Should I adopt an older cat or young kitten? Help!?

Alexa,

First of all, thank you for adopting an adult cat with hearing issues. Many people would walk right past that cage, wanting a "perfect" cat. As far as I am concerned all cats are "perfect" and all cats, with the right person can blossom into a magnficent pet, as long as the adopter is willing to be patient and has lots of compassion for what a cat might have gone through earlier in its life. Many of them have had very difficult backgrounds and have lost trust.

I think you should listen to your heart. While it can be more of a challenge to bring another strange adult cat to your resident cat, and make folks somewhat anxious, with patience and prudend introductions, an older cat can be a joy for the resident, and for the owner. I think you are leaning toward an older cat, from what I am reading.

Here is a link to an excellent article about introducing a cat to a resident cat. While many people feel that kittens are easier to bring into a home, from my experience with two older cats, bringing a kitten into the home, with "proper catiquette" introductions can be just as stressful for the resident.

http://www.fourpaws.org/pages/adopting_pages/intro...

Pam Johnson Bennett, a noted feline behavior specialist, who has written several books about cats and their care- and behavior problems, wrote a fantastic article about introducing a new adult cat to a resident cat. I think that this article will help you a lot in making up your mind. If you follow her instructions carefully, I think you will have far fewer problems than you may be anticipating.

http://shine.yahoo.com/event/pets/dont-be-afraid-t...

I do hope this helps, and do follow your heart. Just about everyone wants a bouncing baby kitten ( which can make even the most avid cat lover's hair turn grey from time to time) and adult cats linger in shelters, being passed off in preference to a younger, more "adorable" kitty.

While I understand your desire to experience a kitten of your own, they can be a handful. I adore kittens but my two older cats are the greatest joy in my life. And at times they even revert to kittenish behavior which is delightful. A companion for your resident cat, once he or she is accepted, will be a true companion for your kitty.

Troublesniffer

Owned by cats for over 40 years

Member: Cat Writer's Association

you should stop and think which im sure you already did and say kittens are cute everyine loves them and those adult cats need a home to so i believe you should go with the adult cat but i also believe you should follow your heart either way you should introduce them the proper wayi just got a new kitten a few months ago. You should keep the new cat in a separate room ,away from the other cat.This puts no pressure on the new cat .By now i think you and the new cat are okay so make sure you give both cats enough attention,food,and water each day.With in the week if you open the door to the new cats safe haven once or twice a day to meet up with the other cat to get used to it, the cats with soon stop wasting their time fighting and will get use to each other.When you see everything working smoothly let the other cat out and move all the stuff out of the safe haven onto where the other cats food is

Is your current cat nervous, or does she like to lie around and be cuddled with? You need to consider that a kitten is going to want to PLAY ALL THE TIME, and this might stress out your cat....especially, since she wouldn't be able to ALWAYS know when she was about to be "pounced" on.

Also, consider that female cats SOMETIMES do not like to share their space ( and people ) with other female cats! There's a territorial issue, and the 1st cat is the Alpha.....which other females will challenge.

So.......MY ADVICE would be.......find a NEUTERED MALE, about 2-3 years old, and adopt him. If you can, find one that resembles your cat in looks and personality. Some animals don't like others who look TOO DIFFERENT..... :-) They're like some people, in that way!

The chances of an adult male being adopted is lower than any of the kittens, so why not wait awhile to get a kitten. There will ALWAYS be kittens to adopt, since so many people let their cats have "accidental" litters, and then DUMP them......

Hope you think long and hard about what's best for your "partially deaf" cat. Good luck.

You should adopt an older pet because there are older cats that have been in the shelter for almost their whole life. The kittens get adopted really fast. The older cats don't get adopted too often. I am going to volunteer at the SPCA this summer. When i visited it last time. There were all of these older cats that i just wanted to adopt. But i already have 8 cats and my brother will go nuts if i take another cat in my house. I hope you make the right choice.

Chances are if you are getting a kitten that is already fixed and ready to go, it isn't that much of a cute kitten anymore. Most cats are fixed at 6 months and they are usually pretty big by then. Unless it is a male (which according to my vet can be fixed at 3 months), if they fixed that female kitten before 6 months then I wouldn't be getting my pet from there.

I got all my kittens at 4-5 weeks old from the newspaper or just from friends and it was a handful. Since mine were young they had to learn not to bite when playing. I have a 7 month old kitten right now who is still crazy. lol.

Kittens are WONDERFUL and adorable and so much fun

but adult cats are awesome because they are exactly what people love about cats: calm and lazy. lol.

We just adopted a long haired kitty who was a year and half old when we got her (about to be a 2 soon). She is the oldest of all our cats and she is awesome. She rarely jumps all over things, she doesn't knock stuff over, she doesn't try to steal food off counters, ect.

She isn't very old so I am guessing that might just be her personality, but two of our other cats are hitting a year and half now and are calming down just like her. So idk.

Get whatever you think you can handle.

You also have an adult cat to think about who is deal.

Each time I brought home a new kitten the older cats would be pissed... It would take a couple months for them to stop hissing.

Your dear deaf kitty might not appreciate a kitten jumping on him/her all the time either and believe me, that kitten WILL jump on your cat. lol.

Good luck =]

Depending on how old your adult cat is, depends on how well a kitten might get along. But some cats don't mind any other cats. To be honest, I would suggest that you adopt an older cat. All of those kittens are all screaming for love, which they rightfully deserve, but at the same time, so are the older ones. At my shelter, not one kitten has ever lived there for very long. They all get adopted and quickly. None has ever lived to be an adult, as far as I know. There are adult cats that have been there for years. Keep us posted!

It doesn't really matter how old the cat is, but what I think is that you should adopt a cat in need, it's good that you adopted a partially deaf cat that probably unwanted. People will eventually go for the cute and pretty cats so you should go for the needy ones. It's fun to raise a kitten, so if you can, find a disabled one.

That is really up to you. Kittens are a lot of work and need lots of attention. Adult cats tend to be trained already and more independent. On the scale though kittens get adopted out faster while older cats tend to be passed over and put to sleep if homes can't be found for them.

From personal experience, older cats are more accepting of younger kittens. My older male totally gets along with kittens under 6 months but as soon as they begin reaching that point (they're usually adopted out by then so its rare) he starts to stalk them and is mean to them.

I've taken in a couple adult male strays (one at a time) and he had a very hard time with them. They were constantly growling at each other, trying to eat the other's food, etc. There was one fight where my husband and daughter both were bitten because he was being too nosey and the other cat had enough. They got bit because they were trying to keep them apart but the cats just went psycho. They know better not to do that now. We have a ton of squirt bottles all over the house now!

They are finally chiling out around each other but it's taken over 2 months with this latest stray. He's only about a year old, where my older cat is 16.

But then again, besides the occasional play battle, my 12 yr old female and the new guy get along fine. He just always wants to lick her and pounce on her, and then she's had enough. But there's been no stalking between the two of them. And she didnt particularly like kittens.

If your cat is pretty mellow she'll more than likely be receptive to a cat of any age. Ask the shelter volunteers which cats came from multicat households. They would be less likely to try to establish dominance having been in a group setting before. They may even defer to her since her scent will be all over everything already.

If she likes to play, a kitten might not be a bad idea. Kittens, even though playful, will listen to an adult cat when they scold them (hold them down until they stop squirming, etc.) They'd also be less likely to try to assert dominance over her.

But most shelters will take the cat back if it doesn't work out so don't think you'll be stuck with whatever you decide on. Some personalities just don't mesh, and they understand that.

On a good note, I adopted out an adult male cat about 3 years old to a lady that had a 2 year old female. They hit it off famously and after about 2 days were napping together. So it DOES happen! Good luck and thanks for saving a life!

"AN older cat is not good because u cannot pet it well than the kittens older cats will die fast because their OLD!!" WTF?? This must be a 10-12 year old.

Adult shelter cats don't "die fast". If you keep a cat indoors and take good care of it it can live 15-20 years.

Definitely pick the ADULT cat over the kitten.

First off, you have an adult cat now that's deaf that would be SERIOUSLY stressed out by a rambunctious young kitten. The person saying "Older cats sometimes don't get along well with other cats " couldn't be farther from the truth. They've clearly never adopted an adult cat before. I have - three of them - and they all very quickly bonded to eachother and I've had zero issues.

Secondly, with kittens you never know what they'll be like as adults. With adults - the personality is right there before you.

Thirdly, you could be saving a life. If this is a kill shelter adult cats are always euthanized before kittens.

Fourthly, that's BS that adult cats don't play. I have three cats that were adopted as adults between 2 1/2 - 4 years old and they're the playful animals I've ever known. They're also the sweetest and most loving cats I've ever known. The one standoffish cat in my home? The one I found as an abandoned kitten and have had 12 years! I've also been the one to match people to shelter cats 6, 10, 12 years old and I haven't anything but happy endings from them later when I email them to see how the cat's doing.

My adult shelter cats

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ojA11MUJRo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-KOqD9YPbU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGIh5lq2nXA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcjXIGavT-I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSVxSNoAnAw

edit: in over 20 years of volunteering with shelters I've never heard of a single shelter that allows you to bring in your existing cat to their "get acquainted room". That is for DOGS. Cats are very territorial and should never just be thrust together. If shelters did allow people to bring in their cats then a lot of cats would end up NOT adopted because one or both cats would immediately react by hissing at the other. That's why when you bring a new cat home you need to keep it separated at first and slowwwwly introduce them.