My latest CatAge Companion newsletter gives the following tips for people who need to find a new home for their kitty:
Need to find a new home for your cat? Screen a potential pet parent carefully. Inspect his or her home, verify landlord approval, and get a referral from the adopter’s veterinarian, if possible. Also, help keep your kitty safe from dangers and irresponsible owners by asking about issues like these:
• Experience: Has the person looking to adopt ever had a cat? If the cat is no longer in the home, what happened to him?
• Safety: Was the cat indoors or outdoors? Ever had a cat declawed? Does the prospective owner live on a busy street or in an area with coyotes or other predators?
If they hedge, or your gut feels funny, keep looking.
Too bad children can’t be placed under the same conditions in the US.
Photo model: Abbie-Gale Sondergaard Greiner
Marley,
Looks like you have cats instead of
kids!
I love cats too. So smart and love interacting with them.
Quite a name there for a cat!
Cute picture of Abbie! She looks my son Mike’s cat Xavier. I am all in favor of strict rules for pet adoption, and hope everyone will adopt a homeless kitty or doggie because they really need homes. I have adopted many kitties over the years, currently have 5. I have kids AND cats, but all my kids are big grown guys now.
Too bad kid adoption isn’t as clean and strict as pet adoption.
Oh, and I Safe Havened a box turtle last week, ’cause it got hurt when my neighbor was clearing some rocks and brush in our back field. He is an animal lover too and felt awful, so we called around and found a vet who treats wildlife for free and has reptile experience.
We had to leave the turtle as his shell needed fixing and then he will go to a wildlife rehabitator. But I did give my name, didn’t want to be anonymous, and have been calling every few days to check on Turtle’s progress. He is doing well:-)
Cats ate so serious and make great foils. They also do what the rest of us wish we had the nerve to do.
My kitties, Abbie and Jonathan, have huge abandonment and adoption issues Their mother was run over by a horse trailer in West Virginia when they were babies,and they were brought to Ohio I got Abbie and Jonathan stayed across the street, until he got in a snit over the dogs he had to share the house with. He left home, came over here and never left,though he does return across the street to socialize occasionally.
The kitties look alike and hate each other. There are several fights each day. They absolutely refuse to acknowledge that they are family.
I hope the turtle doesn’t have a bad as reaction to adoption as the kitties do.
Actually by law in most (maybe all) US states there are home visits, letters of recommendation, approval of a doctor, questioning of potential parents about experience with kids, safety of house/neighborhood and age/number/status of children already in the home or grown up. More and more frequently one is seeing psychological screening by a professional being required as well. It’s NOT that the requirements don’t exist, it’s that the social worker (and often the psychiatrist or even doctors!) involved work for the agency doing the homestudy or placement. So there is no independence and a lot of incentive to pass the couple.
Most European countries (and many others) have independent social workers of departments to screen potential adoptive parents. Usually involves extensive child care training. Only after one passes that screening can the couple then apply to an agency, which has also been approved by a (often different) government department, for placement.
The US needs something like this. It is supposed to be mandated by the Hague treaty but I’m not holding my breath for it to happen.
You’re fur-children are pretty lucky even if they don’t get along.
BB,
Janice
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“You’re fur-children are pretty lucky even if they don’t get along”.
Human siblings in a natural family fight too, yeah, but if Abbie or Jonathan were suddenly gone, they would go into depression. Sometimes people like animals are cocky, in their security that they know who their famillies are, but when the family is gone, they are not as strong. Hence, the saying, “take nothing for granted”…
Interesting thoughts and site. Been searching for daughter of fran foster sister (baby born in 73) trying to keep promise made when 16.NJ laws exclude others that care as well as kids and parents. Just cannot find her,but she’s in my heart forever and so is her bio mom,who the state moved elsewhere.Love you Laura and fran wherever you are.
Well this Ole Burfmuggle ADOPTED her kitty..who is now an Ole Adoptee Kitty…Molly. Molly was a year old when I adopted her from the ‘shelter’. She even came with a ‘chip’ implanted! This way supposedly if she ever runs away or gets lost…she would be trackable! But Molly has decided for the last 14 years to hang around with her adoptor. She is aloof, can be cranky and just be her ole kitty-self..and that’s just the way I like her..just being herself..a true feline! And she doesn’t owe me a damn thing…not even loyalty or gratitude! And O! yes… I had to pay a ‘fee’ and sign ‘papers’. In fact the majority of pets I have had in my adult life were ‘adopted’ from animal shelters and not newborns either!
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Hope everyone’s kitties are spayed and neutered now. All of mine are. Too many beautiful pets are put down or abandoned because pet owners don’t get them fixed, and shelter pets don’t get homes because people let their pets have a litter rather then helping those already here that need a home.And for puppy fans….get them from a shelter, not a puppy mill pet store.
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Improperadoptee said..””All my cats are spayed, and no one needs your insulting advice.””
Insulting advice…WTF?!
This is the best and most responsible advice to any person who has pets or is thinking about bringing a new pet into their home, especially if the pets are not always within the home.
Is also great advice/suggestion for any Human who no longer desires to bring new baybees into this world. I had myself ‘spayed’ a long time ago, thus ending my breeding capabilities.
If you read the thread illegitkid its obvious TIA is telling maryanne its obvious to TIA that cats have to be spayed and TIAs are. I dont know if TIA is a man or a woman.Its prety clear to me that maryanne is being obnoxious to TIA too.I hope you find the missing child Anonm. Nothing is worse than losing a family member. Human or feline!
anonymous said to me (illegitkid)..””If you read the thread illegitkid “”
I read and comprehend quite well, Anon, thank you very much! And I don’t care who said what to who…the point is..spaying and neutering your pets makes one a responsible pet-owner!! I suspect you have some loyalty to the Improper Adoptee person..that is very nice of you. I don’t share your ‘loyalties’, I was simply commenting on the ‘advice’ that someone else thought was delivered as an ‘insult’. I didn’t read it that way, didn’t comprehend it that way and still don’t. I don’t agree on the insult part of good advice. I am entitled to my own opinion, as you are yours.