Cat Rescue Vounteering

[timber-]

I was thinking about potentially helping out a local cat rescue in the future. I may be thinking in dog ownership mode, but do cats benefit from being socialized with other cats? I thought that it may be a good way to expose my two to meeting new cats in case more ever show up on my property that may need help, plus helping out a rescue as the bonus.

Thoughts?

[angieh]

Nice thought timber- but I do think you've got your dog head on! Maybe I'm generalising, but cats tend not to like other cats and feel threatened by them. There are others here who have happy multi-cat households so that can't be the whole picture and I've witnessed large feral groups of cats that seem to live together. I don't know why some cats bond and others don't. My Kizzy and Pip generally get on well but have the odd spat; my previous cats Merlin and Smudge lived in a state of armed neutrality and avoided each other if at all possible. I will be interested to see what others think.

[fecto's mum]

Do you mean to foster cats Timber? Personally I would get too attached, we have sort of fostered cats in the past saying 'we'll just keep it until they have room'. We ended up with 12 cats!! It's very difficult to say whether cats get on or not. All the boys have accepted Huggins but Swirl tends to bully Inky and Barnes can be a bit of a bully if not watched. I think there is a lot of luck involved. We have always had a multi cat household and never really had trouble.

[Shelley123]

i think it's a great idea to help out at the shelter Timber, go for it.
As for socialising your Cats, personally i don't think it's neccesary, as has been said i think it's hit and miss as to whether cats get on so unless you were bringing another cat into your household i wouldn't bother on that score.

[Velvet]

Agree with the others & Shelley says it well

Cats can take weeks if not months or longer to accept new cats or kittens. It can be quite stressful for them.

You could try Fostering for your local Shelter but bear in mind you will need an isolation room as most strays have unknown backgrounds in shelters & can be carrying all sorts of health issues. Just because yours are vaccinated doesnt mean theyre protected as we found out last year when we brought in a kitten with cat flu. One of our young adults ended up being hospitalised on a drip for three days. So it all needs careful thoughts & planning. Animal Fosters are very Special People x

[timber-]

Thank you all for the insight. Maybe i'll wait until I buy a more suitable home where it could be done easier.

[Kim]

Volunteering at a local rescue is a great thing to do. I did it for 7 years.

I agree that cats don't need to be socialised and in my experience they would be quite happy to live as solitary pets. I have had numerous cats over the years and only two bonded, the rest merely tolerated each other! Dogs are very different though.

[timber-]

I'll probably consider fostering more when I get a better house with extra rooms to use as cat foster rooms. I just needed to get some insight from cat-savvy folks. In the meantime I let a local rescue know that I am interested in helping them with fundraisers.