Adopting a Cat based on Compassion and Wisdom

The best motivation to bring a cat home is based on

Compassion

1) Save a cat that is about to be euthanised.

• Call the AVA (http://www.ava.gov.sg/)Claiming of impounded dogs and cats Tel: 6471 9987 / 6471 9996 (You may need to pay for impounding fee, boarding fees and microchipping).
• Call the SPCA (http://www.spca.org.sg/) Tel: 62875355 (Ask for cats that are to be euthanised; these are cats that are assessed by a visiting vet as "not suitable for adoption". You may have to argue very hard with a "we know what is best for the cat" attitude.)
  

2) Adopt from shelters for rescued cats and kittens such as

• MettaCats (http://www.mettacats.blogspot.com/)
• Paw Pledge
• Vegan & Meowies
• Fostercats for Adoption
• Cats for Adoption

Adopt the least adoptable cats, such as those with disabilities, those who look "ugly" to most people, those who are "old".

• Extraordinary cats for extraordinary people
  

3) Give a home to a community cat. Most of our community cats are abandoned. Community cats in Singapore are in perpetual dangers of being

• Blamed for "hygiene" risk if they are within food-serving areas
• Blamed for scratches on cars if they are in car parks
• Blamed for spread of diseases if they are near child care centres
• Blamed for making noise if they are in HDB estates
• Blamed for "upstairs" defecation that is usually caused by irresponsible owners who let their cats roam freely out of the flats, or irresponsible feeders who lure community cats upstairs to feed. Irresponsible Property Officers of the town council who do not investigate,will assume the "downstairs cats" are responsible and thereby activating the pest controllers to round up the "downstairs" cats, which will be killed without mercy!"
  
• Blamed for phobia of cats (Ailurophobia)
• Run over by cars
• Abused by psychotic human beings
• Poisoned from drinking drain water that is often sprayed with anti-mosquito-larval chemicals
• Caught in traps,which are loan free of charge by the AVA (at tax payers' expense), to human beings who live in landed properties who are upset with the intrusion of cats into their "lovely" gardens.

and

WISDOM
Contemplate before bringing a cat home

1) If you are single

• Who will care for your cat when you are on vacation?
• What if you meet a partner who does not like cat?
• What if you get married and have a child and your in-laws are dead-set against keeping your cat?
• What if you fall critically ill?

2) If you are married

• Will you keep the cat when a child is on the way?
• Will you be able to care for a cat, who, like any living being, will fall ill, will be old and will die?

3) If have children

• Are you adopting a cat as a "live" toy? Leaving a cat in the presence of a child unsupervised can give rise to harm on both. A cat is NOT a toy. A good motivation for the addition of a cat to family with children is to cultivate compassion to animals. Will you abandon the cat if anyone in the family develop allergy that most family doctors will readily blame on the cat instead of suggesting ways to reduce allergen-exposure?
  

4) If you are an expatriate

• Will you bring the cat along to where-ever you will be going? There will be expenses from vet certification, vaccination, air-freight (some airlines include cat in a carrier into the luggage allowance) and quarantine.

5) Ability to afford the cost of caring for a cat that may live up to 20 years.

6) Making the window and door grills "cat-safe" to keep the cat indoors.

7) The patience to wait for a cat to adapt to a new environment, especially one that has a cat or cats or dog/s. Some cats adapt easily. Some cats take a long time to adapt. Sometimes it is easier for a guardian to adapt to a "difficult" cat :)

8) Some adopters expect a cat to adapt perfectly into a home without door or window grills because "some of my friends have cats and they do not have grills or put mesh on their grills" or "my home won't look nice anymore with grills or mesh on grills". Cats do not have intelligence like us human beings to understand that they cannot jump after that bird at the window! A tragedy worse than instant death is being paralysed from a fall.

Some adopters expect a cat to adapt to a home with expensive leather furniture. Cats, unlike us human beings, do not understand that the furniture is expensive and therefore not to be used to remove their nail sheaths.

We, as human beings, have the intelligence to undertand the limitations of a cat's intelligence. We, as human beings, have the the ability to exercise our wisdom and adapt to living with a cat instead of expecting vice versa.




Be a GUARDIAN of a cat that you bring home, NOT just a mere OWNER.