Trying to rehome older cats - any ideas on how?

[Delaney21]

We received 2 wonderful cats on 6/14/03 (9 years ago yesterday) as a wedding present - a little untraditional, but my sister-in-law knew we really wanted the cats.

Fast foward 8 years and we find out DS2 is allergic to cats. His allergist said we had to get rid of the cats right away, but over the past year, we have done all of the preventative measures we could think of to have both our baby and our cats live in the same home together. Our belief was they are both family so we will make it work! We had a hospital grade whole house air purifier installed, we put our DS on different allergy medicines, we tried to keep them apart, we've done everything!

We haven't been able to make it work and my 14 month old DS is absolutely miserable. His eyes swell, his skin is constantly flared and he itches it so much it bleeds, his breathing is also becoming effected and he has asthma-type flares when he's around the cats. We recently went on vacation and saw what being away from the cats did for our son - his skin was clear, he was happy and he could breathe well. At that point we realized just how sick our cats were making him.

I have been trying to find a friend or family member to take the cats, but I have been unsuccessful. I've tried foster groups and was told they rescue animals from shelters, but they don't take them from the public. One of our cats will let us pet him, but he'll hiss at other adults. My DH is worried this will cause him to be abused. Does anyone have any suggestions for us to try?

[Ohana]

Oh boy, what a difficult position to be in!

When my parents went through something similar with me as a child, they rehomed our cat with my grandparents. Do you have a nearby relative or family member who can take your cat in?

Otherwise, unfortunately, I think you may have no choice but to surrender the cats to a shelter. The good news is that there are people who adopt older cats...we got our 7 year old girls on New Year's Day.

[Delaney21]

Oh boy, what a difficult position to be in!

When my parents went through something similar with me as a child, they rehomed our cat with my grandparents. Do you have a nearby relative or family member who can take your cat in?

Otherwise, unfortunately, I think you may have no choice but to surrender the cats to a shelter. The good news is that there are people who adopt older cats...we got our 7 year old girls on New Year's Day.

We have tried friends and family, even ones further away. I hate the thought of taking them to a shelter because I don't know what will happen to them. I just keep thinking horrible thoughts in my head about this! It is such a hard place to be in and I really don't want to get rid of them!

[PLNUBRIDE]

Delaney…we went through the EXACT same thing with our DD who is basically the same age as your DS. Matter of fact, we even tried to do what you did and tried several things in hopes of not having to find a new home for our cat (older, just like yours who we adopted a month after our wedding. Had her for 8 years). It is uncanny how similar our stories are. The only difference is we had to find new homes for our cat and dog.

We did not want to go to the shelter…so we tried a few different routes. Both my DH and sent out emails at work and asked our co-workers to forward the email to anyone who was looking for a pet. We explained the situation and everything. We also sent the email to our HOA who sends out emails on behalf of homeowners to local residents. We live close to an age-restricted community and found an older couple who was looking for a mellow (aka older) cat. They adopted her, but sadly enough they had to move back to the mid-west about 5 months after they took our cat and could not take pets with them. So, our cat came back home. But again..sent the emails and found a new home for her within a week.

This is to say…I felt way more comfortable finding our cat a new home that was a friend of a friend (or a person in our area) or something like that…so we used our “network” of people we knew which gave me a total peace of mind.

I know this is VERY hard…hopefully this helps a bit.

[Sue]

What you can also do is contact some rescues and see if they will courtesy post the cats for you while you look for a home. That way they will get more exposure by being posted on petfinder or a rescue's website.

Good luck!

[bethnjim]

We had the same issue...my oldest son is allergic to cats and we had FOUR. I was so upset, but in the end I had to do what was best for my son. We ended up finding homes for two and the other two went to the local shelter. Good luck...I know how hard it is!!

[Delaney21]

Thank you everyone for both the support and the ideas! We haven't found a home for the cats yet and we have an allergist appointment today, so I know it will be brought up again. We were really hoping to find someone to take them, but I think we are finally coming to terms with the fact that they will probably need to go to a shelter. It's definitely not an easy decision and I can't imagine the day we actually have to drive them there.

[sixlets]

Do you have a no-kill shelter in your area? We got 3 of our cats at the same shelter (the other came from a different one), and they truly have a strict no-kill policy at both places. After visiting many shelters, I would only adopt from the ones we previously used. Just wanted to offer another possibility. I'm sorry you are in this position.

[Kanga]

Do you know of any volunteers at your local shelters? Here, we have two main shelters, one is no kill the other is local ARL. I used to think it was awful that the ARL was not no-kill. However after knowing a few volunteers I've learned more about how it's run. They keep adoptable animals for months and try very hard to find them all homes, or at the very least foster homes. If an animal is not adoptable, then unfortunately sometimes they do euthanize. But, it's not like they only have a matter of weeks before being adopted. The no kill shelter would keep the adoptable animal until it died if necessary, which could be years and years. And over those years, perfectly adoptable animals are denied because there is no room. Adding to that, living out your life in a shelter is not usually a very good quality of life. I recall reading an article about a dog who was a stray and suffered an attack, likely from another dog. This dog was brand new to the no-kill shelter and did not have a positive reaction when shelter employees tested his response to another dog (I don't remember exactly how he reacted). Because of this he was labeled dog aggressive. He was always separated from the other dogs and because of their limited resources, he was only walked 15 minutes a day. The other 23 hours and 45 minutes he remained in his kennel. This lead to many many behavioral problems, which made him even more undesirable to potential adopters. He was eventually rescued by another pet rescue who determined he was not even dog agressive and was very adoptable if given the chance. So, no kill shelters aren't always the obvious choice, and the "kill shelters" for lack of a better word may not be horrible.

Do you know of any family/friends in the area that might be willing to foster through the shelter? Maybe knowing that it will only be temporary would convince them to take them and maybe even keep them out of the shelter completely until they can find a permanent home?

I'm so sorry you are in this position, it must be so tough for your family.

[sixlets]

Kanga, I totally see how it depends on the individual shelter. The story you mentioned is just so sad-that poor pup never had a chance because of something that wasn't his fault, ie, the first attack on him.

In our situation, the first shelter we used is 99% cat populated. They do accept dogs, but only up to 10-12 at a time. The dogs are never there very long as they get adopted out very quickly. They have dedicated workers who work each area-front desk, kitten room, mature cat room, and dogs. If they are unable to take an animal for any reason, they will contact other shelters in the area to see if they can accommodate. The other shelter only takes cats as it is run by people who foster out of their homes.

This is just a tough situation to be in. We had to rehome one of ours a few years back, but we were able to give kitty to my parents. I was so grateful for that opportunity, especially now since my dad passed away. My mom now comes home to a loving kitty instead of an empty house.