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cerious
Aug 18, 2010

:dukedog:
Hey yall I'm considering adopting an adult cat and I'm trying to plan everything out first. I live alone in a small-ish 1b1b apartment with no pets and I've never had a cat before. My main concern with my place is that it's a bit on the smaller side and I don't have much free space. I basically can clear out my coat closet to put a litterbox in there (it doubles as the water heater closet though but thems the breaks). Then I could put up a decent size scratching post by the sofa and maybe another cat furniture tower thing in my living room, but that's basically it for room in my place. And I'm not sure if there's other furniture considerations I would also need to make either?

So basically I'm not sure if I should hold off until I move into a larger place (possibly next year if I buy a house). It seems my other friends with cats make apartments my size work, but unlike them I've kinda stuffed mine up already.

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cerious
Aug 18, 2010

:dukedog:

Cythereal posted:

Your plans are fine, cats do fine in small spaces. What tends to be more important for cats is having places to climb and hide if they want - cat towers are popular for that because it lets them climb around and hide from a high vantage point when they want to, which is a lot of the time.

Yeah other than some shelves which is already full of cameras (and I don't really want a cat to knock any of them over... so I'm assuming I'll have to move them to somewhere a little more secure?) I don't really have anything that goes over eye level like dressers or anything. So my assumption with a tower would be that since it's the highest perch around the cat would prefer it over anything else in my apartment.

Also how early should I have everything before I actually get a cat? Are there things that make more sense to get after getting it? I'm going on vacation from mid-Nov to early December so I figure as much as I want to earlier I should only adopt after I'm back. So I've got some plenty of time until then.

cerious fucked around with this message at 18:15 on Oct 18, 2020

cerious
Aug 18, 2010

:dukedog:
Hey all, I've been looking to adopt an older cat as a first time owner and heard back about a senior (9yrs) that seemed like a good fit from the listing. They called me today and had a talk about its health and there were a few important things they didn't put on the listing. Basically 3 things: he's obese (22.5 lbs when he should be 15-16), FIV+, and has mild arthritis which they're prescribing some 2x daily pain meds and joint supplements. In the vet notes I also saw he's got some dental disease but I don't know to what extent. I guess the plus side is that they noted he's extremely friendly, so probably not in too much pain. I'm talking to the shelter's vet on the 15th but the dental exam is only on the 16th.

I'm no stranger to weight loss and calorie counting so the obesity isn't that big of a deal to me (I figure 1 lb a month which is about 1-2% body weight / week). My concerns are the arthritis and FIV. I live alone and would be keeping the cat indoors only, but I'm still worried about him getting sick in the long term anyways and it getting very costly. Second is the arthritis pain meds he will already get, though I'm not sure if they need will go away when he's at a healthy weight.

Am I in over my head with considering this kind of cat? I'm figuring that the arthritis is pretty common in older cats, obesity can be fixed, and FIV isn't a death sentence, but the combo of all three may just not be a good idea for me. I'm not sure if I need a push to go for it or if these are all red flags. After all it's not as if I'm caring for the cat already, I can just choose to adopt a different cat instead.

cerious
Aug 18, 2010

:dukedog:
Thanks for the input. That's kind of what I've been figuring. I figure I can just wait and talk to the vet and see if there are any more surprises as well first too. I don't feel too bad about potentially saying no to this cat since after all none of these medical issues (except maybe the weight, though he didn't look that yuge in the pictures) were disclosed on the initial listing.

Can't exactly meet the cat before unfortunately due to the pandemic - basically no shelters/rescues around here are allowing in-person visits unless it's somewhere like a Petco adoption.

cerious
Aug 18, 2010

:dukedog:

Boogalo posted:

No in person adoption is a bit strict. Pets are a big commitment, potentially 10-20 years, not allowing you to at least interact a bit to see if its a good fit seems like a bit harsh. Our shelter doesn't allow random visitors like me who likes to stop by and pet all of the cats, but they do allow appointments to meet specific cats after pre-adoption paperwork is filled. We're a bit spoiled to have a fantastic spca.

All of that stuff being undisclosed also seems a bit weird.

Yeah it's been pretty annoying. A lot of places here are only doing virtual adoptions, the ones that aren't are like an hour away and by appointment only. The Petcos here don't even let you interact with the cat, you can only see it through a glass window or something. So at each place I've applied, I've also asked about potential return policies in case it doesn't work out since I can't see them before. Of course, some places either don't have one listed on their website or seem immediately turned off that I've asked. Rescues in particular, I figure these places want to have high permanent placement rates so I'm sure I look skittish as a first-timer asking about potential returns. It's a bit dumb, I think there's one rescue I've looked at that I don't think has adopted a single cat out since I've been looking for the past month or two due to some insane requirements (3 references? and the fact that I might be going back to work and leaving the cat alone for parts of the day is a deal breaker too)

Also yeah the stuff being undisclosed was a bit weird but at least they promptly sent me the pdf vet assessment. Usually they've been good about putting it up on their website before. I figured I'll still do my due diligence and talk to the vet since it doesn't cost me anything though.

I live in a second floor apartment so I can't just get a walk-in cat either. And the strays that I used to see on my walks are in hiding now that it's cold and rainy again.

cerious fucked around with this message at 20:41 on Dec 12, 2020

cerious
Aug 18, 2010

:dukedog:

Boogalo posted:

Return policy is a must, really. It's in the animal's best interest too to have a fierce "you must return back to here if things don't work out" policy rather than the new butler being afraid of judgement or punishment and dumping the pet somewhere. Sometimes things just don't work out or its a bad personal and environmental fit.

Oh, one thing you might ask about is foster, programs. You take in and socialize a shy or recovering fro illness/injury kitty, the shelter covers your supplies expenses, then at the end you give them back to the shelter to go up for adoption, and start again, or foster failure and gradually collect former fosters. Most shelters are likely really hurting for foster homes. Some people keep fosters separate in a spare room and some let them roam the whole house, it varies a lot. Some shelters also have "foster to adopt" programs where a foster failure is mostly expected.

I actually asked some places about foster-to-adopt and only a few had such a program, and even then some were only offering them for kittens or seniors. So my plan was to hear back about a cat first and then ask about possibly foster-to-adopt as well. Maybe I should be asking for that explicitly and seeing if any of them are open to it?

cerious
Aug 18, 2010

:dukedog:

SkyeAuroline posted:

Shelter volunteer here, and yeah, this all feels like red flags to me. Safe appointment methods have been figured out for months now (granted, our shelter is generally not as careful as I wish we could be, but we still do a solid job keeping people safe) and they definitely shouldn't be adopting out cats to people who haven't met them in person for the cat's sake if nothing else . Especially if they're initially hiding issues, then there's no way to reliably know about behavior without seeing them.

That's strange then, it's like the largest cat shelter out in my area. Here's a link to their policy. I basically only have a few pictures and some words to go off of for most cats. It's pretty explicit that there is no in-person meet-and-greet at any stage.

As for return policies this place has the best one, something like 60 days instead. One of the other shelters I was approved for (but the cat I wanted got adopted out before) only has a 3 day trial, which seems crazy to me. Some rescues here only let me do it if the cat is being rehomed directly from the owner, so I have no method of return for cats adopted from foster homes.

I suppose if anyone has any recommendations for shelters/rescues in the PDX area I'd appreciate it as well.

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cerious
Aug 18, 2010

:dukedog:

cerious posted:

That's strange then, it's like the largest cat shelter out in my area. Here's a link to their policy. I basically only have a few pictures and some words to go off of for most cats. It's pretty explicit that there is no in-person meet-and-greet at any stage.

As for return policies this place has the best one, something like 60 days instead. One of the other shelters I was approved for (but the cat I wanted got adopted out before) only has a 3 day trial, which seems crazy to me. Some rescues here only let me do it if the cat is being rehomed directly from the owner, so I have no method of return for cats adopted from foster homes.

I suppose if anyone has any recommendations for shelters/rescues in the PDX area I'd appreciate it as well.

Not quite closure on this but some follow-up. I found a place further out of town that'll actually let me go see the cat that I applied to in person, and they have a really solid policy where they'll always be able to accept a return. Just got off the phone with them about a very cute and friendly 3 year old male cat in good health that I applied to last night. They had answers about questions I had regarding potential separation anxiety when I go back to work, dietary needs, etc. So I'm feeling much more comfortable about going forward with this group.

Thanks yalls for the input, don't think I would've put this cat on my radar if it wasn't for that advice to look at 3-5 year olds.

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