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CAT ADOPTION FROM YOUR LOCAL ANIMAL SHELTERIf you’re looking for a new feline addition to your home, consider cat adoption from your local animal shelter. Whether you want a kitten or an adult cat, animal shelters are filled with homeless pets waiting for you to come along and give them a home. Cats are brought into shelters by owners who took them in and did not consider what cat adoption means. When faced with an issue that they cannot handle or are not willing to handle, they turn these poor animals over to the shelter. Shelters also take in stray cats and put them up for adoption after the animals are given a clean bill of health by a veterinarian. How do shelter animals get there? Occasionally, a cat owner will turn in a litter of kittens to a shelter as well. This underscores the importance of spaying and neutering your pets. There are already so many homeless animals competing for homes in animal shelters. Spaying or neutering your cat will ensure that he or she doesn’t contribute to the problem. Remember that even if you have an indoor cat, when mating season approaches, cats will go to great lengths to get out and find a mate. Spaying and neutering also reduces health and behavior problems, so it is important to do for every pet. Why not adopt from a pet store? So why should you consider cat adoption from your local shelter instead of going to a pet store or getting one from a breeder? The sad fact is that many shelter animals are euthanized if they do not find homes. In some cases, shelters set limits as to how long they will hold an animal before putting him or her down. In other cases, the animals are held for as long as possible. Eventually, the shelters run out of space and cannot humanely care for the volume of animals they have. They may then have to resort to euthanasia. There are a few shelters that are “no-kill” facilities, but they are few and far between and those that do exist may be faced with overcrowding and depressing conditions.
If you want to adopt a kitten, you will usually have to take on the expense of spaying or neutering yourself. Kittens may also need follow-up rounds of vaccinations. Many shelters will require you to document that you have spayed or neutered the cat at the appropriate time as well as kept vaccinations up to date, so keep that in mind if you are looking for a kitten to adopt. You can usually adopt a cat directly from a shelter or attend a cat adoption event at a pet store. Find a pet store that does not sell animals but, rather, works with animal shelters and rescue groups to find homes for homeless pets. In some cases, these cats have come from foster homes where they are held temporarily until they are permanently adopted. How does the adoption process work? When you go through the cat adoption process at a shelter or through a rescue group, you will probably be given an application to fill out. The information you provide will help the facility or group to find the best cat for you. The right match will depend on where you live, whether you have other pets and what your particular experience with animals has been in the past. You may be asked how you will handle specific behavior problems like scratching or biting behavior or how you will introduce your new pet to others that already live in your household. Many shelters provide adoption counseling to be sure that you and your new cat are well matched. Don’t be discouraged if this takes some time. It is important for both you and your new pet, and you will know when you find the cat you were meant to adopt… or to put it more appropriately, the cat that was meant to adopt you!
Click here to find out about cat adoption in your area.
Not to be confused with strays,
feral cats
are cats that have “gone wild.” Click
here
to learn more about this feline population.
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In addition to the fact that you will be saving a life when you adopt from a shelter, it is usually much less expensive than buying a cat from a breeder or pet store. Before you bring your new cat home, he or she will most likely be vaccinated and dewormed. If the cat is old enough, most shelters have already spayed or neutered the animal.
