Adopting a Cat from a Shelter – the Most Important Information
Adopting a Cat from a Shelter is a Big Challenge. Not every home is right for every Animal:
- Due to their health conditions, some cats require more experienced caregivers;
- not every cat is suitable for a person who has never had any contact with pets in the past;
- not every cat accepts children;
- Not every cat accepts other animals.
However, if you feel like taking on this challenge, the option of don't shop - adopt! is in every way commendable. Adopt a Cat: this is a truly humane solution.
Did you know that…
During the 2021 holidays, the only municipal shelter in Krakow had a record number of over 400 cats! According to the shelter manager, many factors contributed to this situation. First and foremost, the lack of sterilization of animals, lack of responsibility and the carelessness of owners.
Shelter cats – the most important information
Each animal shelter has its own conditions for adopting cats, so it is advisable to visit the website of the specific facility and familiarize yourself with them before the entire adoption process begins, which can take some time. No shelter will give you a cat right away - a cat is not a toy, but a living and feeling creature that needs to be provided with appropriate conditions in its final home. Many shelters practice filling out pre-adoption questionnaires and pre-adoption visits, during which the visitor will visit us at home, talk to us about the cat and assess whether we have living conditions that guarantee the cat a peaceful and safe life.
If the interview is successful, we will be able to go to the shelter and sign the appropriate documents on the spot, i.e. an adoption contract, an identification document and consent to the processing of personal data.
Although you can find photos of cats for adoption on shelter websites, along with possibly the most accurate description and characteristics of each animal (date of registration in the shelter, species, disposition, etc.), anyone who wants to adopt a cat should spend some time in the shelter's cattery building to look at all the cats living there. Only then will they be able to choose a new family member as accurately as possible. Often, the requirement to visit the cattery is one of the elements of pre-adoption visits - we visit the cats in the shelter, and the shelter employee visits us at our place of residence.
In some shelters, adopting a cat is free, in others you have to pay a fee of a few dozen zlotys. The money goes, of course, to help the animals that remain in the shelter. When picking up a cat from the shelter, you need to have a carrier for transporting the animal. In the case of adopting more than one adult cat, it is necessary to have separate containers for each of them. The exception is a situation in which the cats are very close to each other, and the carrier is adapted to the safe and comfortable transport of a larger number of animals.
Many shelters give new owners cats that have already been vaccinated against rabies and infectious diseases, dewormed and protected against fleas and ticks, microchipped and spayed/neutered. In the case of adult cats, tests for FIV and leukemia are often performed at the shelter. At the time of adoption, a shelter employee gives owners a health booklet for the cat.
A cat can be adopted by an adult person on the basis of an identity card, who has the housing conditions for adoption and is appropriately prepared for it (e.g. can take care of a sick cat, requiring specialist veterinary care, disabled cat). They must also be the owner of the premises where the cat will move in, or show the owner's consent to bring the animal into the premises. If anything raises doubts in the shelter employee's mind (e.g. there is reasonable information that the person applying for adoption has been accused of inhumane treatment of animals, has already broken the terms of the adoption agreement, returned the animal to the shelter without a reason), they may refuse to give up the animal.
Cats for adoption - Kittens, adult cats, pedigree cats
There are all sorts of cats waiting for adoption in shelters:
- adults – free-living people, to whom TOZ employees or city guards were called for various reasons,
- taken away – from a pseudo-breeding facility or from an irresponsible owner, thrown out of the house,
- kittens – entire abandoned litters, babies found in various places, e.g. in local garbage cans,
- in the breed type (not: purebred!) – taken from a pseudo-breeding farm.
There are situations in life in which the owner decides to give the cat up for adoption. These include:
- severe allergies that threaten the life of the caregiver or their children,
- the cat is orphaned by the deceased owner and other family members are unable to take over their care,
- going abroad to work.
Such separations are usually very difficult and instead of hating on the owner, you should help him find the best possible home for the cat.
In the case of both free-living cats and cats that have their own home, uncontrolled reproduction should be prevented, which is served by, for example, annual sterilization campaigns. In female cats, early sterilization significantly reduces the risk of developing mammary gland tumors (most often malignant) and the occurrence of false pregnancy. In male cats, it reduces the risk of developing testicular and prostate diseases, minimizes his need to move away from home and mark the territory.
Kitten Adoption
It is believed that a kitten without a traumatic past will assimilate much more quickly in a new home and will quickly gain the owner's trust, and that it will be easier to accustom it to the rules of the house. While the first two arguments can be agreed upon without discussion, the third is not very precise. We must realize that a kitten will not accustom itself to the rules - we will have to teach it everything, including using the litter box, and guide it through the entire socialization process.
If there are small children living in our home, adopting a Kitten can be risky: the bones of Kittens are very delicate and susceptible to injuries, so it is easier for a child full of love and tenderness to crush the small body of the Animal. It is enough to squeeze the pet too hard or drop the squirming Little One.
Adopting an Adult Cat
Adopting an adult cat has advantages that we rarely think about, although it is worth taking a closer look. An adult cat is a small risk of surprises. It has a formed character, and the shelter employees responsible for the adoption process will inform you about all of its advantages and disadvantages, life's upheavals, traumas and illnesses. Thanks to their experience, they will help you choose a Pupil with whom you will get along perfectly, but also whom you will be able to help - if only you have the desire and the opportunity. The opportunity to create a home for someone who has been through a lot, has experienced homelessness and may be distrustful, but will reward a good and patient caregiver with huge amounts of trust and love. Establishing a deep relationship with an adult cat who has been battered by fate can be difficult, but when you succeed - it makes everything worthwhile.
Adoptions of cats in the breed type, i.e. those taken from pseudo-breeders
When adopting a cat of the breed type, taken from a pseudo-breeder, i.e. an unregistered breeding of non-pedigree, non-pedigree pets, which does not have breeding rights, we must be aware that such an animal may have a very complicated character. A pseudo-breeder breeding cats does so only for profit. Such activities contribute to the suffering of animals, destroying the many years of genetic work of the honest breeders involved. Pseudo-breeders are not subject to any control. They are run at the cheapest possible cost and you can easily guess how this affects the health and disposition of the animals. With the above in mind, we must know that both the appearance and the character of a cat taken from a pseudo-breeder may not fit the breed pattern at all. The cat may turn out to be aggressive, fearful, and pose a threat to children. We also do not know what genetic diseases, predispositions to diseases or defects it may pass on to its offspring.
Adopting cats – what should a caregiver prepare?
Before a cat from a shelter comes to our apartment or house, we should take care of the necessary accessories – e.g. a bowl and a plate for the cat When an adopted cat arrives home, there should be:
- Cat food ;
- bowls for food and water for Cat ;
- litter box and litter (possibly odour neutralisers, e.g. Odor neutralizing candles , which will appear in the presence of the Cat);
- toys – everything you want to know about cat toys can be found here here ;
- scratching post and other objects intended for scratching – scratching is an instinctive reflex, the cat must be able to grind down its claws;
- places to hide (cardboard boxes, kennels, shelves high on the wall; shelves in wardrobes that we will designate for the cat
- bed – a place that is difficult to access for humans, but a dream place for a cat, e.g. under the bed. A cat feels insecure in a new place and likes to observe the surroundings from a safe place – so that it is not very visible, but can see everything around it.
If the cat was fed some special food in the shelter (e.g. for health reasons), we will definitely be informed about it. If there are no special dietary requirements, it is worth consulting our shopping plans with a veterinarian or conducting research on our own on cat groups on social media. Remember, however, to treat the information found there only as suggestions, and not the only right choice. Of course, there are foods of different quality and we should strive to ensure that our cat eats these food with better composition , but an adult cat, and especially a veteran cat (in shelters, the term veterans refers to animals that have been waiting for adoption for the longest time, for whom their own cozy corner and the owner's hand affectionately patting their back are a faint memory) may be so used to lower-shelf food that we will not be able to change their eating habits.
If the adopted Cat is very stressed after moving to a new home, it is worth installing pheromone diffusers in the contacts. Pheromones available on the market are synthetic equivalents of the feline well-being pheromone, i.e. the F3 cheek pheromone, which makes the Cat feel better, is calm in new and unusual situations, prevents marking territory and scratching furniture. If the stress does not subside, you should consult a veterinarian, who will prescribe appropriate supplements, e.g. the popular Calmex.
It is worth knowing that shelters often do not give cats away if we do not meet one condition: we do not secure the windows and balconies. Windows that are tilted are a great danger to cats, because animals can easily get stuck, injured or even suffocate. Buying a special grid that covers the dangerous gaps created by tilting the window prevents the cat from climbing and potentially causing our Pet to fall outside. In turn, the balcony is protected by netting, which allows the cat to see everything that is happening outside, but guarantees that the Animal will not fall out or escape from the house.
Learn how to protect your home from accepting a cat
If we have adopted one cat, it is worth considering adding them over time. It is important to know that the foundations of a cat's social skills are formed during the first 12 weeks of the kitten's life, and are developed and fully formed over the next three months. If for some reason this process has been disrupted, the animal remains a social illiterate who has no idea how to build relationships in the cat world. When adopting a cat from a shelter, we can never be sure that we will not come across such an illiterate, which is why adding them must be approached with great caution. Problems can also arise in the case of animals with a large age difference, i.e. if the owner tries to match the kitten with a cat that is a dozen or so years old. Equally troublesome is the fact that some cats do not want to share the object of their affection, the Caregiver, with other animals - while other Cat "resources" can be easily increased or divided, a beloved Human is something inimitable.
Adopt a Cat Responsibly!
The decision to adopt an animal should be carefully considered, because it is taking on many responsibilities for many years. A person who wants to adopt an animal should always answer a few basic questions:
- Do other members of my household agree with the adoption and are as enthusiastic about it as I am?
- Does my lifestyle (family responsibilities, work, hobbies pursued after hours, etc.) allow me to care for an animal?
- Does my financial situation guarantee that I will provide the cat with appropriate veterinary care (preventive visits, spaying/neutering - if they were not performed in a shelter, vaccinations, deworming, treatment) and will I be able to buy food for it appropriate for its age, activity, breed or health condition, as well as all necessary accessories?
- Who will take care of the pet if I get sick or go on holiday?
If we are hesitant to answer any of these questions, we can test our capabilities by taking on the duties of a so-called temporary home, i.e. a place where the kitten will wait for a permanent home: socialize, acclimatize, meet people. In order to become a temporary home, we also have to sign an appropriate agreement with the shelter and commit to fulfilling the guidelines contained therein (e.g. ensuring the cat's safety, good conditions and taking him to the vet). If there are so-called residents in the temporary home, i.e. pets - household members, then the basic condition for adopting a cat "for this time" is to have current vaccinations for viral diseases in their pets. How long will a cat staying in a temporary home look for a permanent home? There is no answer to this question. It also often happens that the temporary home becomes the kitten's permanent home. A cat has such a beneficial effect on its owner and household members, suffice it to mention the therapeutic effect of purring, that it often turns out that it is impossible to part with the cat, because... a home without a cat is stupid!
