Animal Welfare Professionals

We have 2 adult cats who came to our shelter over 2 years ago as feral kittens.  The volunteers  have worked to try to get them adoptable. (Since they are still here, obviously it isn't working).  We've taken them from the shelter and placed them in one of the cat habitats at a local pet store.  

Initially, they were adopted by an adopter who understood they are shy, still like to hide, will tolerate petting, but don't even think about picking them up.  Needless to say, after 2 weeks, she tried to get them into carriers to visit the vet.  Hannah came unglued and attacked her tooth and claw.  She would have been willing to keep Lilly and continue to work with her, but our feline volunteers insist they must be kept together.

Now, I feel we are doing a real disservice to Lilly by attaching her adoption chances to Hannah.  Keeping them in a kennel long term is also a disservice to them.

They have been fostered 3 times and adopted once in the past two years, always with the same outcome.  The two weeks the adopter had them was their longest period of time out of the shelter.  They have become institutionalized.

We have a goal now of 100 days or less in the system. They have overstayed their welcome according to our shelter manager (she is very compassionate, but these two are tying up and using resources that could benefit other cats).

Has anyone else had this type of problem?  How did you handle it?  How long did your problem children stay?  What was the final outcome?  

In other words HELP US

Hello Sandi, 

At our shelter we periodically run into situations very similar to your. Rather it be young feral cats or adults that aren't the friendliest. In my experience one huge help is promoting a "barn cat" idea, where a cat has the freedom it so badly wants, yet still has the comfort and shelter of a barn or similar structure and receives the care it needs. I'm sure to some it may seem unfair or inhumane, but being a barn cat is much better than spending a chunk of it's life in a shelter taking up space and resources. One specific, we had a litter of 7, DLH beautiful cats come from a hoarding situation(roughly 8 months old). All 7 were on the line between feral and friendly. After sterilization they were all placed in the same room that we had dedicated to them called the "Shy Room". I believe 2 got adopted when they were located in there. Staff and volunteers spent time each day with them to get them used to human interaction, it worked for 1 more and then 4 were left. Those 4 went into our general population room where they kind of did their own thing. The two "most feral" cats, peaches and cinnamon were adopted by a volunteer as barn kitties. To this day they are living healthy and happy lives. The last two that were somewhat friendly and would let you pet them, but not pick up went by Bean & Manny and they were adopted together during a free adoption event and have made huge strides since adoption. I could see how it could be helpful by keeping them together, but I also think separation can be helpful as well. Not an expert on the feeling of cats, but I would think the separation may help each cat learn how to interact with humans more and not rely on the companionship of its feline friend. ...not to sound cruel, but like you stated, they have been with you for way longer than a cat should be in a shelter. Best of luck!

I hope this response was helpful. 

Sorry, I forgot to mention the timing. The last two were adopted roughly 6 months after being intaked. 

Hi Sandi,

When I first started in rescue, I used to have the kitties in Pet Smart. We had 3 semi-feral flood kitties: Gretchen, Donovan and Amber. We kept them together in the largest cage so they would feel safe. I noticed that Gretchen wasn't coming out with Doovan and Amber. So we decided to separate them into two cages with Donovan and Amber in the top and Gretchen on the bottom. I would clean both cages at the same time. When we were done cleaning the cages that meant play time. I took Amber & Donovan out and left the cage open for Gretchen to join us. It took some time but she eventually caught on that if she wanted attention she had to come and get it. I also gave her alone time. I would open the cage and let her come out. She could explore the adoption center and meet the other cats.

What helped get them adopted was a reporter happened to be in Pet Smart and was looking at their cage card. I told their brief story of how they were caught in the flood and a good Samaritan helped feed them.  The reporter did  a story on them and the applications came in. A lot of people thought that we should have adopted all 3 of them out together. That's a lot to ask of an adopter. We did adopt Amber & Donovan out together. Gretchen found a home of her own.  

Another case we had was when 2 cats bonded while in the adoption center. It was unusual but Katy & Inky were determined to stay together. I was adamant about keeping them together. When I would walk Inky on a leash around the store you could just see how upset Katy got. I tried walking her on the leash and she wouldn't have it. Here again, people would say "But Katy likes me!".  Katy likes everyone but it doesn't mean that she would have been happier being alone. 

In both cases it took over 6 months to get them adopted out. In our area, adoptions can be a very seasonal thing. Lots of people go on vacation during the summer and don't want an animal until after they come back. 

My point is you have to trust your instinct on this.  At this stage I would try separating them and see what happens. I always valued what our volunteers had to say about our cats. However, sometimes you just have to try something new. You have nothing to lose. This might be exactly what Hannah needs. It will take a very special adopter to work with her. She might need long-term one on one foster care. Is there a foster that is willing to work just with her? Don't give up on her. It will be worth it. Replace the word problem with the word challenge. It changes the perspective.

Best of luck,

Cindy 

Have you considered splitting them up in two separate foster homes to see how they would handle it? We had a set of  kittens who were like that and we kept them together in one foster home for over 6 months and we were very reluctant to split them up. I then talked to the wonderful director at Cat Depot. Her advice was to split them up and send them each to a new foster home for 3 weeks.  Then  you switch them to new foster homes 2 more times, each stay for 3 weeks (the cats always remain separate). Her advice was that if they didn't come around after 9 weeks then we might want to consider a barn placement. She also told me the worse thing you could do was to do nothing.

So we moved the kittens (by this time young adult cats) each to a new foster home. One of the foster families did clicker training with baby food. Nothing fancy, just getting the kitten to come to him. Within 2 weeks the more outgoing cat was friendly, relaxed and totally chill. Needless to say he was adopted right away. His brother was a bit harder as he was the shyer cat but we were able to work with him and and  he was successfully adopted.