Does Your Cat Need Another Home?

The reasons that lead some cat “owners” to decide their cat needs a new home are numerous and varied.  Often though, with a little knowledge, some determination and a dedication to your furry family member, these reasons can be worked through.  This section is dedicated to helping solve these problems so you and your cat can stay together.  It also includes suggestions about what to do if you still need to find another home for your cat.  Before we explore this though, if you are instead wanting to assist with a cat that is not “yours”, and you are unable to offer it a home yourself, please read “How We Can Help”.  Or perhaps you are wanting to assist with a cat that is not people-friendly.  If this is the case, please read “How to tell if a cat is people-friendly” and additional resources located here.

Now, let’s explore ways we can assist a cat that is “yours”.  Please, for your cat companions’ sake, look through what follows, find your reason and carefully consider the information provided as well as the impact on your cat, yourself and your family.  While we do understand there can be extenuating circumstances that leave you and your cat no choice, we urge you to consider what your furry family member will experience if you do decide to find him/her another home.

• Your cat will suddenly be without the love and companionship of the people it has come to love and depend on – and it won’t know why.
• Your cat will experience time spent in a cage in a foreign environment – full of sights, sounds, smells it has not experienced before and it will be frightened – and it doesn’t have you to turn to for comfort.
• It will have to interact with a large number of people it doesn’t know while it is being taken care of and considered for adoption.  Hopefully it will find a good home that will accept it with all its quirks and flaws and love it regardless.
• Your cat will either be adopted or it may be euthanized, depending on who you have chosen to assist with finding a new home (The Rescue House does not euthanize).  Please carefully investigate.
• If it is adopted, it may or may not like its new home and may or may not be taken care of as you have.

Finding another home takes time and is traumatic for your kitty who just wants to be back in its home.

Please carefully consider your decision to put your cat through this.  Oftentimes, problems can be resolved.  We hope you are willing to explore the following resources that can help you and your cat remain together.

My cat isn’t using the litterbox:
10 Reasons Why Your Cat May Not Be Using The Litter Box

 I adopted a cat and have found out I or a family member is allergic to the cat:
Allergies-Help for Cat Lovers

The cat is destroying my house!
10 Reasons Why Two Kittens Are Better Than One
Solving Problem Behaviors in Cats
Cat Care Tips & Tricks
Behavior Problems in Cats

I am moving and can’t take the cat:
Pet Friendly Places to Live
How can I find pet friendly hotels?

If you are looking for assistance with a cat that is yours, please first read “Does Your Cat Need Another Home?”

If The Rescue House can assist, what does it require of the cats it takes in and the people we assist? 

The cat will need to be tested for FeLV and FIV and show negative results.  This test can be performed by your own vet or any of the veterinarians that work with The Rescue House.  We rely on donations to continue our rescue work and we may ask you to pay for this test if you are financially able to do so.  Unfortunately, if either of these test results are positive, we ­do not have the resources to accept these cats.

Donations are always welcome and critical to being able to continue to assist cats in need.  While The Rescue House does not charge a fee to take in a cat and find it a new home (unlike the majority of rescue groups and shelters), we do very much appreciate donations, as that is what allows us to continue to help cats and their people.

Can you keep this cat until The Rescue House has space in an Adoption Center?
Like most rescue groups, The Rescue House often does not have room in foster care or space in our Cat Adoption Centers.  While we wish we could assist each cat that needs our help, we just do not have the resources to do so.  If you can keep the cat you are needing to find a home for until we can assist (and that could be quite awhile), please mention that on the message you leave.  If you need immediate placement of your cat, or if we are unable to assist, we suggest that you contact Other Rescue Groups.

How can you tell if a cat is people-friendly?  Ask yourself these questions:

• Has the cat adjusted to comfortably living life with a family?
• Does the cat seek and enjoy interactions with humans?
• Will the cat be able to “handle” being in a cage at an Adoption Center where there are a lot of people visiting and a good amount of “busy-ness”?
• Is the cat emotionally able to handle interactions with the different number of people that will care for it, or is it comfortable only with one person?

If the answer is no to any of these questions, The Rescue House will not be able to assist.  To help cats that are not people-friendly, please contact the Feral Cat Coalition at (619) 758-9194; their website provides a wealth of information, guidance and suggestions as to how to assist this special group of cats.

Do you have some? 

If you have a litter of socialized kittens or those who are young enough to be socialized, The Rescue House will try to help.  We will ask that you have the mother cat spayed (or we might assist if you are financially unable to do so).  If our foster homes are full, we may also ask if you can keep the kittens until they are at least 8 weeks of age, at which time they are old enough for us to take care of their medical needs and find them good homes, when space becomes available.  While you might be able to find homes on your own, an experienced rescue group can take care of the medicals the kittens need and can carefully screen to ensure the homes your kittens go to are those where the kittens will be well cared for; homes where those who adopt them do so because they seriously want a cat and are committed to its care for a lifetime; not those homes that want a kitten because it is “cute”.

Have you found tiny babies? 

If you have found a litter of tiny kittens, most likely there is a mother cat somewhere caring for them; she is probably just out hunting for their food.  If the kittens you find are tiny and seem reliant on Mom cat to keep them warm and nurse them, check their body temperature (yes, you can touch them but carefully and only to see if they feel warm).  If they feel warm, watch (from a distance) to see if Mom cat returns.

If the kittens look sick or weak, immediately place them in something very warm and rush them to the vet.  If they feel cold, or if Mom cat doesn’t return within an hour or two, pick them up and warm them up.  The easiest way to do this is by taking a small plastic water bottle and filling it with hot water (or rice heated until it is very warm).  Wrap this bottle in a towel or sock and place the kittens next to it.  Surround the kittens with warm towels or blankets.  Then call (760) 736-9040 and leave a message (which may not be able to be returned in a timely enough manner), so please take them to a vet right away.  Another resource is the San Diego Humane Society Kitten Nursery that is open around-the-clock caring for the orphaned kittens in their charge.

If the kittens get cold, they will very rarely survive so keeping them warm is first and critical.  Only after they are warm should you consider carefully trying to feed them if you can and know what and how to – and/or take them to a vet.  As wonderful as it may seem to be able to rescue a litter of kittens that appear to be on their own, it is seldom the case that they are and they do much better with their Mom until they are at least old enough to eat on their own.

Have you found cute kittens? 

Usually kittens found outside are not used to people.  If the kittens are eating on their own, you may want to try to catch them and keep them inside and get them used to people.  When kittens are born outside without the benefit of people-interaction, they quite quickly get the idea that people are to be feared.  If a kitten hisses, spits, runs and hides, chances are it is a feral kitten that has been raised by its mother to believe that humans are dangerous, keep away!!  Once they get that idea, they often do not accept people.  As a general guideline, once kittens born in this environment approach 6 – 8 weeks of age, taming them takes time and may or may not be successful.  (How can you tell how old a kitten is?  Here is a great descriptive photo guide.  The Rescue House can sometimes assist when the kittens are under 6 weeks of age (eyes are usually still blue).

If the kittens are over 6 weeks of age, The Rescue House will not be able to accept them.  IF you wish to take in kittens over 6 weeks of age and try to tame them so they are very comfortable with people, then, at that point, we may be able to assist in finding them homes.  However, if you do decide to do this, please be aware that it takes a lot of “hands-on” time and even then some or all of these kittens may not become people-friendly and adoptable.  The rate of successfully “turning” a feral kitten into a socialized, people-friendly cat drops dramatically after 6 weeks of age.

If the kittens are over 6 weeks of age and you decide not to try to tame them, the other option would be to let them continue growing and then contact the Feral Cat Coalition for assistance with spay/neuter (or find a vet that does low cost spay/neuter), have them altered and then release them back into the environment they know.  It would be ideal if you could also put food out for them on an on-going basis.  Getting the Mom cat spayed is very important.  Again, the Feral Cat Coalition can assist.