Things to Consider Before You Rehome a Cat

Many of us believe that adopting a cat is a lifelong contract. That we and a cat will live happily ever after. Surely, it should be that way. At least, in theory. However, sometimes life gets in and we might find ourselves in a situation when rehoming a cat is the only option. Certainly, this scenario is not always the case. Namely, people who left their beloved pets for younger and cuter ones are irresponsible. But, in this topic, we will concentrate only to responsible owners who are in difficult life situation. Sometimes, rehoming a cat can be avoided, even though we thought it was our only option. Namely, a lot of shelters have a backup plan that might support owners who struggle with difficulties. Shelters also have huge experience with this problem and may suggest useful ideas. For example, many people believe that moving into a home where owners do not allow pets is the firm rule. They do not even try to negotiate it. But, in reality, it is the default option in a contract that many owners do not even give a second thought. For that reason, many shelters encourage cat owners to negotiate this option. It is surprising how many cats can be saved in this way. To learn more about things to consider before you rehome a cat, the article “Things to Consider Before You Rehome a Cat” gives us the following suggestions.

Reasons for Rehoming

Some of these reasons are legitimate. And a lot of them, as you learn in the course of doing animal rescue work, aren’t.

A family member develops an allergy to cats. This does happen, unfortunately, but you don’t have to go straight to rehoming. You can get shots to keep it the allergy in check. It’s worth looking into.

There’s a baby on the way. Strangely enough, some people still believe that cats go around sucking the life out of babies or that a pregnant woman will catch toxoplasmosis from cleaning the litter box. Let’s get this straight…

Cats and babies co-exist beautifully. Often, the cats are very protective of the baby.
Cats don’t come off the genetic assembly line with toxoplasmosis. They get it from eating birds, who do carry it. You’re more apt to catch the disease from eating undercooked chicken at a reception.
The old cat doesn’t get along with the new cat. Yes, there are cats who need to be The One and Only. Bringing in another cat often stirs things up.

For many cat owners, rehoming a cat is the extremely painful decision. They usually feel guilty and hopeless, because they have run out of options. For them, harsh judgment makes things much worse. Human compassion and deep understanding may help us restraining from judgments. The truth is, no one can be sure that we will keep a lifelong commitment to our pets forever. But, a majority of us do our best to keep it going. When it happens, we can help with sharing our empathy and help them rehome a mature cat as soon as possible.