Recently I told everybody abou our newly adopted cat. (Link not given to maintain as much anonymity as possible.)
Although this was only a day or so ago, the foster owner, whom I’ll call Diane, already is asking to visit. We have a couple of concerns about this. First of all, Diane became quite emotional at letting her go, even though it was she who exhibited her for adoption at the shop. We don’t think it’s good for the cat to see too much of Diane, or to see her too soon, because we don’t want the cat to get conflicting ideas as to whom she belongs with. The other concern we have is that it simply seems too soon to be requesting a home visit. We understand that it’s part of the process, and we agreed to it, but this is definitely not a good time. We are working carefully to get the new cat and the existing cat to accept each other. Having visitors–any visitors–IMHO is simply not a great idea at this point. And these adoptions are normally done by having the foster owner bring the cat to the new home, as was done in this case. So Diane knows the kind of home we live in, and how we care for the cat we already have. I think I’d be more open to the idea of a visit now, if she hadn’t already been to our house.
I know that 95% of the members here must have adopted a cat at some point in their lives. OK, well maybe not 95%, but a lot. What’s been typical in your experience?
Cats are basically territorial; as long as the cat is not removed from your home the cat will not be confused as to where she belongs. I find your comment that its “too soon to have visitors at all” perplexing. Was the cat horribly traumatized by something? Is it dangerous?
I assume Diane called early in order to give plenty of time to schedule the visit at a mutually convenient time, which isn’t always the easiest thing in the world.
I work for a feline rescue. We reserve the right to inspect a home, but we’ve done it three times in the 8 years I’ve worked there. Foster “parents” have no rights to go into adopter’s homes, that’s the job of the humane society that did the adoption contract. If you agreed to something different, that’s OK, but just so you know it’s unusual. I would say you have no obligation other than what is by the letter in whatever contract you signed, and this lady sounds like crazy-pants to me. The “home visit” or “home inspection” obligation was satisfied when she entered your home for drop-off, unless you signed something that was more like some kind of open adoption and allows for unlimited visits by the foster parent. I don’t think I would have agreed to something like that, and the shelter I work for doesn’t allow it.
I got my cat from the humane society, but home visits never came up. I had to wait 24 hours between filling out the application and taking her home… that was it. Haven’t heard from the since, except for Christmas cards soliciting donations.
No, but my experience is that many cats get nervous around new people. It’s the cat that we already had for which this is a concern; obviously the new one would be comfortable with her former foster owner. I’d like to have everything as unperturbed as possible for both cats until they’re more comfortable with each other.
The new cat was not physically traumatized, but she was abandoned with a house; I think when the owner walked away or something like that.
Same. One of my cats was a stray, the other from the HS. But while I think a home visit was reserved as a possibility, all I got was a follow-up call maybe 6-8 months later ( very confusing, since I didn’t recall my cat had been named “Grapes” at the shelter and it took me a minute to figure out what the hell that person was talking about ).
If Diane was the former owner I could kinda get her strong interest. But otherwise she sounds just a little bit odd. Harmless odd probably, but odd. A regular foster-person should have developed a bit of a thicker skin about letting go of their charges and I’ve never heard of visitation rights like that ( fosterers rather than HS staff, unless she is both ) as part of a contract.
If you do have a contract and she is authorized, I guess I’d personally just shrug my shoulders and go along with it. But I don’t think it would hurt to ask if you could schedule the visit later.
I have never adopted cats via human society but I’ve done so for dogs, and there was no home visit, ever. They said they could show up at any time to make sure the animal was being properly treated, but they didn’t.
A friend got her dog from a rescue agency, and they did do a home visit, but they did it before the dog was placed. They also reserved the right to check up on the dog, but never did (and it’s been three years, so doesn’t look like they will).
It won’t hurt the cat to see her foster owner, I don’t think. I’m not saying cats don’t like their owners, but I don’t think they get as attached as dogs do. They get attached to other things–their house, getting fed regularly. I kept my son’s cat when he moved into a no-pets place and, when he showed up to visit, often she didn’t even make an appearance. A dog would have had fits of joy, and then been depressed when he left.
“Foster owner” is an odd term. It makes it sound like it really wasn’t her cat, but her actions make it sound like it really was her cat, and she thinks it still is.
I agree. We’ve had people foster animals for literally years and this has never come up. I’d think it was unusual (and weird) enough to let the rescue agency know this was going on.
Oh, it depends on the cat I guess. My cats LOOOOVE new people (PET ME! Who are YOU?? PET me!! can I sit on your lap?? Can I shed on your things? How about I sit on your foot???). Most cats I know are more outgoing, I guess. Well, whatever works, you know your cat best.
(My two cats loathe each other; if we’d waited for them to stop fighting before we had guests, we would not have had guests in the past 6 years. )
I’ve known friends to give their cats to other people and then visit them in their new homes and we took in one of our friend’s cats to keep and she visited. From what I’ve seen and heard it wouldn’t be a big deal to your cat if her old owner showed up for a while. A dog I can see this wouldn’t work at all as dogs are more connected to people.
I don’t think this woman is crazy, she’s just missing her cat. You could try it once and see how it goes and if there’s a problem then have the woman wait a longer period of time before her next visit. It’s not going to be more traumatic for the cat than having to leave her home to live with you. Maybe it will be comforting to her, who knows.
I’ve always gotten my kitties from a shelter, and never had any visitation. In fact I’ve never even known the previous people . . . or anything about them, except in generalities.
Sounds like she’s sort of regretting placing this cat and now misses her. I don’t think a home visit will hurt the cat, (especially if she gets something sinfully yummy the instant the foster lady leaves) and it will (one hopes) set the foster lady’s worries to rest.
I’d allow it, but set a pretty firm time frame for the visit, if you can.
That’s the nice thing about living in a big city like Chicago. You want a cat? You go to the grocery store and get fish out of their dumpster. Then go out to an alley by your house and hold the fish up.
Well, you agreed to it, so I’d make time soonish, get it over with, and make it for five minutes. “How nice of you to drop by and check, see, we are still a little shy of our housemates, but we are healthy…bye.” See if she has a form or something she uses to check out - that would be the professional thing to do. “Litterbox accessible and clean, food accessible, clean water out, cat looks healthy, vet check completed by owner, cat microchipped.”
But I’d NEVER adopt a pet from a place that wants to do post adoption home visits. I adopted my son and we did a post adoption home visit, it was all of half an hour and that was a lot of our social worker admiring our son - but a pet is not a child. There are plenty of unwanted animals out there you can adopt on your terms.
IANA Cat Person, but I can help you see her perspective.
When we adopted out dogs we always dropped them off, helped them acclimatise, and then checked on them once after 2-3 days, and again in a couple of weeks. If all was hunky-dory then we walked away feeling confident we’d done right by the puppy.
After one two week visit found the puppy dead in the back yard (tied to a stake, no food or water around, dead for mroe than a day) we did stealth drive bys for the next litter, then just stopped raising puppies altogether.
It’s very traumatic when you find that one has not been well cared for (Yes, the police were involved, no the guy didn’t suffer as much as he should have done,) and I’m betting this woman is in the same boat. Once you’ve seen what human nature can sink to, you can’t unsee it.
Let her come by, and let the organization know what’s happening. She may need a break, or even to transition to an administrative post within the charity.
Yes, I can definitely understand how that would be a horrible thing to discover. I also can imagine that this woman is just trying to show concern for the cat.
Still, I do think that some “rescue people” go overboard with their expectations and demands of adopters. My experiences with humane societies have been much better than my experiences with foster home based rescue groups honestly, to the point that I have pretty much decided that I will only try to adopt from a humane society or animal control.
For example, one local dog rescue organization (just a few minutes away but in another county) made it known that they refused to adopt to anyone from my county because of some incidents where animals from their rescue had apparently wound up at my county’s animal control and been put to sleep without any attempts to get the animal back to the rescue. While I don’t doubt they mean well, I think that sort of thing is an example of how rescue groups can become so overly zealous about making sure that nothing bad ever happens again to any of their animals that they alienate a lot of people who would provide a decent home.
Even if you think the person adopting the pet right now is “the perfect home” for the pet after a post-placement visit, you just don’t know if 10 years from now they’ll abandon their animal at the local pound because they’re tired of it. So what can you do, keep checking on the animal through its whole life? I think it’s best to try to screen people as well as you can before the animal gets placed and then once the animal is in their home accept that the animal has become their new owner’s responsibility.
I believe that the vast majority of people who seek out an animal at a rescue organization have good intentions since it usually means that they have made a conscious choice not to buy a cute baby from a breeder or pet store. What advantage is there for someone who doesn’t care about animals to adopt from a rescue rather than getting a “free to good home” animal from craigslist or the newspaper?
This has been my experience as well. When I have adopted a cat from a foster home-based organization, it always wanted to do a follow-up. But when I have adopted a cat from a humane society, it never did. The difference, I think, is that the foster organization does not vet (pun fully intended) adopters as thoroughly as the humane societies do.
I did get a chuckle out of one clause in the paperwork I filled out when we adopted a cat from the humane society–the clause indicated my promise not to eat the cat!