Where is the best place to find a kitten?

[WhimsicalLampshade]

For various reasons we are not eligible to adopt a cat.

We lost our beloved moggy last year and would like a kitten of the same colour.

Where's the best place to look please?

Who says you're 'not eligible' and what reasons were you given?

It would be very unusual to not be able to adopt at all! What reason have you been given? Have you tried different rescues?

There are so many kittens in rescue right now, surely you’re eligible somewhere!

I emailed a few local rehoming charities a few months back and they weren't very helpful.

We've got young kids, live on a trunk road and the garden isn't fenced in.

We got declined from can rescues because we live near a main road (it’s not at all) I went on gumtree and found 2 18mo brothers (free). They’re awesome

If you go to rspca/cats protection they seem to be stricter. Small local rescues can be a bit more flexible however the one I foster for would potentially say know due to the main road situation. They happily rehome with children with the right cats. I dont agree with it but you may find someone selling online but this breeding totally fuels the cat crisis in UK and I would avoid if possible

The person that came from the cat rescue place also said our house wasn’t suitable because of our woodburner and wires showing!! (A tiny bit of cable coming from the tv behind the bookcase)Ffs, it’s a 5 bed house! She obviously hated us as soon as she came.

Thank you. One of them was Cats Protection, a few others were smaller local ones but that was back in the winter.

I did almost get a kitten from Pets4homes but got a bad feeling about the seller and blocked them.

I got our current cat from Blue Cross. They said they would need to do a home inspection but they didn’t. They said he was a year but actually think he was a few months, mental enough.

Cat charity women (always women) can be very odd and picky considering how many cats need re homing.
Keep an eye on local social media and put the word out. We got our kitten from a friend of a friend of a friend.

We’ve just adopted a kitten from a local independent rescue. We live near a busy road and were told that we should consider an indoor cat or supervised access only outside.
We explained what we were doing to make the garden secure and this was fine..
They don’t like cats being adopted to by families with children under 5.
It might be worth you trying some local independent rescues.

We got a lovely cat from a neighbour who had allowed their girl to have a litter before spaying. I would have loved to have rescued again. We have a senior Battersea cat, who needed company after his buddy died, but despite keeping him alive for 14 years, they wouldn’t rehome to us again on the basis of already having a cat and also a 4YO 🤷‍♀️

Are you looking for an indoor only cat? Do you have/will you install a catio? If so, would you consider an FIV+ cat?

Let your local vets know. I got one that way. Please don’t buy one from anywhere, at all.

Let them know you are looking, I mean!

30 years ago.. the cats protection came round . My husband is Thai.. (we had lived there for 8 years before coming to the uk.. in Thailand because they are Buddhist they don’t euthanise.. they just take unwanted animals to the temple who feed them ) so if you want a cat/dog/fish/monkey/lizard - you just go and pick one … so he was a bit bemused .
Him : ‘Who are these people’ ?
Me : ‘The cat people
Him: ‘What do they want ?’
Me : ‘They are checking if our home is ok for a cat ‘
Him : like an exam ?
Me: Yes .
Him : Could we fail ?
Me : Yes !
Him : This might be my weirdest day so far in the UK …

(we lived In a cul de sac off a cul de sac backing on to woodland ) it literally couldn’t of been safer..

we were gifted a brother and sister who we had for 13 years and 19 years respectively…

It doesn’t sound ideal TBH.

Honestly adopting a cat seemed more difficult than adopting a child. Really wanted to rehome a rescue, and I'd previously owned cats and had fostered for a well known cat charity too. Despite that was turned down everywhere for:

Living in a flat
No private/direct access to the garden
Living near a main road
Not having cat proof window screens
Having a young child

I reluctantly turned to Gumtree. Took a few attempts to find a genuine ad. And bought a kitten.

Our cat is now two and we love her. She's an indoor and outdoor cat, no issues with windows/the road/me letting her in and out, and my dc is gentle and she's just the best cat ever.

Still can't believe we were turned down everywhere else as you hear lots of cats are looking for forever homes.

I found my boy via a Facebook group (adult cat not kitten though). The rescue centres seem to prefer retired people, they often post updates on the rehomed cats and all the ones I applied for went to retired people.

We got our boy (he was one) from Cats Protection. I had to do a “video tour” of our house and garden and send it to the lady. Our previous girl we adopted direct from a family where she was being stressed out by their boisterous toddler (she was three).

I follow loads of rescues on social media and they seem to have kittens coming out of their ears at the moment.

Rescues are often extremely fussy. Smaller ones can be more flexible. My friend rescues local stray cats and rehomes locally via word of mouth and the vet typically. I got one of mine that way. So definitely contact the local vets, put some messages on local neighbourhood FB groups letting folks know you are interested in having a cat.

We live in a boat-we are a long way from a main road and have a garden. No rescue will let us have a cat or a kitten simply because of the boat and our refusal to have an indoor cat. Despite having had cats for 35 years without a drowning! We went to Scotland to get our current two from a friend who brings in street cats from Spain.

All our kittens came from local farms. We paid £10 for each of them.

There are a few rescues dotted about that insist all kittens to be kept indoor only (there are at least a couple I can think of in Liverpool). With the road I would really consider this.

A lot will specify DC over 5, I think partly because it results in less returns when kittens kitten. I'm personally of the view that children get scratched and they learn from that.

Some small rescues are even madder than the larger ones, but there are a few that will be more flexible if you chat to them.

But generally gum tree, pets 4 homes if you are looking for sales. Unless it's a pedigree I cannot think of a good reason for people to be allowing their cat to have litters of kittens when the charities are so overwhelmed.

The concern with young children and kittens is more the potential for risk to the kittens from children, rather than the other way around.