How to place a cat in good hands

If a cat has lived most of its life in a private home, moving it to an apartment will lead to depression

Where to place a domestic cat: options

Releasing an unwanted cat on the street is an irresponsible act. People assuage their conscience with the fact that a cat is first of all an animal, it will find food and shelter. They hope for compassionate citizens who will feed the animal.

Important! Being without care is a huge stress for the cat. The domestic gentlewoman has a weak immunity, because she lived on vaccinations. Deprived of vaccinations, a cat will catch parasites from street vagrants, get sick and die.

Often people let cats near public catering facilities, construction sites, farms, but this is tantamount to throwing them out on the street. Near these places, there are already a lot of homeless animals with diseases and insects. Such actions are tantamount to abandonment. They entail administrative liability and are punishable by fines of up to 2 thousand rubles.

Pay attention! The Government of the Russian Federation proposes to increase the punishment for such cases, equating them to cruel treatment of wildlife, which is already a criminal article.

People should understand that an orphan cat can fall into the hands of cruel and sadistic cats. So the conscience cannot be calm when a pet, accustomed to comfort and care, is left to itself.

Animal Shelter

These are places where cats are taken into temporary custody. Individuals and organizations offer such service for money – from 1.5 to 3 thousand rubles per month. Items are relevant for owners who are going on vacation or a long business trip. At the time of repair in the apartment owners also often give pets in a perennial.

Here the animals are fed, walked and cared for. Cats easily adapt to new conditions, especially if you give the temporary owners familiar items: mats, dishes, toys.

Please note! This option of annexation also includes hotels for animals. There the content is documented, the prices are higher and the conditions are better.

Cat shelter

The word scares and repels, there is a picture of a dirty place with a large concentration of homeless animals. Poor care, disease, and imminent death.

This is an outdated notion. To some extent it applies to public institutions. Funding there is weak, there are more pets than there are funds allocated for their maintenance. Nevertheless, shelters perform four functions:

FYI! The work is done by employees of the company and volunteers. There are very few such organizations, but private institutions have come to the rescue. They are opened by interested people with their own money and sponsor donations.

Animals are rescued here from critical situations: abandoned by dacha owners, the owner died, were born in a back alley. In the shelters cats are fed, treated and vaccinated.

• Manager – organizes the work and distributes funds;
• veterinarian – responsible for the health of the pets;
• workers – feed stray cats, clean cages, disinfect bowls and drinkers;
• PR people – distribute information about pets and find new owners;
• sponsors – help financially;
• volunteers – catch strays, move them, help take care of them;
• dispatcher – calls and requests for custody of animals.

Important! Private enterprises have a goal to accommodate a homeless creature. You can give a cat to such a shelter without fear.

You have decided to adopt a cat – all that is left to do is to make sure that the animal gets into good hands

Unfortunately, circumstances in our lives are different and sometimes develop in such a way that we are forced to part with their pets. However, it should be noted – the practice and experience of the shelter "Murkosha" show that the vast majority of problems have a solution. Allergy to a cat is not a sentence (not to mention the fact that it can be not allergy at all), it is quite easy to prepare a cat for birth, all deviations in behavior can be corrected. If something happens you can always contact a zoopsychologist – a competent specialist is able to solve any problem. But if you do not have the possibility or the desire to solve the problem, you should at least take care to place the kitten in good hands, and not to throw him out on the street.

Straying as a temporary step on the way to a new home

Respite care is a place for a volunteer to keep an animal that needs to be adopted for a while. It may be a private apartment, the home of one of the volunteers, or a specially equipped room for this purpose. Most often, rehoming is used as a tool for solving temporary difficulties: for example, living together with a cat is impossible right now, and a new home for the pet has not been found yet. In this case, rehoming becomes a lifesaver, giving you a couple of extra weeks (sometimes months) to find a new home for the animal to be rehomed. It's also a chance to think about whether or not you should give up your pet altogether. Maybe in the meantime, you can find a solution to your problem.

But even if you know that the cat will be at the shelter only for a few days, you should be careful about the conditions of the pet. You should not only look at the safety of the room, the food and everything else necessary for the cat's life, but also pay attention to the owner. After all, inadequate conditions can seriously undermine the health of the kitten in just a couple of days.

Is it possible to put a cat into a shelter forever?

Let's say right away that real shelters are not built on lifelong care of homeless animals, but on the contrary, they try to find a home and good owners for them as soon as possible. We often hear from people who want to surrender their pets the question, "Do you also foster?" In fact, placement is the main task of the Murkosha shelter, but the medical care, proper treatment and socialization of animals is that very "more". Of course, these are important parts of our work, but not the end in itself.

Because of the superficial understanding of shelters and the bad reputation of some shelter-presenting facilities, there are false beliefs that prevent the work of real shelters. Let's look at the most common ones.

Just because they are not needed by their former owners and end up on the street for various reasons does not make them unnecessary in principle. After all, there are reliable people with a good heart who are looking for a friend from our smaller brothers, who want to do the right thing and are not chasing breeds or trends. They make great hosts for the wards of Murkosha and other shelters. Every month we take in over 100 animals, which many people mistakenly think are unnecessary. We are sure that their new families will strongly disagree with this thesis.

Myth #2: Once an animal goes to a shelter, he or she never goes out and spends the rest of his or her life in a cage.

A shelter is a new chance, not a last resort. Finding and finding a home for their charges is the main task of such organizations, because it is through active sheltering that the largest number of homeless animals can be helped. For example, the average time a cat stays in the shelter "Murkosha" usually does not exceed 2-3 months. During this time we have time to perform all necessary procedures (quarantine, chipping, vaccinations, registration of documents, sterilization) and find a reliable owner, who can be trusted with the pet.

Myth #3: Sick, old, disabled, feral and "bad" cats have no chance of finding a new family.

Advertisements in the newspaper and on poles

When trying to give away kittens or take adult animals, you should not neglect the old, but effective methods. These include placing ads in local newspapers, posting paper ads on poles, porches and special boards. The potential owner may be very close, so these techniques should not be excluded.

Strange as it may seem, but friends, relatives and acquaintances are the first place to start. Perhaps some of them do not have pets and have been thinking about getting a tailed friend for a long time. And the previous owners will be able to visit their cat and follow its future fate.

Often, having already had one cat, people want a second one, but they are afraid to take it. They fear that the animals will not get along and that the owners will feel uneasy. In fact, keeping two cats is much easier than one. This should be made clear to future owners.

Important! If a cat is given to a family where there is already a cat, it is recommended to have it spayed beforehand. Otherwise unwanted offspring of kittens, who will also have to be adopted in the future, will not be long in coming.

Preparing the pet for transfer

If all the recommendations have been followed, in a short time requests from potential owners will come in. At this stage, it is important to make sure that the cats get into good hands. To do this, it is desirable to talk to people personally, to find out their plans and intentions about the animal. It is important to understand that a cat is a living creature that may not be in the mood and may misbehave or become ill. This means that the owners are fully responsible for the pet's life and health.

Finding a new family for a cat, as well as the placement of small kittens, is quite a responsible matter. To obtain a favorable outcome, you should take the responsibility and sincerely want to find a loving family.

Where to place the cat: the first option – the shelter

The temporary surrender of an animal to people who can take it in, if the owners go away, or they have other reasons at the moment to be without a pet (for example, relatives come who are afraid of cats). Many such offers can be found on the Internet.

If you decide to use a rehoming service, you must give the person who takes care of the pet all the care products, as well as your favorite toys. It is important to leave money for food and to pay for the service.

There are a lot of advantages of a rehoming service. First of all, it is a quiet home environment that kittens get used to. Also you can always keep in touch with the person who looks after them, wondering if everything is going well. Of the disadvantages are the presence of other animals in the house and the inability to check on the conditions in which your pet is kept.

Cotocafe .

If you do not have the opportunity to keep a kitten, you can give him to the cafe, where visitors come to talk to the kittens. Lately, such places are very popular. Maybe there is a cafe in your town and you won't have to worry about where to place your pet.

The pluses are that the cat will be well cared for, and the large number of visitors will definitely provide constant companionship. The disadvantages are the high demands placed on the animals. In addition, there may not be a similar cafe for animals in your city.

Why is it necessary to part with the pet?

Cats live in 46% of Russian families. They look nice, they are easy-going, and with the variety of food and care products they are easy to maintain in the conditions of their city apartment and employment of their owners. Getting a "mustached, striped cat", the owners, of course, expect that the animal will live with them "happily ever after", but sometimes they have to give it away. There are several reasons:

Allergies. Sometimes already after a person gets a cat, he realizes that he is allergic – itching in the nose, pouring from the eyes and a disgusting condition. Unfortunately, treatment for this disease is a costly affair and in 80% of cases ineffective. All medications relieve symptoms in short-term contact with the source of the allergy, but you can't count on a long-term effect. If the disease manifested itself when the cat was just purchased – the problems are minimal, you can quickly return it with apologies to the previous owners. Much more difficult if the animal has been living in the apartment for some time, and then appeared, for example, a child who is allergic to wool.

If symptoms of allergy occur, the cat, unfortunately, will have to be given away

Options for domestic cat adoption

If you have no other option but to get rid of your pet, consider a few foster options to help you find your cat new loving owners.

About "releasing to the wild."

For some reason, many people think that a pet will be able to adapt in an outdoor environment, they say, "it's a cat, it will catch a mouse, it will find food." That's not true: people have taught the animals to get their own food, provided comfort and with the help of vaccinations undermined their immunity. Even for a stray cat living in a private house, being thrown out is a huge stress, which leads to a surge of diseases, but an apartment pet is doomed to a slow and painful death.

The Moscow's Administrative Breaches Code says that the owners are fined from 1 to 2 thousand rubles for being irresponsible. However, in the future it is planned to toughen this punishment by equating the "abandonment" to the abuse of animals, which provides up to one year imprisonment. For now, pets are not legally protected.

Sometimes owners of unwanted animals choose the alternative – to let the cat go near the construction site, canteen, farm or other farm, hoping that the animal will find shelter and food there, and thus soothe their conscience. But, first, such action is tantamount to throwing on the street, and secondly, near such places and so many stray animals, which quickly get rid of a domestic "gentleman.

Looking for new owners

At first you can try to take the cat to acquaintances. Talk to relatives, colleagues and friends, in case there is someone who wants to get a pet.

I have a cat sitting in a holding facility – a black panther. There are calls – but what if she pulls up furniture … and then the child will torture her …. damn well buy a plush toy – the furniture does not pull up, the child does not torture. They all don't need a live toy. They're also offended that we don't give it away.

Save the kitty! How to help a homeless animal if you can't get it for yourself

You probably often see homeless kittens on the street and think you'd like to help, but you don't understand how, so you just walk by. Of course, we can't take home every animal we've felt sorry for, but that doesn't mean we can't help it. Read our guide on what any of us can do to help cats living on the streets.

So, here are ways to help you save an animal from certain death, even if you can't take it home.

Check if cats have access to the basement

Even in the summer, stray cats have a tough time with people, dogs, and cars posing a real danger to them. Practically the only shelter option for them is to hide in the basement of the house. Few people know that utilities are obliged by law to leave at least one hole open – the hole in the basement of the building where a cat can easily get. Unfortunately, not all utilities follow this rule, and often the hole is bricked up. What to do if frost is near and you're worried about cats in your yard? Go to the local State Budgetary Institution "Housing Department" or the city administration and write a statement saying that the norms are not respected and that the holes should be open. However, this will work only in Moscow, where there is a directive of First Deputy Mayor Petr Biryukov that throughout the city, small animals must be provided with access to basements and technical cellars. The Moscow Housing Inspectorate is obliged to fulfill these conditions. The norms applying to all Russian cities are not in force yet, and are only approved by the Ministry of Justice.

We should not forget that there really are no rats in those entrances, under which cats happily live: one smell of cat urine scares them. Contrary to popular belief, fleas don't appear because of cats, they appear because of poor cleaning and high humidity. Cats have nothing to do with it. Unfortunately, in winter the cats have it even worse: when the temperature drops below minus seven they just can't survive outside.

What is the algorithm (or algorithms) for successful adoptions? What is the best social network to use? Are ads on the streets and in the press effective now?

At first I used to post ads on various foster sites and in the ru_cats community.

Experience shows that such posting is not very effective. Therefore, for each reception I do "reality show": a story with a story and pictures, and once every 1-2 days. It is desirable to use tags, by which you can identify each case of attachment. In fact, it's marketing of the cat on social networks: since all my acquaintances are harassed, we are looking for "new markets". I traditionally attach through my own feed, although I sometimes make posts in specialized groups.

Take some PR photos, write a catchy, vivid text to reach as wide an audience of potential owners, and don't be shy about asking friends, coworkers, and relatives for help.

For me, the best resource is social media, and I haven't used the press or street ads.

Nika Mironova, Veterinary Assistance for Stray Animals in Voronezh. Voronezh

If the animal is not attached, re-advertise about once every 7-10 days. If you have already spent a month looking for a home, update the photos and think about the text of the ad.

It all depends on who is being housed. "Formerly street" spayed cats are usually in demand by ads on "Odnoklassniki" and on Avito / Yule (since there the target audience – the inhabitants of the suburbs, these cats are often taken to private homes as a mousetrap). Adult cats raised on the street, you can successfully adopt, if zadavit print layouts and paste them on the nearest suburbs and, in our case, villages.

Kittens are well accepted through the posts on all social networks. People with disabilities and animals with special socialization usually have a better response in VKontakte.

How do I tell people about my kitten to increase her chances of adoption? What do I do if I'm a bad photographer and don't have any special technique?

Of course, it would be desirable to have pictures that show the adopted cat in all its glory. Some photographers and photo studios periodically organize free charity shoots.

In my opinion, you should avoid balloons, beads and flowers around the cat. You are taking a photo that shows the merits of the cat, not a "a la 1980s" calendar with kittens.

I have a great experience in photography: I used to make reports from cat shows, and I also have a mini-photo studio at home. If you don't have necessary skills you could try to ask for help: there are helpful photographers who will take photos of your kitten for free or for money. If these options are not available, use the instructions I wrote for the ru_cats community.

Nowadays, almost everyone shoots with a smartphone, but the basic principles remain the same.

• The cat must not blend into the background.
• The background should not "block the cat".
• The background should not be crumpled, unkempt, but draped – it can.
• Do not shoot against a background of shabby walls, torn wallpaper, wires and carpets.
• It is undesirable to shoot against a background of a cage or through a lattice.
• Choose a single-color background. Usually a cloth is used at home. The cloth should be not shiny (without lurex), without creases and folds (ironed) and wide enough. It is better to take a piece 120 cm wide and up to 200 cm long and fasten it securely to the wall and the floor (or table). It's not advisable to use black fabric, you're unlikely to get an interesting result without some pro-processing in Photoshop or Lightroom. I recommend calm pastel colors. Keep in mind that the fabric should be dense, so that the animal won't claw it with the threads pulled out and won't slip on it. There should be no sharp bends or wall-to-floor transitions.
• It is better to work with an assistant.
• Take a lot of shots! As a rule, 1/10 of the footage goes to work.