Since we are now a Home in Need of a Cat, I’ve been exploring the many ways in which acquiring a cat has changed since I adopted Peri Peri from the RSPCA… sixteen years ago. Now, I’m a shelter cat kind of person. The house I grew up in was close to a ‘green belt’ area (where development is restricted to small farms and/or future highways may be built). People used to drive out from the city until they saw what looked like ‘country’ and dump the grown up kittens they’d got their kids for Christmas. Seriously. You knew that was the reason, because it always happened around the same time of year.

These cats would make their way into the local back yards and the lucky ones were taken in by the people living there. I liked that we were always adopted by cats, rather than the other way around. But since moving out of home I’ve lived in more built up areas, so there’ll less chance of that happening.

A cat shelter recommendation led to us finding PetRescue. Now you can browse for a suitable cat from the comfort of home. This is both good and bad. Suddenly there are a LOT of cats to choose from, and I want to take them all home. But at least there’s less chance I actually will take them all home, which would be the danger if I went to a shelter with no specific cat to consider.

Most of the ‘ads’ have little description. There’s the usual age/coat/colouring info and a description that usually tells you something like “likes cuddles but is also independent” (in other words, it’s a cat) but not much more. But one cat had a lovely long description with a comment from the foster carer that made this seem like the perfect cat. Almost too perfect, though. The saying “if it’s too good to be true, it probably is” did go through my mind.

I sent an email enquiry anyway and a few days later got a reply that someone else was looking at the cat but in case that falls though would I fill out a form. Boy, do they want a lot of info these days. I haven’t heard anything back. It’s early days, but I have to admit I’ve started to think about the information they asked for and feel a bit twitchy. I mean… driver’s licence number? Surely this isn’t some scam to steal your identity or something… naaaah… It’s not like they wanted my date of birth or visa card number.

The small but not very strong suspicion I do have is that the ad is a fake, designed to contain search terms to draw visitors to the site, and the cat doesn’t actually exist. Which would be annoying, because there’s another cat on a different shelter site I’d like to investigate. But I want to get an answer for the first one before I do, because if that cat is real it would be a pity if we missed out on adopting her out of impatience.

I never thought finding a new cat would be so complicated!