Ridiculous rules for adopting rescue cats.

[Catlovverr]

Last year we adopted 2 gorgeous boys from Celia Hammond. Having had cats all our lives and being devastated after having to put our old girl to sleep, we soon started to look into adopting new rescues. What we hadn’t prepared for, was how difficult it would be.
We have had rescues all our lives, who have all lived to a grand old age with all the veterinary care needed. We live in a large 3 storey house with a massive garden full of trees on a quiet road. Our garden is backing onto other large gardens also full of trees. Cats paradise we thought.
But oh no, leaving aside the RSPCA who didn’t even respond to our request, we were rejected by Battersea for not having a cat flap despite cats having free access out of a window with safe passage into our garden. We had 30 years of cats using that passage behind us. Window is always left open during the day and closed only at night when we keep them in. The second reason for rejection from Battersea was that we didn’t let our cats outside when we go on holiday. We leave them in the house with family or neighbours popping in twice a day. Reason for that is I want to make sure they are around for their food and are seen by the cat sitters so I know they are ok. Battersea said my cats would be stressed not being let out then despite being in their own home which is large enough for them to not feel confined. Not sure what response people who use catteries would get….
Battersea was also worried that there was one day a week we were both working so no one at home. One of us always wfh rest of week.
The most bonkers rejection was from a smallish rescue. They rejected us because we didn’t have locks on all windows so they worried cats would fall out. This is despite me reassuring them we never left the windows facing the road open for that exact reason.
In hindsight I know I could just lie, I wasn’t prepared for having to lie I guess.
I also understand people have to be properly vetted and that people who run rescues see a lot of neglect and abuse so obviously cautious.

We had a really good experience with Celia Hammond. They sent someone around for a house checks who approved us more or less on the spot. Have donated to them monthly ever since.

Had to write this down having just walked past a poster advertising for a Battersea about how much they care. All I can think of is their ridiculous vetting which most likely leaves a lot of animals caged with them much longer than need be.

A few years ago I tried to get a rescue cat from Battersea but was refused because I worked out of the house 3 days a week. Needless to say I ended up buying a kitten who is smothered with love and quite happy curled up in his bed with a heat pad on the days I’m out. Try telling him he’d be better off in a cats home!

Most cat rescues are run by volunteers who can maybe lose a bit of pragmatism in their love for the animals.
I applied to adopt a kitten a few years ago. Have had two cats that lived long and happy lives. Have fostered cats here and abroad. Live in a quiet cul de sac with cat flap and garden backing on to a riverbank.
The cat rescue woman came to visit and was so nosy and patronising. Got fed up with her when after I’d showed her the downstairs and gardens she insisted on seeing the rest of the house. WTF have my bedrooms and bathrooms got to do with anything?! Was she checking for a cat butchery room?
We found a kitten via online ad instead and he has a great life four years in.

I also started looking at kittens for sale as I was so desperate for having cats in the house again, but it wasn’t what I wanted. I really think these charities need to maybe educate their volunteers a bit more as it seems a bit hit and miss who you speak to.
We also went to a farm rescue where we could go and view all the cats in cages. We really loved 2 black sisters and asked to meet them, but were told no one to show them to us. There were like 4 volunteers hanging around the reception area looking at us like we had burst into a private house asking for their cats. We are normal looking people btw 😅

Was she checking for a cat butchery room?

😂Or a suspiciously large collection of stripy fur hats and tippets...

And that's why cat rescue are so full and people buy kittens. Its almost like they don't want them rehomed.

Some of the people running these places are hoarders. Hence why they don't actually want to let any of the animals go.

I live by a main road, but the RSPCA and Blue Cross were pretty sanguine about it. It helped that I wanted an older cat. Hopefully they are still the same when it's time to get another cat.

I feel incredibly lucky that our local branch of the RSPCA was extremely pragmatic. The lady who came to do the home visit said 'the main thing we want check is just that people have thought about it properly.' And she certainly didn't ask to look through our bedrooms!

Other local rescues were more barmy. When I checked their websites, one insisted that you have to have a catflap installed (even if you didn't currently have a cat and were getting a kitten who couldn't go outside for several months) and wouldn't consider your application unless you sent them a photo of the catflap to prove you'd already had the glazier round. Another wouldn't rehome to anyone who hadn't built a catio as letting cats outside was unacceptable but keeping them in cruel.

Just as balance, we adopted our boy from Cats Protection. I filled out a form, the lady called me the next day, and I did a video tour of our house and garden which I sent on WA (this was 2024, not in Covid) and she said based on that and our conversation she was happy for us to meet the cat. I met him the following Wednesday, and he was delivered in a cage that Friday. He's been ruling the roost ever since.

We'd very recently had our previous lovely cat PTS with cancer, and I honestly thought nothing would come of it, so it was a massive surprise how quickly it all moved. My DP was abroad with work and I was like, oh, I'll just do the form, I probably won't hear anything back. He came home to a new cat.

I often end up on Cat Rescue TikTok and it's actually heartbreaking seeing how many animals are desperate for homes. The US ones are particularly awful when they end up on a euthanasia list :-(

In London we were turned down by loads of rescues. One because the neighbours had a dog, another because we were "unstable renters" (we were there for 10 years and had the landlords permission). In the end our Landlords cat had kittens so we got 2.

Yeah we had a similar frustrating experience, but with the Cats Protection League.
We had a lovely 5 bed house, large garden. Both worked from home. Cat flap. I've had cats all of my life so not a novice.
But we were rejected 'because we live on a road' !!! I mean come on -- unless you own a baronial home in its own grounds, EVERYONE in the UK lives on a road.
We lived in a semi-rural area at the end of a quiet cul de sac ... how safe an environment do you need to meet these rules?
The old lady who did the home visit with her clip board was a fussy, nosy old witch too.
I stopped donating to CPL when I found out that they keep loads of cats in small cages stacked 4 high rather than give them a chance to be loved in a new home.
We eventually rehomed 2 kittens from a postcard on the pin board at our local farm shop.

I'm probably going to derail this thread as I know it's not a popular opinion, but adopting a cat from abroad is an excellent way of giving a cat a loving home without buying. You also bypass a lot of the nonsense discussed on this thread. Foreign rescues ( in my experience) are thorough but pragmatic. They have cats that are in very difficult situations and getting them to a safe home is a priority even if everything isn't textbook.

Yup, we have landed up buying cats the last two times. We had a dog for a while so I guess fair enough on that one albeit I still think we could have found a cat that didn't mind dogs - but we've also been rejected for having children.

As a side note, I think there is a slightly odd view of pet ownership sometimes too. I mean, we adore our pets and they've had amazing lives. After our dog died the vet even said to me that he was constantly amazed at how me and DH just kept coming back and accepting the need dfor crazily priced medication (insurance had ceased to pay) and did all the things we could to keep her alive and happy. BUT, at the same time, sometimes you have to be practical. Cats, for example, are amazing but yes, they sometimes get run over. It's awful and very traumatic, but it's also the risk that comes with cats that are allowed outside. Trying to remove that risk completely is really just a bit silly and means lots of cats aren't getting loving homes.

Someone on our street has offered this free to a good home today 🙀

Yes I tried to get a cat from a rescue and they wouldn’t let me because I had kids under 10. Ended up buying a kitten which is surely what the rescue places don’t want us to do?!!!

Here's Suzanne Moore's take on the matter, from 2013, when she was still allowed to write for the Graun

"Acquiring Penelope was in itself an education. I wanted to get a cat from a rescue centre and, in doing so, I realised that many people who run these places are, how to put this?… Special. One woman said I would have to pay her to drive from Chelmsford to inspect my garden to see if indeed I had a garden, as I could be lying. Another said that if I did not want an incontinent cat with cat Aids – weirdly I didn't – I was unfit to own any animal. So Penelope came from a squat and has turned out to be the least mentally disturbed pet we have ever had."

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jan/23/why-we-bonkers-about-pets

My Mum was refused by Bath cats and dogs home because they looked at her house on Google earth and she lives on the main road through the village disregarding the fact that is the only road through a very quiet village and no one who doesn't live there would have any reason to drive through it. She has large fairly secure garden and is a very experienced cat owner. She manged to get two rescue cats from another shelter and after they were gone she realised her dream of owning a Maine Coon.

We got our cat from the RSPCA. We had to answer a load of questions, meet the cat and have a home visit. But that was all after we were allowed to reserve her, but you have to understand they want to match the right owner with the right cat. Not every cat is the same, one like ours probably would not have gone well with an inexperienced owner or someone who wanted a cuddly, docile lap cat.

We were after a companion for our older chap after our other cat died and everywhere we approached was a no because cats can’t live with other cats (well this one was pining for company)

We had similar. Couldn't have a companion cat because we would love the original cat more, apparently!! That was Blue Cross

Thanks for answering. I was wondering if some of the requirements that seem ridiculous to us are actually to safeguard against cats being returned, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Nobody in the thread seems to have been turned down for having unrealistic expectations.

I think I'm going to take that route next time I want to adopt. Do you have any recommendations?

It seems ridiculous to fly a cat over when we have so many here who need homes, but I think it's better than buying a cat locally.

I have previously been refused by the RSPCA because I was working full time. I offered to take a week's holiday to help the cat settle in but that wasn't good enough despite having a lovely set up for a cat and lots of experience of cat ownership and care.
This was not a special needs cat or an anxious/traumatised cat I was asking about.
I have found the cat charities very illogical about this and have therefore had to shop not adopt!
I have since found a website called Pets4homes where people re-home their pets directly to new owners which is what I do now. There are breeders on the website too, but it allows me to adopt cats in need of good homes without officious rescue staff getting in the way!

@WhatHappenedToYourFurnitureCuz if you go on a FB page like Cat Rescue UK there are lots of individual rescuers. Don't be put off by the lack of large organisations, in countries like Dubai pet rescue charities are forbidden. You can also look at Clan McCat Scotland, which is a UK based charity which helps individual fosterers abroad bring their cats over. I honestly can't recommend the process enough. It's very easy, relatively affordable and you are genuinely changing a cat's life in a way I don't think we can imagine. Even the cats that are safe from the streets are often living in very unsuitable circumstances, due to the lack of a proper charity network. Marvin lived in a yard with 8ft high walls and only saw birds and trees on a 10 minute buggy walk every day. Other cats are living in bathrooms or in the back rooms of vet surgeries. Please think about it!

I agree the rules are incredible. Especially for homes that have housed cats for years. My last 3 generations of cats have all been the product of reproductive accidents and the last 2 generations have been litter mates. They have all had fantastic lives. I can't imagine a house without cat(s) in the future!!

I was turned down by the RSPCA some time ago for being separated. “So it would be a one parent cat?” !!!!

I agree with this. I’ve also worked in animal rescue for years and it’s best to be strict to minimise the risk of animals being returned. Often when animals are returned it can take a while to get them ready for being homed again because they’ve lost trust in humans.

I’m currently fostering a cat who a was returned. The owner had lied about working from home everyday and actually was in the office 3 days a week. The cat had damaged furniture so the new owners returned him. 😡