overlooked.

A woman came to visit. Made her a coffee in my ground floor kitchen and showed her around the garden, newly installed cat flap. Sat through her lecture on the bleedin obvious. ‘Don’t let it out straight away’ etc.
I could tell she wasn’t impressed I wanted a kitten but if I am loving it for 20 years I wanted to have the kitten stage. Terrible me.

After all this she requested to look around the rest of my house! So the first floor living room and third floor bedrooms in my town house. What on earth could that possibly be for?! I think the nosying was just a favourite part of her volunteering.

I was duly approved but they would only home kittens in pairs and I wanted only one.

Ended up with a single boy born as a single kitten to a too young mum from someone we knew. He has coped with his very pampered lot.

He is gorgeous🙂😍

😍

I've posted on here before about having a similar experience. Every rescue had a reason why we were not good enough. One rescue wouldn't home to houses with young kids (one gentle animal loving four year old). Another said the road we lived on was too busy. When I said I would be happy with a house cat (fiv or some other reason) I was told it might escape. At that point when I had stopped my eyes rolling out of my head I went and got two pedigree kittens from a breeder. They live the most ridiculous pampered life.

It is madness when some animals are spending years caged in a rescue.

No 'anyone' isn't better. They do have to do welfare checks.

Have you tried the independent rescuers or smaller charities? I've got an older cat from Bow Lodge Babies and they were super sensible about the whole thing.
My friend had issues with one larger rescue where she was after an indoor only cat because she lives in an apartment and they refused because the apartment is not too far from a busy road and they were worried the cat would escape and go to main road. This would involve the indoor only cat leaving the apartment, opening the fire doors on the corridor, taking the lift down 5 flights to the ground floor and then walking the direction of the main road. Sigh.
Good luck OP!

My cat is old and I'm worried when she's gone. Actually chose a house in a quiet location as possible (SE London) but am now sure the dog will be a good excuse to turn me down. Rescued 3 cats and 1 turned up at the door 15 years ago.
Anyway if you are in SE London try Romney house, foal farm or Croydon animal Samaritans. They look a bit more relaxed in their requirements.

Yes, I have found most people that deal with these charities have issues such as;

• Someone I know phoned CP and basically said they don't come out for cats! There was a cat that gave birth to kittens in their shed and feral.

• Others haven't been able to house their cats to a charity because they are full then many others can't rescue them because they never hear back. It's utterly bizarre.

🤣🤣🤣

I know, OP, I'm not trying to excuse them, just saying from their point of view I suppose they can't necessarily tell who's going to neglect a cat or return it for a stupid reason and who's a genuinely responsible owner.

I do think the power of being the person who visits people's houses and decides where to rehome a cat goes to some people's heads. They shouldn't be rude and condescending and I hope you gave them short shrift for that.

Honestly, most people I know with cats would 'fail' these sorts of questions and visits, even though in the real world they're highly responsible and loving owners! I have friends who have indoor cats/have no catflap but the cat has access through a window/use catteries/have people come in to feed them while away/live with children and other pets... Miscreants all of em

Foul farm never responded to my applications and was too busy to see us when we were there and asked to see two cats we were interested in….
Will try the other two, but it looks like the animal Samaritans will need cat flap and I am too worn down from talking to these people now.

I had the same problem 6yrs ago when I got my current cat so it's been going on for a while.

The only cat anyone was willing to contact me about was a problem cat no one would take. I'd asked to view a different cat and they took me to see problem cat instead, then applied huge amounts of pressure and guilt tripped me into having her. They sent multiple texts a day and I gave in and took her. She's a pain in the arse and I still regret giving into their pressure 6yrs later.

This was a local rescue I'd used twice before without issue.

At the time I had no children and no other pets so I have no idea why the other rescues didn't bother responding. I didn't want kittens and usually take long haired cats as they're less popular. One rescue did reply and said as I had a full time job, I was unsuitable 🤷🏻‍♀️

Yes I agree, my experience too. My road was too busy, apparently, despite the fact,all of my neighbours have cats, some are over 20 and have always lived on the same road. I honestly think, the sm posts are more about raising funds than genuine rehoming.

Seems you are localish. The stray cats club is a new one too. Might be worth a try.

@CatlessKatie if you are SE London then try Bow Lodge babies. They have a Facebook page and best to message them

The irony is that this kind of unrealistic fussiness fuels demand for the dodgy kitten breeders, who will sell to anyone with cash.

A couple of years ago after one of two our lovely cats died we wanted to adopt another car. We contacted the RSPCA who came for a visit, the woman told me that as we had a cat flap that was a problem and then lectured me on how to look after a cat and then said we could only have an older cat as we had children who were 4 and 6. At the point she was telling me the cat should not be allowed out at night and various other things our lovely cat can in to the room looking happy and content and then after a bit of attention lay down in the middle of the room.

I do not now give any money to the RSPCA as I felt their approach was over the top.

The Celia Hammond people were very odd with us. It was as if we were being lectured during their home visit and when we went in to see the cats they would only let us interact with the ones they wanted us to adopt. At the end of the visit they said "which one do you want". Um...you showed us four terrified cats and wouldn't let us near the ones who wanted out attention!

Battersea were okay and we were approved to adopt but again, we couldn't meet all the cats. We could only meet four they approved us for. One we fell in love with on the website they would not even let us see.

I've heard good things about the Mayhew. Two of my friends have adopted from there and said they were lovely. Let them spend time with all the cats and were very supportive.

We got ours from CP in our local area. All the cats are fostered and you can visit them in their homes. We didn't get a home visit. The lady who runs it was aware of our street and house and said it would be fine. We live on a busy road and their only rule was that we could not have kittens which was fine.

I do sometimes think a white lie or omitting information is fine in these situations. Like the child who lives at uni apart from holidays doesn’t need mentioning. I would have fibbed and said previous cat died of old age instead of got squashed on road etc.

Yes I would have lied to Battersea about cat flap in hindsight. We would install one if it had become obvious we needed one anyway. The only people I know with cat flaps, their cat doesn’t use it anyway and insist they open the door for him.

I guess hindsight is 20/20!

our rescue insisted all kittens who’ve never been outside need to be indoor cats. We actually wanted an indoor cat anyway but if we decided to let her out later down the line how would they ever know? Similarly most other charities stated cat needed access to outside when older, they can avoid re homing to high rise flats but are they going to set up a camera to check I’m letting them out in my garden?