The rehoming service of the RSPCA (Cats in General)

Member Name: Fergie27

Product:	Cats in General
Date:	21/09/00 (98 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Provides the ability to home needy animals

Disadvantages: Lack of communication of shelter policies

I’ve been cat mad all my life, and had lots of cats while living at home with my parents. When we moved into our own house, one of my aims was to get a pet of my very own. This we have now managed to do, and we got our very mad little cat through the RSPCA.

I have always respected the work this organisation does, and even worked for them on a voluntary basis during my school years. This way, I saw first hand many of the animals that were bought into the shelter, and the state of many of them was heartbreaking.

Being ready to home our own pet, we went off to our local rehoming centre and had a good look around. I immediately fell in love with a little tabby kitten, only 7 weeks old. Reservations on the litter was not allowed for another week, so we made plans to come back on the day they could be reserved to get this kitten. I even asked at the desk about the rehoming process and all I was told was that I would need to fill out a form, wait a week and could then take the animal home.

The week’s wait seemed very long, but finally Sunday came and off we trundled back to the shelter. Our first port of call was the reception area, where we asked about reserving ‘our’ kitten. Immediately we were asked how long it would be left alone during the day, and on informing them that we both work full time, we were told we would NOT be allowed to rehome a kitten. To say I was gutted was a bit of an understatement, as all week I had been getting excited about this kitten. All it would have taken was to be told this the week previously and I would have coped with it better.

There is a happy ending to this sad story in that we have now rehomed a completely mad 6-month old cat, although even this was not straightforward. We had NO home visit and no real checks on our suitability to rehome a cat (although we are not ogres!). I also found it difficult to get in touch with them when I needed to, as they operated an answer machin
e service on phone calls. I still have much respect for their work, and would definitely use them again (should my husband allow me another pet!), but I do think their staff could explain their policies to the public in a much better way.

Summary: