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Dear Petlvr Mailbag …

Well, the inevitable happened. I had my 10 month old cat scheduled to get spayed, and she escaped and got pregnant 2 weeks prior to the spay-date.

Ugh.

Anyway - I now have 4 beautiful kittens that need homes. I am going to keep one, so I need homes for 3. Do you have any suggestions as to go about finding them suitable and happy homes?

Side note: When they were 2 weeks old, mama cat became ill and after taking her to the vet, I had to hand-feed the kittens myself, so I’m very attached. It’s going to be sad to let them go, but I have to.

- Kitten Chaos

Dear Chaos,

Oh my! That’s so frustrating, with an appointment and everything! For future kitties, it is ok to spay at about 4 months if you’d like to make 100% sure that there will be no pregnancies. A lot of people still prefer to spay later, but my girl-cat was spayed at just barely 3 months, as were all my female foster kittens when I was a foster parent.  You could even alter the kitties you have before letting them go if you adopt them out privately.

Anyway, about the homes: My most important piece of advice is avoid Craigslist. People who get pets there are an unknown quantity. Sure, many are fine or even excellent owners, but most people looking for a pet go to a breeder, pet store, or rescue. The contingency that look specifically for somebody else’s pet being sold or given away are usually people who would get turned down for adoption and don’t have money for a breeder, or they’re people who want an unaltered animal to breed and will tell you they’ll fix it but don’t. So, don’t even open that door.

The best thing to do is to call a local no-kill cat rescue that operates mostly out of foster homes (use petfinder.com to find one) and explain what happened, and that the kittens can stay at your house until they can find homes, but that you would like the rescue’s assistance finding appropriate homes. Ask how they would do that.

It may be that they take ownership of the kittens and you become their foster mom, and then the rescue would perform any shots and neutering that you haven’t done, and collect an adoption fee. Or, some rescues will have you keep ownership but will list the kittens on their website as a courtesy listing, in which case you are responsible for shots and altering, you can collect an adoption fee to cover that, and they will ask for a donation when you find homes for the kittens.

The best option is probably the first, since people employed by a rescue tend to be better able than the average individual to evaluate a prospective adopter’s ability to care for a kitten. It may be hard to relinquish ownership to a rescue, but if you do your homework and find a good one, you should be able to retain some say as a foster parent in where the kittens go. When I’ve fostered the final decision has always belonged to the rescue, but my opinion on a home was never discounted, and my foster coordinator never adopted a cat to a person with whom I was uncomfortable.

If you find that there is no rescue nearby that can help you, you’ll have to do things the hard way. The best place to start is a local cat fanciers’ society, because the members will all be cat lovers active in the local cat world, and certainly adequate owners. If none of them can adopt or know anyone who would, they can at least point you in the right direction and possibly help by giving you an adoption contract to use or helping you review adoption applications. They may also know where local cat lovers shop and gather.

As a final note, try to adopt two as a pair and the third to a home with another kitten if possible. While sometimes you really do have to have a single kitten, they do best in pairs. They’re calmer, healthier, live longer on average, and keep each other busy, so adopters aren’t driven crazy by kittens bouncing off the walls. Fights between cats raised together are very rare and usually easily resolved, and the benefits of keeping siblings together outweigh the risks.

Sincerely,
Jelena

If you have a pet related question that you would like Jelena Woehr to answer here in our “PetLvr Mailbag” series … send your question to jelena (at) PetLvr (dot) com