Rehoming a Rescue Pet

Mufusa, also known as Muffy, is our rescue cat.  He's a handsome, friendly, talkative 4 year old Tom. Except when he turns into an evil, fluffy, bitey, scratchy thing who sprints up and down the stairs and all around the house.  Yowling very loudly.  Before crashing out on the sofa.  Or hiding under a blanket.

We're hoping this will be his forever home and are doing our best to help him settle.  He's getting lots of space, access to the outside and we're letting him come see us rather than going to see him.  We know not all cats are lap cats, but we're cautiously optimistic he'll learn to behave, particularly around the Tubblet. 

There are loads of guides to helping your rescue cat adjust to his new home so I won't rehash those, but here are a few things we've learned:

Communicate

I grew up with cats ranging from a placid lap cat, via an independent explorer and a semi-feral.  Rev T had no pets apart from a rescue dog that was returned after biting his mum.  We've been married for 17 years and I'd never heard about this before Muffy arrived. These experiences shape our expectations of appropriate pet behaviour and how to deal with issues.  My tolerance for Cats Behaving Badly is higher than Rev T's.  He is totally no nonsense.  Neither approach is right or wrong, but talking about these things beforehand helps everyone.

Finding the prefect pet.  

This process varies depending on where your rescue pet comes from. In my opinion, it's better if they visit your home first to look around, answer any questions about adoption, then introduce you to a few potential pets.  Once you've found the perfect pet, you take them home.  Joy!  There will be a follow-up visit to check your new friend is happy and  offer any further help / advice.   

We didn't do that.  Muffy was found online then we visited the shelter. After a few meetings and a home visit, he was all ours.  No animal is completely themselves in a shelter.  However lovely it is, it's still a shelter.  It's easy, when you're going round looking for a pet to love, to want to adopt them all. Suddenly, a Great Dane is just what you've always wanted, it'll all be fine and you get hustled away quickly by the rest of the family.  Unless this only happens to me.  

Much as we love Muffy, he may not have been the cat we went home with if we'd talked to someone beforehand.  He's a lot of cat.  Particularly if you've never had a cat before. On the other hand, he's not boring and has loads of personality.  He's our cat now and we love him.  (Before you say anything, although Muffy is a cat of many talents, one of them isn't reading).  

Ask for help.  

Our first month with Muffy was ghastly.  We thought we'd made a terrible mistake. Turned out that not all his pre-homing health checks had been done.  He had very sore teeth and needed lots of dental work.  Once his teeth were fixed, he was a lot happier.  

Shop around.  

We needed a cat flap fitted in our back door.  Our local handyman did it for £20.  Much better than the quotes of £300+ I was given when I contacted a few of the Internet sites claiming to install cat flaps.  And still he prefers to climb out the window!

Feliway.  

Feliway is a plug-in that contains synthetic copies of the pheromone that cats leave behind when they rub their faces on things.  These pheromones make cats feel less stressed.   I am not a scientist so have no clue how this works, but it just does.  We noticed a real difference with Muffy when we plugged ours in.  It's not cheap, but worth a try. 

Keep At It.  But Know When to Quit.  

You never know what a rescue pet is like until they come home. Sometimes they just fit right in, other times not so much and settling in takes time.  Keep at it, but accept there are times when it doesn't work out and the pet has to go back.  Try not to feel bad.  They're the right pet for someone, just not you.

  

Any rescue pet stories to share?  Any advice about helping your rescue pet to settle?

As the Summer Holidays start and the schools break up, there is less time for blogging.  From next week onwards and for the whole of August, there'll be one post a week.  Normal service resumes in September.  Enjoy the break and see you on the other side.