Cat Rehoming Process

We are often asked to go through the process of rehoming a cat with owners who are considering using our services to find a home for their pet or pets. The following outline the step by step process we follow.

 

We are a cat rehoming service, so unlike a rescue or shelter, your cats stay with you until a good home is selected – and you get to make the decision about with whom your cats are placed.

We start by creating a very compelling adoption story and adoption video for your cats, and then place ads on all popular pet classifieds, create paid social media campaigns and paid video marketing campaigns that specifically target cat lovers in your area and the surrounding areas.

We sometimes hear from people in locations farther away, and it is up to you whether you want to consider these applicants. We find it is best to consider each applicant based on the merits of the quality of the home they can provide. Sometimes a home that is farther away is actually a better choice. We will guide you in making a choice, if desired.

In your cats’ advertising, you remain anonymous. All calls and inquiries are directed to us, and will be handled by our staff. We will pre-screen potential adopters before sending anyone your way. We endeavor to provide you with a short list of the best qualified potential adopters, to make the process easier for you. We know how emotionally difficult rehoming your beloved pets is for you, and want to spare you the trauma of having to deal with people who are unsuitable.

Once we have a potential adopter that we feel would be a good choice, we will direct them to fill out our online meeting request form (https://pet-net.net.net/adopt-a-pet/)

Once received, the application is screened, and we check their references. In the US, we are able to do a background check to ensure that there is no criminal record or history of animal abuse or neglect.

In Canada, we cannot perform a background check as we can in the US, but we try to be very thorough in searching for information about candidates. We also do our best to perform a background check by searching through social media accounts and 6 pages deep on Google.

Once they have passed our scrutiny, we will send you the prescreened applicants’ application form, and ask that you reach out to them to arrange a meet up. We recommend that with cats, the meet-up take place at your home. This is because cats tend to become very skittish when removed from their familiar surroundings. You want the potential adopter to see their behaviour as close to normal as possible, so their familiar environment is usually best to accomplish this.

The meeting is a chance to determine whether you feel comfortable with placing your cats with the potential adopter, and also for the potential adopter to meet your cats and determine for certain that they wish to adopt.

If both parties are keen on proceeding with an adoption, we will ask the adopter to complete our online adoption agreement, and pay a small adoption processing fee (which provides us with the ability to offer our rehoming guarantee and follow up services).

Once the adoption agreement is signed, you can go ahead and place your cats with the new owners. We recommend that you bring the cats to their new home, and spend a little time helping them to adjust to their new surroundings. (Many cats will just hide, unfortunately, and it can take several days for them to start to feel safe and comfortable in their new home. It is just the nature of cats, so we want to ensure that the new owners understand this behaviour, so that they will allow the cats the time and space they need to warm up to them.)

When you bring the cats to their new home, you have the opportunity to do a home check and just make sure that the home is cat-friendly. You want to make sure the front door does not open up to a busy street, that the home is relatively clean and tidy, and that there are not people or pets in the home that were not mentioned in the application.

Once you have placed your cats in the care of their new owners, just let us know, so that we can schedule follow-up calls with the new owner. Our staff will keep in touch with the new owners for the first year to ensure their well-being and whereabouts. We also offer advice and support, particularly if the new owners are new to cat ownership.

Our Cat Rehoming Guarantee

We guarantee your cats’ placement. If for any reason within the first year, the new owners are unable to continue to provide a home to your cats, we will rehome them once again at no cost to you. We expect the new owners to keep the cats safe, happy and healthy until a suitable new home can be located. (This is something that they agree to in our Adoption Agreement).

How Long Does Rehoming a Cat Usually Take?

As for the average time frame, in many instances. we are able to place cats within a week to a month. This is not always the case, and in major centers such as Los Angeles, Houston and San Francisco, finding a good home for cats can take longer. We feel this is because larger centers have a very large number of cats and kittens in shelters and rescues competing for homes. We do our very best to help your cat shine through our adoption story and video, to attract potential adopters and tug at their heart strings.

Your cat’s breed, appearance, personality, behavior, hair length, color, age and health status will affect the time frame. Purebred or purebred mix cats are always easier to rehome than domestic cats. Long hair cats generally find homes faster than domestic shorthair cats. Younger cats and kittens find homes sooner than older cats. Black cats are often difficult to rehome due to silly superstition among many potential adopters.

When we are trying to rehome a pair or trio of cats, this usually extends the rehoming time frame. We will diligently search for a good home with the intent of finding the best home as soon as possible. We do, however, want to make sure that we choose carefully to ensure that there is the best chance of this being their forever home.

Refund Policy

We do have a partial refund policy. If, after 60 days, we have not been able to successfully find the right home for your cats, you are entitled to a 50% refund of the fees paid (less any transaction fees that we have been charged). It is unlikely that the rehoming project will take that long, but we offer this guarantee to be fair to our clients.

You also would have the option of having us continue to search and advertise past the 60 day mark, for as long as it takes, but at that point we would withdraw the 60 day refund offer since we would incur ongoing advertising expenses on behalf of your cats.