Hello feline-loving community! I need some sound advice. I just came back from meeting a 5-month old kitten I am considering adopting from a local rescue. He has a few health conditions (chronic cat cold, ocular infections, juvenile gingivitis, and soft stool) and a requirement to be adopted out as the only cat. The main health issue that causes this requirement is a chronic "cat cold" viral condition affecting his respiratory and ocular system. The respiratory can be life threatening if it ever gets worse, so he can't be exposed to other cats for his health's sake and vice versa - he can be contagious to them. At least that's what I've been told.
I am very torn. At 5 months, he is too young to be adopted alone. Yet, he has been living there alone for 6 weeks already. There's a lot of people passing through that rescue, looking at cats, so he's very "enriched" in terms of human exposure I suppose. But this is not real play or real interaction one-on-one. He gets some dedicated play time with volunteers but only 10-15 min/day. That's it! The critical period for enrichment and learning from other cats is almost gone - I believe it is the first 4-6 months of life, which he is spending alone because he is contagious to other cats! He's full of energy, I can see that he needs a lot of exercise and enrichment. And yet, he is gentle, no biting or scratching, which is nice. Not sure where he learned that.
I am a working adult and like to go to the office few times a week (though I can work from home 4 days a week if I want). And I know there are people out there who work full time and still adopt kittens and everything is fine. I'm just worried. Just because I can give him more than he's getting right now, it will still not be enough, not even close to what it should be. I, or any other human really, can't provide what another cat/kitten would provide in terms of socialization. However, perhaps a family with small kids would be better suited for his socialization and development given that he has to be the only cat? I am a one person household, with occasional visitors (no kids though). So, I don't know what the right thing to do is. Towards the end of my visit, he got very cuddly and sleepy, it was very hard to leave him.
I'm trying to make a logical (not emotional) decision. I think that a family with young children may be the best environment for him to grow up in. Except, I have no control over who adopts him if I don't. What are your thoughts on this situation?
I am very torn. At 5 months, he is too young to be adopted alone. Yet, he has been living there alone for 6 weeks already. There's a lot of people passing through that rescue, looking at cats, so he's very "enriched" in terms of human exposure I suppose. But this is not real play or real interaction one-on-one. He gets some dedicated play time with volunteers but only 10-15 min/day. That's it! The critical period for enrichment and learning from other cats is almost gone - I believe it is the first 4-6 months of life, which he is spending alone because he is contagious to other cats! He's full of energy, I can see that he needs a lot of exercise and enrichment. And yet, he is gentle, no biting or scratching, which is nice. Not sure where he learned that.
I am a working adult and like to go to the office few times a week (though I can work from home 4 days a week if I want). And I know there are people out there who work full time and still adopt kittens and everything is fine. I'm just worried. Just because I can give him more than he's getting right now, it will still not be enough, not even close to what it should be. I, or any other human really, can't provide what another cat/kitten would provide in terms of socialization. However, perhaps a family with small kids would be better suited for his socialization and development given that he has to be the only cat? I am a one person household, with occasional visitors (no kids though). So, I don't know what the right thing to do is. Towards the end of my visit, he got very cuddly and sleepy, it was very hard to leave him.
I'm trying to make a logical (not emotional) decision. I think that a family with young children may be the best environment for him to grow up in. Except, I have no control over who adopts him if I don't. What are your thoughts on this situation?
