It’s ironic, all right. The biggest gathering of cats who need homes is in shelters, where they are displayed to their least advantage. Consigned to cages, stressed from who knows what, it can be a challenge to glimpse the true cat.

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We can change our trepidation into confidence. Our worry is that we will inadvertently take on more than we can handle. This is a sensible concern, connected to our purpose; not just to give a cat a home, but to give a cat a happy home.

Compatibility is the key to good relationships. If we choose the wrong cat, we also deprive that cat of a potential home where they wouldn’t have been a problem.

Let’s face it, it’s hard to say no. But a classic mistake is to feel sorry for a particularly sad or needy cat. There’s nothing wrong with that! However, we might not have the patience, the skills, or the resources that are required for serious cat rehabilitation. Let’s check our handy pie chart again.

What do these percentages mean to us, the adult cat chooser?

• Cats Homeless for No Dang Good Reason: 50%: These are the cats people adopt, bring home, and exclaim for the rest of their lives, “How could anyone give up this cat?” Sadly, many people do not realize their potential gem. When cats are regarded as interchangeable and disposable, lightly gotten, and easily given up, these cats’ former owners might be people who are unable to create a wonderful cat relationship, no matter what cat they get.

  Sometimes, the cat loses their person through illness or an unavoidable economic dislocation. Another case of Completely Not The Cat’s Fault. These were cats who were once loved and cherished, and could be again. These most affectionate cats will often seem depressed in the shelter, because they are. Depression in a cat is actually a sign of the ability to feel deeply. Realize that expressed sadness is a sign of great potential, unlike the indifference of the feral or badly socialized cat, and we can then look past the cat’s present mood to discover what they are capable of being.

• Cats with Easily Fixable Problems: 40%: These are the cats who were brought to the shelter because they had “problems.” Like what? It is a truism among shelter folks that almost all the cats brought to the shelter because of “litter box problems” turn out to have either no problem using their clean box at the shelter, (gee, when no one cleans the litter, and the cat signals their distress, who is at fault?) or the cat has an illness easily cleared up with a course of antibiotics, and has no further “litter box problems.”

  Scratching behavior is another “problem” that was the fault of the previous owner, not the cat. Even cats who wound up in the shelter because of a shredded couch or destroyed woodwork, described as “untrainable” by the person turning them in, are cats simply suffering from the results of never having been trained. People buy a cheap, unworkable scratching post, yell at the cat when they scratch on other things, and wind up putting them in the shelter. We need not fear this cat, either.

  Other cats have “problems” that are really features, not bugs. A bright cat, easily bored, can seem overactive because they are starved for stimulus. A naturally energetic cat can be penalized when they start getting bigger and knocking things over is no longer as cute. Any cat starved for affection can wail all night, scratch or play with the wrong things, miss their litter box, or otherwise show signs of stress. They will desperately seek attention even though the owner misunderstands, and responds to their requests with punishment.

  So this is what I mean when I say these are cats with easily fixable problems. Most of the time, the cat is not the one with problems.

• Cats with Serious Problems: 10%: These are the cats who were badly mistreated or never got a chance to be socialized. They are not necessarily unadoptable; they are simply unadoptable by people without the skills, time, room, or money to supply what these cats need.

  Feral cats, for instance, will probably never be cuddly. Feral kittens can be domesticated, depending on the potential they might have gotten genetically. But it takes some experience to gauge how long the process might take, and always requires patience on the part of the human, who must settle for tiny bits of feedback until full success.

  It’s also complicated by the presence of other cats in the household; some ferals find others of their own kind reassuring, and can use them as a bridge to further socialization through role-modeling. Other ferals, or cats brought up as singletons in deprived circumstances, will always regard other cats as rivals. If we need a vermin exterminator, or have the room to let these cats live the only life they know, we can establish a relationship, but it will usually be just a bit beyond arm’s length.

  Declawed cats are often badly damaged cats. People declaw, they claim, to keep the cat; the numbers of such cats in shelters, much higher than their proportion in the total population, is suffering testimony to the ultimate futility of declawing. A declawed shelter cat doesn’t scratch things anymore; they often come up with even more undesirable behaviors, or they wouldn’t be thrown out or dropped off at the shelter. In pain from their crippled feet, (remember, cats walk on their toes,) deprived of one of their most important stress relievers, and previously owned by someone either ignorant or indifferent; they are a serious challenge. They are capable of being good pets, but it’s a situation that requires a dedicated person and a quiet, cooperative, household.

  There’s also the cats who are so overstressed they suffer from what I call Cat Panic Syndrome. Their delicate nervous systems are overcranked and constantly on the edge of flipping over, and flipping out. They seem deceptively calm in the shelter, because they are in a contained situation, left alone, and have their input pulled down to the minimum. Once in a more normal situation, they literally cannot cope, and will panic at the slightest stimulus. Cats with stiff body movements, often with a restless tail or constantly pulled back ears, are cats who are signaling their distress, barely contained. They often make eye contact, but in a wide-eyed, wary, way. They require careful handling, and will continue to need it for a long time.

So we see that 90% of the shelter cats have nothing wrong with them; except for the fact that they have no home.

That’s the problem we can most easily fix; if we choose wisely. Each cat is different. We must consider their personality, their activity level, and their openness to our overtures before we take the big step of actually taking them home.

If it doesn’t work out, there will be at least two hearts broken.

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