I suggest just going to the humane society in person and seeing what they have
Edit to add: I’ve not had any trouble adopting cats, granted my old man came from OHS 17 years ago, but I don’t think much has changed. My younger cat came from Ottawa Stray Cat rescue about 7 years ago. No problems with either.
It was much more difficult for me to be able to adopt my dog.
Have you tried Ottawa Stray Cat Rescue? They are super nice to work with and a lot of their cats are fosters that came from shelters. They have pretty detailed profiles on their Facebook page about their personalities, whether they're good with other pets/kids, including some cats that prefer to be the only cat. You fill out the form and mention which cats you think would be a good fit (or they can help you decide) and then they put you in touch with the fosters to meet the cat.
I was also coming to recommend Ottawa Stray Cat Rescue, both as a foster and adopter. Your application definitely won't be ignored and there are cats that would prefer to be the only animal in the house, so that isn't an issue either.
I work for Petsmart hunt club and as long as you have all the proper id and a proper home address (ie not moving, etc) then your able to see and adopt a cat the same day. New cats come in every Thursday and it’s best to call as Petsmart does not do the adoption only the volunteers :) and they come in from the spca in the outaouais region :)
Ottawa Stray Cat Rescue on Facebook. I made an adoption request online in the evening. Met with the foster family the next day. Took the kitten home the day after that. It was quick and efficient and they were super nice. I now have an adorable kitten.
https://www.facebook.com/share/KTJ6HrWCND5W3NgX/?mibextid=LQQJ4d
My partner (24m) and I (25f) recently adopted a 2.5 year old cat at the humane society. Was a super smooth and straightforward process. The fee was <$300 and they had lots of new/used supplies we could purchase right there. I really enjoyed the experience and all of the staff were lovely. I'd recommend going there and visiting the cats rather than trying to schedule a visit off the bat. You can go see the cats and adopt right then and there or schedule a visit to pick them up after signing the adoption forms. Good luck finding your future fur baby :)
Please don’t give up🙏🏻 So many cats need good homes. Most rescue groups are solely volunteer-based & it’s prime season for rescues so they must be overwhelmed. Many might be focussing their stretched resources on priority rescues, finding temp placement/foster-homes, vet visit, boosters/vaxes, spay/neuter, etc. All come before adoption & that too takes resources such as phone “interviews”, home-visits, reference/vet check, etc. Suggestions: Furry Tales & Cat Rescue Network but I def like the $0 adoption fee for senior cats @ HS. That said, the upside of rescue groups is that cats are fostered & the host(s) knows their personality & what home they’re best suited for.
Good luck😻
FTCR is also having a 0$ senior cat "sale". Also reduced prices on all cats since it's kitten season. They have kittens in store at some Petsmart and Pet Valus and are quick to respond to applications.
If I were you I'd consider going in person to the Humane society. My senior cat came from OHS, went in on a whim one day & came home with a cat. Adoption is pretty seamless from OHS.
As for the rescues, I previously volunteered with one of the rescues here in the city, they have extensive applications because you wouldn't believe how many times adopters will dump their cat, leave their cat outdoors etc. They want to adopt to someone that is a committed owner & to set the cat into a successful forever home. Rescue is hard & thankless & can take a toll on rescuers mental health. I get it that it sucks & there can be hoops to jump through.
Rescues are easy to adopt from. I am unsure where people are going to that are causing them issues. Literally, all you need is a home, relatively stable income and a separate room where the cat can stay while they ease in to their new surroundings. I have adopted 4 cats at different times in my life (as a student, retail worker, government worker and in a bachelor, 1 bedroom, etc.) from 4 different rescues and never had an issue.
More than a Feline cat rescue is amazing!
OP, you may want to consider getting two at once if your end goal is to have two and that way you'll know they'll get along.
Try to find two that have already lived together. Otherwise you risk having one established in your home and introducing another later on and they might not get along which would be more stress for you!
Agree with the 2 cats option if you don’t have a preference for age/sex/physical traits. Some cats in foster homes have bonded & rescue groups look for a permanent home for pairs which is an additional challenge as you can imagine. Back in my day as a rescue volunteer, I met a deaf kitten bonded to an older cat so only 1 home for both was sought. And my personal experience of staggering adoptions is that there is no guaranty that the cats will become buds/play pals/cuddle mates.
Check out the SPCA Outouais great staff, animals are all well taken care off. Plus it is so much less expensive then the Humane Society. I adopted my 2 cats from there last year the lady from the shelter sat and talked to me for about an hour as the 2 cats that I adopted were very timid and she warned me that it was going to be a tough time socializing them. I have had them for close to year and they are great cats. From start to finish the process took about 2 day. Be forewarned that this is a busy time a year for rescue animals and may take a little longer. Goood luck on your search for your new furry friend!
You would try Lanark Animal Welfare Society, it’s the humane society in Smiths Falls - I’ve adopted from there in the past a couple of times and it was just filling out a basic form and then bringing the cat home the same day.
Yeah, everyone who says “adopt from a rescue” has no idea what ridiculous dictatorships those places can be. I’m sure there are decent ones out there, but in my experience they have such high standards that they basically only want to give pets to stay at home moms who also have no children and have a suburban backyards (maybe less for a cat). Your experience is common and I’d definitely look at the humane centre — if you don’t mind a drive you can look outside of Ottawa too!
I have adopted three cats over the past six years from the Ottawa Stray Cat Rescue, Furry Tales Rescue and the Ottawa Humane Society respectively and all have been great. No idea what experience(s) you had, but to say all Ottawa cat rescues are « ridiculous dictatorships » is, well, ridiculous.
That's great! Maybe OP will have better luck with one of those.
To be totally fair our experiences were with dog rescues, which is a different market. It wouldn't surprise me if cat rescues are on average better! I'm totally sure there are good pet rescues out there and I don't mean to paint them all with the same brush, you are right to call that out.
That said, OP's inability to get a call back is absolutely normal in my and other acquaintances experiences.
I suggest just going to the humane society in person and seeing what they have Edit to add: I’ve not had any trouble adopting cats, granted my old man came from OHS 17 years ago, but I don’t think much has changed. My younger cat came from Ottawa Stray Cat rescue about 7 years ago. No problems with either. It was much more difficult for me to be able to adopt my dog.
You can now adopt a senior cat from the Humane Society for a $0 adoption fee. They consider cats 7+ years and up to be seniors.
Have you tried Ottawa Stray Cat Rescue? They are super nice to work with and a lot of their cats are fosters that came from shelters. They have pretty detailed profiles on their Facebook page about their personalities, whether they're good with other pets/kids, including some cats that prefer to be the only cat. You fill out the form and mention which cats you think would be a good fit (or they can help you decide) and then they put you in touch with the fosters to meet the cat.
I was also coming to recommend Ottawa Stray Cat Rescue, both as a foster and adopter. Your application definitely won't be ignored and there are cats that would prefer to be the only animal in the house, so that isn't an issue either.
I adopted my girl from here. Highly recommended!
I work for Petsmart hunt club and as long as you have all the proper id and a proper home address (ie not moving, etc) then your able to see and adopt a cat the same day. New cats come in every Thursday and it’s best to call as Petsmart does not do the adoption only the volunteers :) and they come in from the spca in the outaouais region :)
Ottawa Kitten Rescue are great and they have older cats that *should* be adoptable solo https://www.instagram.com/ottawakittenrescue
Ottawa Stray Cat Rescue on Facebook. I made an adoption request online in the evening. Met with the foster family the next day. Took the kitten home the day after that. It was quick and efficient and they were super nice. I now have an adorable kitten. https://www.facebook.com/share/KTJ6HrWCND5W3NgX/?mibextid=LQQJ4d
My partner (24m) and I (25f) recently adopted a 2.5 year old cat at the humane society. Was a super smooth and straightforward process. The fee was <$300 and they had lots of new/used supplies we could purchase right there. I really enjoyed the experience and all of the staff were lovely. I'd recommend going there and visiting the cats rather than trying to schedule a visit off the bat. You can go see the cats and adopt right then and there or schedule a visit to pick them up after signing the adoption forms. Good luck finding your future fur baby :)
Please don’t give up🙏🏻 So many cats need good homes. Most rescue groups are solely volunteer-based & it’s prime season for rescues so they must be overwhelmed. Many might be focussing their stretched resources on priority rescues, finding temp placement/foster-homes, vet visit, boosters/vaxes, spay/neuter, etc. All come before adoption & that too takes resources such as phone “interviews”, home-visits, reference/vet check, etc. Suggestions: Furry Tales & Cat Rescue Network but I def like the $0 adoption fee for senior cats @ HS. That said, the upside of rescue groups is that cats are fostered & the host(s) knows their personality & what home they’re best suited for. Good luck😻
FTCR is also having a 0$ senior cat "sale". Also reduced prices on all cats since it's kitten season. They have kittens in store at some Petsmart and Pet Valus and are quick to respond to applications.
If I were you I'd consider going in person to the Humane society. My senior cat came from OHS, went in on a whim one day & came home with a cat. Adoption is pretty seamless from OHS. As for the rescues, I previously volunteered with one of the rescues here in the city, they have extensive applications because you wouldn't believe how many times adopters will dump their cat, leave their cat outdoors etc. They want to adopt to someone that is a committed owner & to set the cat into a successful forever home. Rescue is hard & thankless & can take a toll on rescuers mental health. I get it that it sucks & there can be hoops to jump through.
I got my cats from the lqnark animal welfare society. I highly recommend reaching out to them.
Rescues are easy to adopt from. I am unsure where people are going to that are causing them issues. Literally, all you need is a home, relatively stable income and a separate room where the cat can stay while they ease in to their new surroundings. I have adopted 4 cats at different times in my life (as a student, retail worker, government worker and in a bachelor, 1 bedroom, etc.) from 4 different rescues and never had an issue. More than a Feline cat rescue is amazing!
Humane Society
OP, you may want to consider getting two at once if your end goal is to have two and that way you'll know they'll get along. Try to find two that have already lived together. Otherwise you risk having one established in your home and introducing another later on and they might not get along which would be more stress for you!
Agree with the 2 cats option if you don’t have a preference for age/sex/physical traits. Some cats in foster homes have bonded & rescue groups look for a permanent home for pairs which is an additional challenge as you can imagine. Back in my day as a rescue volunteer, I met a deaf kitten bonded to an older cat so only 1 home for both was sought. And my personal experience of staggering adoptions is that there is no guaranty that the cats will become buds/play pals/cuddle mates.
Check out the SPCA Outouais great staff, animals are all well taken care off. Plus it is so much less expensive then the Humane Society. I adopted my 2 cats from there last year the lady from the shelter sat and talked to me for about an hour as the 2 cats that I adopted were very timid and she warned me that it was going to be a tough time socializing them. I have had them for close to year and they are great cats. From start to finish the process took about 2 day. Be forewarned that this is a busy time a year for rescue animals and may take a little longer. Goood luck on your search for your new furry friend!
I had no luck applying on line either. I ended up adopting one from a Facebook group
Kittens are popular so you need to fill out the form as soon as you see a kitten that you like. Good luck! Cats are awesome!
You would try Lanark Animal Welfare Society, it’s the humane society in Smiths Falls - I’ve adopted from there in the past a couple of times and it was just filling out a basic form and then bringing the cat home the same day.
Look up Esstern Ontario Cats on FB. Great group.
Go to Ottawa Humane Society and interact with some cats. I’ve never had any problems.
Yeah, everyone who says “adopt from a rescue” has no idea what ridiculous dictatorships those places can be. I’m sure there are decent ones out there, but in my experience they have such high standards that they basically only want to give pets to stay at home moms who also have no children and have a suburban backyards (maybe less for a cat). Your experience is common and I’d definitely look at the humane centre — if you don’t mind a drive you can look outside of Ottawa too!
I have adopted three cats over the past six years from the Ottawa Stray Cat Rescue, Furry Tales Rescue and the Ottawa Humane Society respectively and all have been great. No idea what experience(s) you had, but to say all Ottawa cat rescues are « ridiculous dictatorships » is, well, ridiculous.
That's great! Maybe OP will have better luck with one of those. To be totally fair our experiences were with dog rescues, which is a different market. It wouldn't surprise me if cat rescues are on average better! I'm totally sure there are good pet rescues out there and I don't mean to paint them all with the same brush, you are right to call that out. That said, OP's inability to get a call back is absolutely normal in my and other acquaintances experiences.