Am I Good Enough to Have a Cat?

So I finally caved in.

My son has long been a fan of having a pet but I thought the best way would be the route of learned responsibility. I never felt the need to rush him into a situation where he would not be prepared to handle the responsibilities that come with caring for another living thing.

So he began with caring for a hermit crab, to a rat, to a few fish. Along the way he learned so much about feeding, cleaning and caring for organisms that depend upon him for their survival.

I should point out that one day my son will be chained to a tree in Northern California fighting for old growth forests. He has a liberal streak that must come from my wife, because I am sure that my views are nowhere near that far from the right. I applaud his belief in all things green and in protecting all things living.

That gets us to his inevitable desire to have a cat.

After a great deal of research, discussion and preparation for both our children and our home we decided as a family that we would all be prepared to take on the responsibility of introducing a cat into our lifestyle.

So, the best route after talking with my fair share of “experts” was to go the adoption route. A few facts that I was made aware of through adopt a pet that helped in this decision to go with adopting a pet:

• 7 million adoptable pets are put to sleep each year, including millions of cats and kittens.
• It is estimated that 70% of homeless cats and kittens are "put to sleep
• According to the Humane Society of the United States, 10,000 babies are born in the U.S. on any given day. On that same day, however, 40,000 kittens are born. Match those two statistics up, and you'll see that there will never be enough homes for all the kitties born in this country unless we all pledge to do two things: 1) take responsibility for spaying and neutering our pets, and 2) adopt a cat or kitten from a shelter or cat & kitten rescue organization.

After reading enough information from and completely reacquainting myself with the habits and necessities of cats with the help of an incredible resource at cats.about.com

We prepared ourselves to find a new member of our family at our local chain pet store. Saturday pet adoption days bring in a lot of cats and kittens and we spent an ample amount of time acquainting ourselves with a few animals and my son settled on one as he said, “He already loves me”

The process was explained and I began the journey through the application process. A two page application that contained more detail than recent mortgage applications was handed to me. (Maybe that’s why we are in a financial mess in this country, a topic for another day) I did my best to fill out the application as honestly as I could. My son sat beside me and we answered the questions together in order to involve him in the entire process.

I was told they would get back to me in a couple of days. We left the store and my son was excited at the prospect of getting a cat. He was well aware of the reason behind the application, although he was a little disappointed he liked the idea that people were treating the animals with the respect and care he would any other living thing.

Two days later a response was in my email in box with these two questions.

In processing of your application a couple of questions have arisen.

1] You have mentioned that you don’t know when / how much time the kitty would be spending outdoors. Can you elaborate a little bit about what this would depend upon, and whether there would be any restrictions to the kitten’s outdoor access (i.e. length of time, time of day, etc.)? Also, a little information about the area where the kitty might be allowed access, such as is it fenced to protect kitty from the possibility of a dog attack, would there be places for kitty to take shelter from sun/rain?

2] You did not answer the section that asked if you were prepared to cover any vet expenses your pet may incur throughout its life and if there is a limit, how much is too much?

Now I have to say that I was already put off buy some of the questions on the initial application as I was forced to make decisions about how much I could actually care for a cat. I made sure that my son answered honestly because there is no value in having your son create answers just to make things go his way.

This is my response:


Thank you for your consideration of the application.

We wish to retract our application for a kitten through your service. I applaud your efforts to place these incredible animals in the right situations.

It seems as though the questions both in this email and on your applications place too much weight on the unknown. Do we know how much time we will have the Kitten outside or inside for that matter? No, obviously we would find the correct amount of time for our family. Do we know if we would spend an endless amount of money on a cat? Once again these are questions that I could easily fabricate an answer to but realistically do not know. Do you want me to wholeheartedly agree to support the unknown? That would be unfair.

I do understand that your organization does a good job of placing animals and I also am fully aware that you have had to deal with the wrong type of people who have attempted to adopt animals. That is fully understood and not discounted but I am not, and my family is not prepared to fully answer questions based on your strict criteria.

My wife, our two boys and I are looking for an addition to our family. We have thoroughly thought through the process and have done a great deal of research. We just believe that some questions do remain unanswerable until we actively have a pet in the household.

Thank you for your consideration and continue doing a great service.

Zeke Quezada

We did eventually get a cat, but we did not get an animal from this adoption agency and it made me think about the growing numbers of cats without homes in our country.

Are those people who are trying to be part of the solution also part of the problem? Are there families out there who would be a good fit who just do not fit the mold for an arbitrary decision by a person who is volunteering their time by screening would be pet owners?

We were never turned down, but the process was such that I soon felt that I could have created the best possible scenario on paper and would have been given a cat. Instead I told the truth and the truth was not going to work.

I’m conflicted, did I do the right thing by abandoning the initial service and going a different route with adopting a pet?

One thing for sure, my children are excited, the addition to our family is having a wonderful time and the story ended fine for us. But I can’t help to think that somewhere there are cats who do not get placed because one person has decided that only a select few will fit the bill.