Adoption of cats from Dubai

[vickylou78]

I'm looking at adopting a cat from UK Homes for Desert Paws. Does anyone have experience of this? There's beautiful cats there looking for homes. They say that they will be spayed, vaccinated and health checked etc.
I think a lot of the cats are Arabian Maus - does anyone know what they are generally like? Google says they are friendly..and chatty!

Why wouldn’t you just go to one of the many, many UK rescues who are absolutely overrun with cats wanting homes?

Why Dubai, they will be in quarantine, have you looked at uk centres

Yes let’s import someone else’s homeless cats and leave UK cats languishing in rescues and foster homes. They may well be beautiful Arabic cats but really, if you want to give a home to a cat, what’s wrong with a moggy?

Why would you even consider importing a cat into Britain? There are plenty of cats here that need help and homes.

Plus unless you go to Dubai you'll never even meet the cat and they may not like you

You should meet an animal before bringing it home. Both you and the potential pet should consent to the pairing. If the animal hates you, they will let you know and someone else should be chosen.

It would be much easier and more sensible to adopt one close to home. I've never understood why people bring animals from overseas when rescue centres here are bursting at the seams.

British rescues are bursting at the seams. And you need to see the cat first.

Hello @vickylou78 - hopefully you are still here and not overwhelmed by the barrage of misinformation from the previous posters!
We have adopted two Mau cats from Dubai, including one from Desert Paws so am slightly better informed 🙂.
Adopting from Dubai is very easy and a very worthwhile thing to do as stray cats out there (and Maus especially as the bog standard domestic "moggy") are treated very badly. They are seen as vermin and trapped and destroyed as rats would be. The pedigrees you see up for adoption have been bought from unregulated breeders and markets and abandoned once they are past kittenhood. This is a death sentence for the longhaired pedigree breeds that are popular out there as they cannot cope with street life and the high temperatures.
You will be asked for a contribution to the travel costs but there is no quarantine. All cats are checked by a UK vet on arrival and need to be chipped and in possession of a passport that details their vaccination history.
If you are interested in Maus specifically then as a proud owner I can tell you they are very special cats - but possibly not for everyone! They are high energy and athletic ( they are the fastest domestic cat) and can be very vocal. However they are also clever loyal and ridiculously bonded and loving. My Marvin isn't a lap cat but asks for kisses every morning and is my stripey body guard who follows me every where. He's also ludicrously handsome. If you would like any more info just let me know!

But why?

Maus are moggies - they are the bog standard domestic cat in the UAE which is why they have no hope of a better life ( by which I mean simple survival) where they are.

So, I have a different perspective to provide as I have adopted two Arabian Maus from Dubai through rescues working with that Charity. The first was as I came across them on Facebook and a friend had adopted through them. When I had my first I got sweet talked into having a second. Both were 6-7 months at adoption, one straight from the streets with little socialisation.

They are not treated well in Dubai and few charities/individuals work to support the huge numbers of street animals.

Arabian Maus are very intelligent, chatty, very full of personality, and adapt well to UK life. Mine are outdoors.

I had no intention of adopting cats so it wasn't that UK cats missed out on my decision to not adopt locally.

Thank you @UndoRedo - always nice to hear from someone who knows what they are talking about !

barrage of misinformation

What are you referring to? What barrage? Just a few people stating the bleeding obvious, and maybe one person confused about quarantine rules.

Aren’t there enough cats in the UK to adopt?

@Puppylucky has said it so much better! I would say that adopting a cat who was born and raised on the streets does have some challenges - he has been known to steal food from other houses and bring it home, he's very capable of looking after himself. He's learnt to love human affection though, and is very snuggly and affectionate. My other Mau is the same, loving in her own way, and with a very strong personality. They are like huskies in cat form.

Someone at my work adopted a dog from the UAE. It was FREEZING the poor bugger. And it would only walk on hard floors or concrete. Not grass or carpet.

But...not a cat. Maus do have less fur than other breeds but they are quite capable of staying inside if it's chilly and are actually quite happy to be out and about all of the seasons. Handled the heat waves well as expected.

If there is a financial incentive a trade will be created where people will ensure there are more "stray cats" to meet the demand.

Still don’t understand why you would do this when cat rescues in this country are bursting at the seams?
You ended up adopting cats from abroad when you live in the UK so of course cats in rescue here missed out

I was responding to the quarantine comment which was plain wrong as well as the many comments about needing to meet the cat first - it's obviously a good thing but not essential and if you adopt through a UK charity you also won't always get the chance to meet first. The charities are bursting at the seams comment is always trotted out but there are plenty of posters who will testify to the difficulty in adopting a UK cat due to overzealous restrictions. @PhilosophicalCheeseSandwich

We adopted our cat from Every Cat Matters from Dubai. I'm not sure why we chose to adopt from Dubai tbh, he just popped up on my feed and I fell in love with his little face. I did look at lots of charities in the UK, but we have a 4 yo and many of them were a no because of this and that we live nearish a road. However, we've adopted twice before from UK charities, and haven't had an issue it just seemed to be this time for some reason.
Other posters are right in that you don't get to meet them before hand and it's a risk. However, the rescue did several calls with me before hand to ask about my home/lifestyle etc and I felt took the time to get to know us. He was already in the UK at this point with a foster family. When we dopted the most recent cat from a UK rescue, I filled in the form and sent a few house photos at 8am and by 10, we were accepted. We didn't really to meet her, just went to collect her and had a 15 min slot in which do this. I felt like they didn't really take as much time to get to know us.
The cat we adopted from Dubai is an Arabian Mau - he's high energy and very vocal and so loving and friendly. He's very confident and clever too - we absolutely love him. He's been great with our DC. Also, he doesn't shed in the same way our other cats do and is very confident and happy with the other cats which I think is meant to be a trait of the breed. He will need some outside access at some point but the rescue said he should be inside or in a secured garden, so we will most likely build him a catio or do something to secure him in the garden.

Lots of very judgemental people on here!

Firstly, rescues in the UK can be VERY picky. Many who want to adopt are refused cats as they live on a main road, or for various other reasons like they work full time, they have a cat/dog already, they live in a flat etc etc.

For example, I live on a main road and have a cat. If I want to adopt a second one, many will refuse me as the only cat they would allow me to have is a disabled one which has to be indoors - which would likely need to be a sole cat in the household.

Secondly, these cats in the middle east are desperate. They are not always treated well, often temporary pets of expats who dump them when they leave, and rely on the kindness of charities and good Samaritans to survive.

I love that ! Someone else described Maus as dogcats and I think that's very true - for better (loving, loyal, want to be part of the gang) and worse ( need company, attention and exercise)

@preggogreggo if you need Catio inspiration here is Marvin loving life in his - it is honestly the best thing we have done for him. It can be quite tricky to let them roam as they are so territorial but this has been wonderful for him, he's going to be bereft when autumn comes !