Rejected by cat housing/rescue charity for wanting to adopt a cat for companionship

danicali8888

I live in a semi detached house with a huge back garden, and i live alone now as my son is 18 and lives with his dad now, something that has been extremely difficult for me to deal with as it wasn't expected - I expected the opposite. anyway, i am totally isolated and so lonely, and i've owned cats in the past, ever since i was a kid, and so i decided to contact the cat adoption people and ask to adopt a kitten or cat. 

They put me through an hour long chat/interview, and the woman was really, really grilling me about the fact that i was on my own, as if it was a problem. I tried to tell her that i was mostly at home and the cat wouldn't be left alone for long, ever. I told her about the other cats i used to have. But she just seemed really concerned that between my health issues, and my being alone, that it was a problem for the cat. 

I cannot believe that a cat adoption charity would be more concerned about a CAT being lonely and neglected than a human being. I would not neglect a cat if I had one. Nor would I adopt one if i didn't think I could look after it. 

I remember the woman also said to me, "oh, and it's good to put their water in a separate room from the food." and i nearly laughed at this, because to me, that was just stupid. i never did this with any of my other cats, and none them were dehydrated. But I think she didn't like the fact that I took issue with this silly idea. As humans, do we put our drinks in another room to our food? Sorry, but it's laughable. 

She asked me so many questions as if was trying to adopt a baby, not a cat. 

Anyway, I haven't heard a word from this charity since that phone call, which was over a month ago, and supposedly, they have a lot of cats in need of homes. 

I feel like I have been deemed unfit to adopt a cat because I don't have anyone else around and i have health issues. 

This is just so ridiculously unfair. Yeah, it's much better for a cat to be stuck in some cage in a shelter than in a nice house with a lovely back garden. I also didn't realise that cats had to be around several family members in order to thrive. I guess I am not good enough on my own?

Whole thing ridiculous. Every effort I make to try not to be so lonely just gets quashed. 

janer1967

Hi and welcome to the community 

I'm sorry you haven't been able to adopt a cat it does sound ridiculous 

Try looking for private people who are trying to rheome there are groups on Facebook for rehousing pets and also preloved websites 

rubin16

Welcome to the community also,

It does sound stupid to be honest, as it sounds like you would give a cat a lovely home and family, maybe try different shelters as they are quite alot of shelters and cats needing loving homes, I wouldn't give up.

We need more people like yourselves that look at adopting cats in need, rather than just buy a kitten, and its stupid to think that they believe the cat would be better at the shelter than in a loving home like yours.

I would still persue it and try different charities as cats pretty much look after themselves. I have a cat and she tells me if she needs something, and comes now and then for a cuddle. Other than that she looks after herself. So cats are easy to manage and make perfect companions.

janer1967

Things have changed in recent years I had cats before who had litters and I never charged anyone for giving them a home 
£40 and up wow 

rubin16

I think we paid something like £25 for our cat when I was 14, shes now 16 years old and has never had anything wrong with her (Touch wood). I'm going to miss her so much when I move into supported accomodation as your not allowed pets and shes always been there for a cuddle or knows when I'm upset. I love all animals, but I especially love cats so its going to be weird not having her around.

poppy123456

Try looking on gumtree or facebook in your local area. I had my cat from gumtree from a 7 week old kitten. Paid £60 for him, he's now 8 years old and a huge part of our family.

poppy123456

Libby_Scope said:

That's a great idea @poppy123456 if you don't mind me asking, what breed is your cat? We have two 1 year old cats, and they are both huge parts of the family!

Sorry, i've only just seen this, i should check notifications more He's a Siamese, pure white with blue eyes, very rare i believe.

When i bought him i had no idea what breed he was because i had no information from the person i bought him off. It was about a year later that i realised what breed he was.