Hopefully this is in the right place? I don't use Reddit very much and don't really like publicly posting on sites, interacting with strangers stresses me out, but I'd really like some friendly advice.
It's my first time adopting a cat (or trying to), and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. I'm a 22, almost 23 year old woman who lives in a suburb of Chicago, if it makes any difference. My father (64) and I have been trying for two months now to adopt a cat or two after my sweet boy, Boots, passed away after 19 years of purring away in my lap. I've had him since I was very young, and I loved him more than anything. I have never been without a cat before, and I just feel like something is missing without one, so we decided to apply to give one or more cats another chance at a forever home.
First we applied to the humane society in town to adopt a bonded pair of adult cats who were surrendered by their owner who could no longer care for them. I really had my heart set on those two sweet girls. Was probably a bad move on my part to get attached. We were denied quite bluntly without being given a reason. When I emailed back asking if I could know why we were rejected, no response. Five days later my father suggested I email again, and again no response. I was heartbroken, but we decided to try other places and applied to two rescues. Denied without reason by those too. Again, no response when we asked what the reason was. Applied to a few shelters, denied by two, and one of them we never got a response from at all telling us if we were denied or not. That was two weeks ago, so I'm assuming I know the answer.
There are no children in the home, nor will there be. We do have a lovebird, Yoshi, but his cage is always within our view and he's never alone, and there are plenty of places we can move it where a cat cannot get to. My father is retired, and I have a small business of sorts where I work from home, so the cat(s) will never be alone. We have the financial means to care for a cat. We rent, but have full permission from the landlord for pets, are willing to provide the landlord's contact information and a copy of the clause in our lease showing we can have pets, and have no plans on moving. If we do move, the cats will come with us. The cats will be indoor only, have ID, and will not be declawed, because screw that practice. Will be spayed/neutered, if not already, and be brought up to date on vaccinations. As stated, I've had cats as long as I've been alive, and my father has 40+ years experience. I've provided two references who can verify we are good pet owners, those being my girlfriend and a family friend, both of which have seen me interact with animals on countless occasions. As for vet information, Boots' vet retired and moved out of state recently, and the vet's office he operated out of is no longer in business. We've found a new vet that we will be taking our cat(s) to, which is the same place that had cremated Boots for us, and they know and support our plans to adopt. The adoption places I've spoken to don't seem interested in the new vet's place at all, only past ones that have already seen Boots.
Is it always this difficult to adopt, or do we just look really bad to adoption centers? I can understand wanting to weed out people who are unfit to be pet owners, and they should, but it's beginning to feel like "adopt, don't shop" is much easier said than done. It's upsetting going through all these hoops to try to give a homeless animal a loving home, just to get shut down, never get told why, and get ignored when you try to figure out why. I'd really like to do the right thing by adopting, like I and my family have always said you should, but I'm beginning to feel like it just won't happen.
Sorry this was such a long read.
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/msl0jp/advice_on_adopting_a_cat_beginning_to_feel_burned/
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