Where to buy a kitten?

Katiehound · 4 May 2018 at 9:57PM

and in the meantime whilst you look for a really suitable cat can your daughter not meet cats and dogs that belong to neighbours and friends and get her cuddles that way as a temporary solution?

Getting a cat is a long term comittment not a quick fix solution so it should be worth a bit of time spent looking. At nine she should be able to understand that concept..... if it's worth having (the cat) it's worth waiting until you find a perfect (purrfect!) match

suki1964 · 4 May 2018 at 10:09PM

Spider_In_The_Bath wrote: »

As well as cats having different personalities the same cat will also react to different people in different ways.

We have not quite worked out who my cat thinks I am and who my husband is, but she treats us differently. I seem to be 'mum' and my husband 'hero God to be worshiped'.

So I can brush her, pick her up and turn her over and touch her back feet if she has a cut, tell her off and she obeys (well as much as any cat will), she will follow some of my commands (if I tap on the floor she will come to me), and she sits on my knee or sleeps on me.

If my husband picked her up and turned her over she would take his face off! She ignores him if her tell her off and only sits on his knee if I am not there. However, when she comes in from outside she looks for him first to have a tickle. If he is busy she will find him and then poke him with her paw till she gets a tickle, she will sit next to him and lean on him and stare adoringly at him (you have to see it to believe it).

You cannot get a cat and expect it to do what you want. It will do it what it wants and it may not want cuddles (we had one cat who in all the years I owned her only sat on my knee four times) although she would sit next to me.

Ive loved reading that

Arthur allows Dh to pick him up but not willingly, the back and the legs are still as boards

I gave up trying after I got scrabbed a few times

We get lots of cupboard love though, lots of leg rubbing and tail dancing or rattling the handle of the drawer his treats are in, then once fed he's away again

Sometimes I wish I had a lap cat but tbh I really love his standoffish ways and it makes the times he does decide to come say hello and stay for a stroke and tickle, all the more special

UKTigerlily · 10 May 2018 at 1:24AM

It's possible to get an 8 week old from a rescue, but it seems like you are pandering to what the kid wants, when she isn't old enough to know all the ins and outs. If you can't be home, then an 8 weeks old isn't ok, especially if a lone cat

Chances are, most cats will not be cuddly. How about a pair of house rabbits? Also cute & fluffy, all sizes available and very clean (can be litter trained) & a lot of fun

Murphybear · 10 May 2018 at 4:40AM

Mojisola wrote: »

Contact them and register an interest and, in the meantime, take your daughter to visit the rehoming centre a few times. You never know, she may fall in love with one of the adult cats.

We went to Cats Protection some years ago to look for a young cat. We both fell in love with a brother and sister aged 6. You never can tell:D

selement · 10 May 2018 at 8:17AM

We adopted 2 kittens last year, they are only ever cuddly on their terms (often the middle of the night) and hate being picked up. They are shy with strangers and took a while to warm up to us when we first got them. One of them will sit on me sometimes (when she wants not when I want!) And the other hardly ever even like to be fussed (she let's me more than my husband, and usually it's one little stoke and then she walks off). I wanted cuddly kittens really but I love my girls even when they aren't cuddly (and when they are it feels well earnt!) But would a 9 yr old feel the same way?

Blondetotty · 10 May 2018 at 12:00PM

marliepanda wrote: »

I find in these situations nothing will convince someone not to take a tiny 8 week old kitten from a backyard breeder who just wants shot of them.

Then they'll come back in a few months time wondering why the kitten is scratching, biting, unfriendly.

Babies don't stay babies for long. You don't get an animal because you want a baby one, you get one because you want one.

My thoughts exactly. Very sad especially to take an 8 week old kitten away from its mother. We had to wait until our kitten was 14 weeks and after two vets checks, worming etc before we were allowed to collect him. The lady wouldn't even cut off a week earlier, 14 weeks end of! It makes me so sad when I see kittens advertised as for sale and available at 8 weeks on facebook etc. Purely money making with no concern for the animals.

UKTigerlily · 18 May 2018 at 3:15PM

Blondetotty wrote: »

My thoughts exactly. Very sad especially to take an 8 week old kitten away from its mother. We had to wait until our kitten was 14 weeks and after two vets checks, worming etc before we were allowed to collect him. The lady wouldn't even cut off a week earlier, 14 weeks end of! It makes me so sad when I see kittens advertised as for sale and available at 8 weeks on facebook etc. Purely money making with no concern for the animals.

In some cases, but rescues rehome at 8 weeks also, so I guess it depends where they are from.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted · 20 May 2018 at 8:36PM

I've always had rescue kittens, but they have generally been very young - between 5 and 7 weeks - not by choice, but because they'd been rejected/abandoned. The hardest work was the one who hadn't seen humans other than the breeder before 14 weeks when her original owner bought her and was traumatised by the owner's toddler once she was taken 'home', so was a fluffy ball of rage and venom by 9 months when they'd had enough of her. She chilled out in the end and is cuddly and purry, absolutely adoring the OH and happily fussing any adult or child that enters the house, but it was a lot easier handrearing tiny kittens and teaching them how to be a cat/interact with other animals and people than it was convincing a nine month old that we weren't all out to hurt her. And none of my cats are scratchy, bitey things, never have been.

ConsumerMatt · 20 May 2018 at 9:39PM

There's a lot of good advice already given.

All I can add/emphasise is; unless it's a pedigree from a reputable breeder with documentation, never pay for a cat. As in, never hand over cold hard cash to a random person whose cat has had kittens. Go to a rescue centre where your money will go towards caring for other rescue cats. A randomer with unwanted kittens should be willing to give the kittens away for free to a good home. Break the cycle of people trying to make a quick buck from irresponsible breeding. I've seen people trying to sell moggy tabby cats for £100+ (for their markings, as if it's a pedigree) and equally as bad visited a pedigree breeder with 20+ bengal kittens from different litters running free around a smelly filthy house and outside in the garden! To the terrible, irresponsible breeder it was simply £5000+ profits running around.

hazyjo · 21 May 2018 at 9:32AM

ConsumerMatt wrote: »

There's a lot of good advice already given.

All I can add/emphasise is; unless it's a pedigree from a reputable breeder with documentation, never pay for a cat. As in, never hand over cold hard cash to a random person whose cat has had kittens.

Only half agree with that.

100% with getting a kitten/cat from a rescue centre. But even if some random is selling kittens, I would rather they go to someone willing to pay money for them than for someone to collect them who may be using them for all sorts of nasty reasons like for dog bait

Where to buy a kitten?

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