A Is For Amber

If it weren't so sad, I would have to laugh at some of the reasons used to justify healthy-but-homeless cat euthanasia. Take age, for example. When we started our Cat Retirement Program I called various local organizations that did cat adoptions to see if we were overlapping their work by focusing on orphaned teenaged cats. Most quickly confirmed that they didn't have any older cats to adopt, but one pleasantly replied: "Oh yes, we have several 2-3 year old cats." And we think that humans put too much emphasis on youth! The average cat lives 14-15 years and many indoor pet cats live to 20 or older -- yet 2-3 in the adoption sense is "old".


Just as the lack of full community focus on pro-active, affordable and available spay/neuter creates the bumper crop of kittens that flood the adoption pool each year, the practice of not adopting out cats of all ages (so long as they are healthy or have manageable health problems) adds to the high euthanasia rate too.
Studies show that one demographic that benefits from cat companionship are healthy, independent-living elderly. Yet adopting a kitten to a 70-year old almost guarantees that by the time she's 10, she will be homeless. And -- as often happens -- when the relatives take the cat to the shelter, she'll be euthanized on arrival. If instead shelters made older cats available for adoption, then a 70-year old could have a companion that would live out her life during the same timeframe as the caregiver -- a win-win situation.

Amber, our 19-year old brown long-haired beauty is a good example. We received her in 1999 from an elderly woman who adopted Amber as a kitten. Now in her eighties -- the guardian was fearful of tripping over Amber -- possibly because she already had. If there had been older cats readily available for adoption, this may have been a lifelong home for a cat. Teenaged cats make great companions for the elderly -- and the elderly make great homes for teenaged cats -- who want nothing more than a full bowl of food and a warm lap to snuggle in.