Mary Allen
The decision to take a cat into your home should be valid for a long cat’s life and make people and animals happy. But how do you choose the right cat? With enough time for important considerations.
As soon as someone expresses the desire to share their life with a cat, they are bombarded with suggestions and offers from all sides. Because there is no shortage of animals looking for a new home. Whether in an animal shelter, from private owners, or from breeders – there are animals of all ages, races, and coat colors. That makes the choice a pain.
Because everyone is enchanting, and with so many pleading looks from blue or golden eyes, the two-legged friend tends to throw all reason overboard and only let the heart speak. But while kittens are cute, they’re rowdiest with a lot of space, and they love to redecorate the home. And those who like things to be quiet and contemplative in their lives may not be so well served with very “talkative races”.
Practical First
Tests on the Internet that ask about human preferences in cats promise help in choosing the right cat: Size? length of fur? Weight? As answers, the tests then present the person seeking advice with a selection of races – but different each time.
There’s no getting around it: First of all, it’s important to be clear about your own lifestyle, your own wishes, and expectations. First of all, this has absolutely nothing to do with race or appearance, but rather with practical considerations. Does the animal have to be alone during the day? And how? Can the future cat owner also imagine taking in two animals at the same time so that the cats don’t get bored during longer periods of absence? Is an apartment available with a balcony or a house? Does the living situation allow for freedom? Can and may a cat flap be installed? All of these questions should be clarified first.
Then it’s time to think about what age the new roommate should be. Young cats need a lot of activity, a lot of attention, space to romp and play and they want to explore the world. One of the other can break. An adult cat, on the other hand, is no longer as lively and a senior cat needs much less space but is all the happier about calm attention.
Only when these framework conditions have been clarified should the question of breed be addressed. Does it even have to be a pedigree cat? Or doesn’t one of the countless cats in the animal shelters deserve a chance? There, too, there are often cats whose ancestors belonged to a breed and who still have a corresponding eye color or length of fur. If that doesn’t matter to you, you can of course find a friend for life in every gray tiger or black and white “cow cat”.
Enough Time to Get to Know Each Other
It is important to find out as much as possible about the history and to ask whether the chosen kitty gets along with other cats or whether she is anxious and skittish. But be careful: An animal’s behavior in an animal shelter can be very different from that in its home territory. So it does not hurt to visit the chosen one several times and to observe them in certain situations. How does she react to strangers? For loud noises? Does she come on her own and want attention? Or is she sitting distraught in a corner? For someone who values uncomplicated and quick contact, such a cat may not be the right one, because it takes a lot of time and patience to take an animal’s far away.
The same applies to cats from private donations: How is the habitat designed and how many animals live there? How do they approach people and how do they react to the unknown? That says a lot about the behavior in the new home. The same applies here: It’s better to visit once more and not make a decision in a hurry.
If it’s going to be a pedigree cat from a breeder, looks are something most people pay attention to. The behaviors attributed to certain races are much more important.