Savannah's Paw Tracks

What Were The Humans Thinkin’…?

Nobody seems to talk about this too much,  so I decided I would. It’s about what sometimes happens  to us adult cats when humans rescue us from shelters.  We are returned for some of the oddest reasons..so this raises a question in my mind…

“Just how much do humans think through what it means to adopt an adult cat?”

I know that adopting an adult cat…meaning one that is a year old or older…is different than adopting a young kitten. The kitten doesn’t have as long a history of life events as we adults do.  And of course, the older the cat, the more life experiences (good and bad) they have.

That means we usually need lots more adjustment time when we get a forever home…and we toally need our new family to help us out lots.

So here’s my “nit to pick”…I totally agree that animal shelters need to allow humans to return adult cats if they don’t work out in the new home…otherwise the cat would just get dumped on a street…but I have to wonder what humans are thinkin’ when they take an adult cat home and return them for reasons like these…

Spreckles was 18 mos. old, loved to play, loved peeps, enjoyed other cats and totally loved a good lap and lots of pets
RETURNED: after a couple weeks, the family returned her ‘cuz she was “too affectionate”…Huh?!

Fred was 10 years young…loved to play and Oh Cat! What a lap dude! And he was drop dead gorgeous…he was a Norwegian Forest Cat…everyone knows these guys are pretty hefty and that was Fred…no small cat he…so, gets adopted by a retired couple who come lookin’ for a Maine Coon cat or one big like that…

RETURNED: after less than 48 hours ‘cuz he was TOO BIG! What!!??

Peep and Bo…brothers and 8 years old.  They were dumped at the county shelter ‘cuz their family moved and didn’t get a new place where they could keep the cats. So they were saved by my former shelter, a private no kill non-profitshelter.  So this ladie wants them, has the shelter hold them over the Christmas holidays ‘cuz she has company and she wants their arrival to be as free of stress as possible.  I thought, now that’s very nice, Huh? She visited them several times before she could take them home.
RETURNED: after a month or so ‘cuz they were to difficult to manage…they were having some adjusment problems and took it out on each other…back they came. This is Peep…

Ashley…she was about 12 months old…and loved to play, cuddle and be with people.  Just a real sweetie.
RETURNED: twice! mostly ‘cuz she was too playful! She was 12 months old! Don’t human know we like to play until we are really really old??

I guess I am just asking humans to think through what it means to adopt an adult rescue cat. It is tough on us when we get returned for reasons that could have been thought through before taking us to a home and giving us hope that we have found our forever family.

That’s just my opinion…my thoughts…I’m gonna go take a nap now and think more about “why humans should adopt adult rescue cats”…maybe I could talk about that ‘cuz I really do think we are worthwhile.

Catch’ya later, Savannah