If you’ve made the difficult decision to rehome your cat, it’s not always easy to know where to start. While there can be genuine reasons for having to rehome a family pet, a lot of common reasons for rehoming can actually be resolved without having to give your cat away.
What’s the Reason for Rehoming?
If you’re thinking about rehoming your cat, it’s important to carefully consider and explore all other possibilities first – is rehoming really the only option you have? Don’t forget that out of the hundreds of thousands of unwanted cats in Australia every year, a proportion of them have to be euthanized.
If it’s a behavioural issue, such as inappropriate elimination or scratching the furniture, have you ruled out health issues, and then researched the behaviour to find a solution?
If your young children or other pets aren’t getting along with your cat, have you tried to resolve the situation? Children need to learn how to treat animals with care and respect, and pets can usually get on with a little bit of time and effort.
If someone in your home has developed allergies, have you investigated all the options there are to minimise symptoms around animals?
Tips for Successfully Rehoming Your Cat
Sadly there are people out there who won’t have your cat’s best intentions at heart, despite what they say when they offer to rehome her. If you want to ensure your cat ends up in a loving home, there are a number of things to consider.
You know your cat better than anyone, so think about what would be the best environment for her, taking into account her health and personality. The most successful way to ensure she goes to a loving home would be to rehome her through a cat rescue or no-kill shelter, because the staff there are knowledgeable and experienced in the whole process. Sadly, shelters are often full to overflowing with other unwanted cats, so if you have to do it yourself, here’s what you should do.
- Ensure your cat is neutered, microchipped, flea and worm treated and up to date with her vaccinations. Unneutered cats are often adopted by unscrupulous people looking to breed them, especially pedigree cats, so that’s the most important thing to have done.
- Decide where to advertise – perhaps at your vet clinic, pet shop, local newspaper or community groups.
- Use a good photo of your cat for the advert, and describe her personality and any special needs she has.
- Request an ‘adoption fee’. Some people don’t like the idea of ‘selling’ their cat, but an adoption fee helps to encourage only serious potential adopters.
- Screen potential adopters very carefully. You’ll definitely need to do a home visit to make sure that it’s suitable for your cat, but also ask questions to find out more about them, their experience with cats and their views on cat care.
- Offer a trial period for a week or two, to see how your cat gets on in her new home, and with her new family.
Have you ever needed to rehome your cat? Please share your experiences and advice for others in the comments below.
