Finding A Home For Stray Cats
A few years back, I came home around seven o'clock in the evening to see a scrawny black, yellow, and white cat sitting in my back yard. I was taken aback to see the cat and called her name. When I called the cat she became scared and quickly scampered into the water heater closet on my patio, which I was surprised to see she had opened since it had been shut when I went to work. Something was amiss, so I jumped over the small fence on my patio and opened the closet to discover the mom cat with her newborn kittens. First off I was very worried because I did not know what to do with a mom cat and a litter of kittens, so the first thing I had to do was reach behind the water heater and put them in a box. Unfortunately one of the kittens was dead, but I was glad to see that two black and two yellow kittens were still alive, although I cried when I had to bury the dead kitten. My next dilemma was trying to find out if the mother cat belonged to one of my neighbors. Where I lived I would not be allowed to keep the cat if she turned out to be a stray, so my first strategy was to ask my neighbors if anyone was missing a cat.
1. Talk To Your Neighbors:
My first strategy in this situation was to knock on my neighbors' doors and ask if anyone had a missing cat. I spent about an hour asking all of my neighbors, but no one claimed the cat as theirs. However, my suspicions were that the cat was a stray because she was a little on the scrawny and unkempt side. Unfortunately the cat did not belong to any of my neighbors, so I needed to come up with another solution for finding a home for the cat. My lease does not permit me to have a pet, although I would have loved to have kept the cat and her kittens if I could. So my next step was the expand the search to see if she had an owner on the off chance, which seemed pretty slim, or to find a home for this wonderful cat and her kittens.
2. Put Up Signs Letting People Know You "Found" A Lost Pet
This time around I did not canvas the neighborhood with signs because I ended up finding a home for the cat and her kittens another way. However, in the past when I lost my cat I put up signs and posted them all around my neighborhood. This is also a good method for letting your neighbors know you have "found" a missing cat.
3. Contact The ASPCA
I did not want this beautiful cat and her kittens to go to the pound, so I contacted my local American Society of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The ASPCA is a wonderful organization that is run by volunteers that help find homes for unwanted pets. The ASPCA may be a little under staffed in my area because the message on their machine said they were run by volunteers that could not guarantee a placement for all animals, and a volunteer would get back to me as soon as possible. Unfortunately the ASPCA never returned my message stating I was looking for a home for a stray cat, but I am empathize as our local ASPCA appears to have a volunteer shortage. Thus, I was really stressed as I did not know how I was going to find a home for this beautiful cat and her kittens. My mom and dad already have three cats, so they were not able to adopt the stray cats. My friends all live far away and already have pets, so I had to find a suitable home for this sweet cat family.
4. Post An Ad In The Lost And Found Section Of Craigslist
Finally I decided to post an ad in the lost and found section of Craigslist hoping by chance the owner might see their cat on there. Unfortunately, at this point I was pretty sure this sweet cat was a stray because she was very disheveled when I found her behind the water heater. Only one person answered my ad, but she said she would be more than happy to adopt the cat family if no one else responded to my ad. Since I did not want to send this cat to the pound and the ASPCA had not got back to me, I decided to let her adopt the family. The lady came to my house on a Monday afternoon with her son, both of which had enthusiastic smiles on their faces. The lady told me she had been looking for a cat family because her neighbor's dog had killed her cat a couple of years ago. She lives on a large piece of land with her husband, and her kids agreed to help her take care of the cat family. In the end this was a a win-win situation because I found a home for a cat I would not be able to keep, and a family who wanted pets know have several they can truly enjoy. I am glad the stray cat and her kittens found a home where they will be loved and protected as this lady is quite an animal lover. This is a very caring person to be willing to adopt a family of cats and take care of their needs. If you ever find a stray cat at your house make sure to go through several steps and try to see if the cat belongs to anyone. However, I feel finding another placement besides just sending them to the pound is ideal. This is just my opinion, but if you can find a home for a stray cat it is much better than sending it to the pound where the cat might not be adopted and eventually destroyed. When I was younger our neighbor set a trap and caught one of our house cats that accidentally got out of the house, and sadly this cat ended up at the pound and my mom would not have known, but the cat just happened to be wearing a tag. When possible I prefer to prevent animals from being sent to the pound and encourage everyone to alter their pets so they do not produce unwanted offspring. I wonder if the stray cat I found the other day might have been dumped off by someone who did not want to deal with a cat that was about to have kittens as I have seen this happen in the past. Fortunately, I am glad this story had a happy ending.