Wanting to get a kitten for an indoor home.

[littleblueenvelope]

I am looking to adopt or buy a kitten. The kitten will be an indoor only cat, due to where I live. I have been researching and looking into this for a long time. My daughter is five and has been around cats and dogs for most of her life. She is gentle and kind with animals.

i just have a couple of questions

1. i really want to adopt. I hear that many charities are overrun with cats and kittens looking for homes but most only rehome kittens in pairs. Whilst I can afford one cat, I sadly can’t afford two. Does anyone know any charities in the south east that would rehome kittens not in a pair?
2. Because of the above, I have looked into purchasing a kitten. The prices seem quite staggering between £300-£2000! I would just be looking for your average normal moggie. I guess these type of kittens are probably advertised more locally/word of mouth?

Please don’t comment if you’re going to chastise me for even considering purchasing a kitten or for not wanting to adopt two! I can offer a safe, secure, kind and loving home to a kitten.

Thanks so much in advance.

Try smaller rescues.

if you really want an indoor cat I wouldn’t look at kittens. You have no idea what their personality might be like as adults, and you may end up with one that starts yelling at 3am because he’s bored and wants to be out, or starts destroying furniture, or marking walls.

you could look at cats that can’t go out- blind, fiv+, or other issue.

I got mine from a rescue as a 2 year old. She was an abused ex breeding queen who had been dumped when no longer able to produce kittens. Which is another reason I’d never buy.

at 2 we could see she had no interest in outside, she just wanted safety and comfort. She has worked up the courage to sit accompanied on the patio now, but that’s it.

oh and I would never get 2. Yes they may be good company as kittens, but as they reach adulthood they need space and their own territory, which imo doesn’t work for indoor cats as they can’t get away from each other.

Don’t get a kitten. Get an older cat (young adult?)that’s used to being inside.

@Mustbethatthank you for your solid advice! I really do have my heart set on a kitten! We helped look after a kitten my sister had rescued last year (circumstances weren’t right for us to adopt this one) and we both had our hearts set on one! But I will take you points on personality and also look for older but still young cats!

interested what you say about not having two! Why do rescues rehome in pairs?

@Mustbethat also your poor cat, but she sounds like she’s landed on her feet with you!

We took a bonded pair. A mum aged 2 and kitten 18 months. Young enough to play and old enough to not savage every moving thing.
This time we took two kitten sisters. They’ve grown up to hate each other. That would be unbearable with inside cats.

The cynical side of me thinks they offer pairs as they only need to find half as many homes.

a neighbour was coerced into taking two from a rescue. They only had a small house and garden, and really didn’t want two. But they fell for the guilt trip and were told it was two cats or no cat, so they thought they had no choice.

which is why I look at the smaller rescues. Plenty about, usually a collection of mad cat ladies distributing to foster homes 😂

an older rescue is also much cheaper - especially when you factor in they come neutered, vaccinated, flead and wormed. That’s several hundred quid alone.

kittens are bastards, honestly 😂

If you want to keep it inside then I would get a cat that needs to stay inside for a reason (e.g. one that’s FIV positive). The cute kitten phase really only lasts a few weeks, they grow in no time.

I think it’s selfish to get a young healthy cat and keep it indoors for its entire life. Especially if it’s on its own with no playmate. You wouldn’t do that to a dog.

Our 'neighbourhood' app is good for this. Several local rescues on it.

@MidnightMeltdowna lot of vets and cat ‘experts’ actually seem to discourage letting cats out at all! So many dangers, including FIV, roads, attacks from other animals and even other humans! I am not ignorant to know that an indoor cat would need stimulation and companionship!

@Mustbethati love a mad cat lady! We met one who owned a hotel we stayed at on holiday! She had a kitten behind reception that she had rescued from being a week old and had hand reared! She then went on to explain she had rescued over 80 cats/kittens over the past year!

As a pp said, the cute kitten phase soon ends to be followed by the "teenager" phase, and within about a year they are adult. So that would be 9 months of you having a kitten followed by around 15-18 years of the adult cat. So around 1/20th of the time with you it would be a kitten, and 19/20 of the time a cat!

I have indoor only cats, though I got a bonded pair to start with as I work out of the home so it wouldn't be fair to have one indoor only. Similar reasoning as you, I was mentally pretty fragile at the time and a beloved pet falling to one of the many, many hazards outdoors would have broken me at the time.

Not just things like cars, accidental poisonings (e.g. antifreeze is very toxic), other accidents, eating dead things that have been poisoned, getting into fights with the local un neutered tom etc, but things like intentional harming or trapping by cat haters, theft to use for dog fight training bait, or cases like that one recently where someone chased a couple of kids away from a plastic bag in the park only to find it contained a kitten they had been torturing to death, or kids tying fire crackers to the cats tail, or shooting it with BB guns or catapults (apparently one of the latest "in" things).

HOWEVER - I specifically chose cats who would need or prefer an indoor life, and you can't tell that when they are still a kitten.

You say South East - would mid Kent be any use to you? If so Rolvenden Cat Rescue are great.