There are literally millions of cats and dogs currently living in shelters across the country (aspca.org). These animals have found themselves abandoned for various reasons…financial concerns, allergies, behavioral issues, loss of interest are just a few of the reasons given to shelters as reasons for surrendering their family pet.
This article will focus providing some reasons, in no particular order, as to why your next cat or kitten should be adopted from a shelter.
You’ll be saving a life. Shelters are increasing heading toward the best practice of being “no kill” (bestfriends.org), but there are many shelters that have not yet made the commitment and continue to destroy cats/dogs as a means of controlling overcrowding within the shelter. Adopting from these shelters will surely save the life of the cat you’ve chosen. However, even if the shelter you choose to adopt from is a no kill shelter, you’ll still be saving a life. By taking home your cat, you’ve opened cage space for a new cat to be taken in and placed up for adoption.
Health benefits for you and your family. It’s a fairly well-known fact that pet ownership has benefits for the humans as well. Spending time with pets has been shown to decrease blood pressure, cholesterol, and triglyceride levels, and feelings of lonesomeness. Pet ownership can also increase opportunities for socialization, exercise, and frequency of time spent outside (www.cdc.gov).
Ease of Housebreaking. One of the easiest aspects of cat ownership is usually litter box training. Typically, all you need to do is show your cat where you have placed the litter box and that’s it. Since cats like to hide their feces, they are more than happy to use clean litter boxes for this purpose. No late night walks will be necessary for cat ownership. However, you will want to keep the litter box clean and ready for new deposits.
Rid your house of pests. Cats are well known mousers. So if you need a few less of tiny furry friends, cats are an excellent deterrent. Cats also excel at catching insects as well. It should be kept in mind though that it’s best for cats not to eat what they kill…particularly rodents…as they would then be exposed to any parasites the host animal is carrying (roaches may carry parasites as well). Never use poisons around your home as your pets may accidentally ingest the poisons. Also, if your cat eats a poisoned rodent, they will ingest the poison as well.
There are countless reasons to adopt a shelter cat. Go ahead...adopt and discover them all!!
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