What do you prefer? Buying cats or adopting them?

When you want to have a new cat in your house, what do you do? Do you go to a pet shop and buy one? Or do you prefer going to some place or shelter where they keep cats which have been previously abandoned?

I always prefer adopting cats to buying them in a shop. And no, the reason is not money, the reason is because I feel that I help cats much more if I adopt them than if I buy them. Let me explain myself. Cats that are in a shop have food, water and have most chances to find an owner than a cat that has been abandoned.

 

I always adopt, but not really from shelters. I adopt strays that come through my neighborhood. I would buy from a shelter because the funds go right into helping strays and upkeep. If you do want to buy a cat, don't go to a store or a kitty mill.

 

I have always taken in strays but my next cat is going to be adopted because when you adopt a cat from my local Humane Society, they are already spayed/neutered and have all their shots. You can also get low cost microchipping. And they also have BOGO offers where if you adopt one cat, the second cat is 50% off, so that encourages people to add 2 cats to their family that can keep each other company.

 

Definitely adopted. I would never buy a cat.

Generally our cats find us, though. Either they're strays that adopt us instead or they come from friends who can't keep them, etc.

 

I will always try and adopt any animal that I can. Haha like Jessi says, the cats usually find you though. A friend moving away is the usual situation that we have experienced in our house share.

 

When my fiancee was looking for a cat nearly a decade ago, the first thing she did was go to an animal shelter. There are just way too many cats in these shelters that need home so it's better to adopt. Years later, my lady found another cat that needed a home badly. I've written extensively on animal shelters and have always promoted adoption over purchasing.

 

That is a tough choice. The cat in my avatar is Tabitha. She was neglected and abused for the first eight years of her life. She was then put into a shelter where she stayed for six months until we picked her up. If you get a shelter animal, you may be getting an emotionally damaged animal. That being said, I would rather get a shelter animal, because I want to rescue them from being put down. I absolutely cannot stand the thought of adoptable animals getting put down although I know it happens all the time.

 

I have never bought a cat but I have never adopted from a shelter either. There always seems to be someone needing a new home for their cat or kitten. I have always gotten mine from neighbors, friends, and once from Craigslist. Because of that, I have never felt the need to go to a shelter- not that I am opposed to it.

 

I would adopt from a shelter. Actually I occasionally volunteer at one and see all the different cats they have there. There are quite a few that were housebroken and well adjusted but the owner had to give them up. They're already fixed, they're not wild, and they're good with people. Also, many of these shelters get overcrowded with cats, and if they've reached their limit your adopting of one from the shelter leaves another spot open for another stray to get adopted there - so you're saving two cats lives in essence.

 

I've only ever adopted from a no-kill shelter. It wasn't really a shelter shelter; the volunteers housed and fed these cats themselves and most were vet assistance, taking care of medical things off the books (but safely).

 

Our cats have always been strays who have stumbled into our lives. Because we live in a major city, there is no shortage of strays and all four cats we have owned have been nothing but loving and seemingly grateful to have a safe, secure home. If we ever found ourselves wanting another cat and there were no strays, we would definitely go to the Humane Society and get a shelter cat. I would never dream of giving my money to a pet store that buys from a breeder. There are too many animals out there who need homes, and too many irresponsible pet owners who allow their female cats to become pregnant.
My good friend lost her cat and dog in the same year, and just recently adopted a pair of 5-year-old cats who are brothers from her local shelter. These are the kinds of cats who are hard to place and they now have a loving home.

 

It's really sweet that your friend adopted cats that were brothers. When I do look for an additional cat, I'm definitely open to adopting cats that are related so that they can stay together.

 

I prefer to adopt/take in strays. I've 'rescued' a cat from a petstore before, although I know they just get replaced. The cat in question as a very tiny kitten, laying facedown in some sawdust. I walked right up to the owner and said I'd be taking it. She told me it would probably die, to which my response was, yeah, but at least it will die with someone who showed it some love before it went. She didn't say anything, but she still took my money. Said cat didn't die at all, she lived a long and healthy life, because I took her home, fed and nursed her gently, and got some stuff from the vets to help her heal.

 

I got my guys off Kijiji/craigslist I think you can save a cat from even going to a shelter by getting them off a site like this. I love my two so much, I cannot believe we got them for free, they are absolutely perfect.

 

I breed Siamese and Orientals and have spent a lot of money on buying my Breeding Queens from other Breeders, but aswell as breeding I have taken on cats in need, some came to us when their owners died, some when their owners became too ill to care for them, others just weren't wanted, then we had some whose owners lost their home and business and they were left in a rescue centre.
Although we breed we will always have a place in our hearts and in our home for a rescue cat or a cat in need too.I haven't seen cats been sold in pet shops for quite a few years in the UK, not sure if they are still sold in them or not.

 

That's where I got my cat Bunny from, a local shelter, and she'd already been spayed and microchipped. They didn't have any "specials" at the time I adopted her but that's one of the reasons I recently adopted a kitten in order to keep Bunny company. The kitten I just adopted didn't come from a shelter though and hasn't had his shots or been neutered yet, he was rescued from a feral litter of kittens when he was only a few weeks old. I personally prefer to adopt kittens than buy them from a breeder or a pet store.