Rehoming cats and kittens
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Chestnut Cat Sanctuary has an excellent reputation for rehoming cats and kittens quickly and successfully.
We believe that all cats and kittens deserve good homes and a long and happy life:
- No cat accepted by us is ever put to sleep
- There is no age limit on the cats we will accept
- We will not abort pregnant cats brought to us for rehoming
Top tips to help us accept a cat for rehoming
We normally have a waiting list for cats to come to us for rehoming. If you have a cat that needs rehoming (whether it's yours, or a stray) you can help us to help you, by following these top tips:
- Make sure the cat's vaccinations are up to date before you bring it in.
- Have the cat neutered before you bring it in (we can send you a voucher if you're on income support).
- Call us to book the cat in. Do not just turn up and expect us to accept it - we rarely have spare pens. The best time to phone is Monday morning between 9:00 and 12:00, when we may have more room after a busy weekend rehoming!
- It is ESSENTIAL that you bring the cat in a suitable carrier. It is unacceptable to bring them loose in your car - they may escape (this has happened before) and it causes us BIG problems.
- If it's a real emergency and we don't have room, we can board a cat (for £9 a day) until we can transfer it to our rehoming unit.
- Be truthful about the cat's age and health. It will not influence our decision to accept it, but it will help us decide where to put it on arrival, and to prepare the right medication if needed.
- Please understand that we are taking responsibility for the cat's future away from you, and accepting all costs for the cat until it is rehomed. A donation would be helpful.
- If you're bringing a cat to us because someone in your family is allergic, please call us first for allergy prevention advice before you take the drastic step of removing the cat from its home. The human body will often adjust given time. For example, many of our staff (and even the owner) have asthma and allergies, but are totally unaffected by the huge number of cats coming through our doors!
- DO NOT try and rehome a cat yourself. If you care enough to consider its welfare, please leave it to the experts. We take care to assess all potential owners and we're good judges of people as well as cat's characters!
If you can arrange even some of the above it would be greatly appreciated. Please remember, we are a private, voluntary organisation with limited funding. A cat that comes in with serious injuries or illness will be nursed back to health, regardless of the cost, and even if we were twice the size we are, we still wouldn't be able to handle the volume of cats that need new homes. We normally hold up to 30 cats at any time (+ kittens in kitten season).
Please work with us, and don't be 'difficult' if we can't help immediately. We hope you understand!
In the event that we don't have space available for a cat that needs rehoming - and if it's an urgent case for a private owner - we can suggest paying for a few days boarding at our cattery (£9 a day, subject to availability) until we have room available to transfer the cat to our rehoming section.
Where do our cats come from?
Roughly speaking:
- 45% come to us from their owners, from people who find stray cats, or from council animal welfare services
- 35% come via the RSPCA's South West Essex branch
- 15% come from RSPCA Inspectors, and are allocated to us or to an RSPCA centre according to space available. These cats tend to be emergency cases - space will be found for them one way or another.
- 5% from from the RSPCA's East London branch
On our single cats and paired cats pages, each animal has a 4 or 5 digit reference number. Cats numbered 9xxxx came to us from RSPCA South West Essex. Those numbered 5xxxx came to us from RSPCA East London. All other cats (ie with 4-digit numbers only) came to us direct.
If you're interested in statistics you can see our cat rehoming figures for the last few years.
