Hey all,

My Flatmate and I are looking to adopt a cat from a shelter. Any suggestions ? We live in Fribourg, Fribourg. Although we can easily afford a cat in everyday living, we are students and are looking for a shelter that won't charge toooo much money up front for a cat that is vaccinated, spayed/neutered.

We are even considering getting two cats because we live in an apartment and they may not be going outside too much.. We hope that our apartment would be better than a shelter. It's about 75m squared so it should be spacious enough? Any suggestions would be great. Thanks!

Since you are students what will happen with the cats when you are done?

If you plan on gining em back to the shelter i would not do it.
if you plan on keeping them just use the search function on the forum, several posts with all the shelters in CH.

I got my dog from st catherins I think in LAusanne .
Cost was 180 for the dog and that included everything (neutered etc etc. he did need some shots still

One of my mutts came from the SPA Fribourg:

http://www.spafribourg.ch/cms/

Nice folks, they've kept in contact with me throughout the almost two years now that he has been with us.

Adoption fees are CHF 150-190 for cats, according to their website.

BUT...


Please take Anthony's comments to heart - when you bring an animal into your home it is for the critter's lifetime, come what may in your world. As students, are you in a position now to swear, hand on heart, that you will be able to care for your cats no matter where the winds of fate take you in the next 10-15 years?

If so, the go for it - Giving a cat in need is a wonderful thing to do, extremely rewarding.

But if your life is at an uncertain stage, I would counsel waiting. As an alternative, perhaps you could offer to care for other people's cats during holidays (you'd make many new friends - see the Pet Sitting Network thread ) or perhaps you could volunteer with the SPA Fribourg.

All the best.

Thanks for the responses! One of us is from Switzerland and will take the cat home with him upon graduation. We both have experience in cat/dog ownership so we understand the commitment aspects. Has anyone heard about any other location than spafribourg? They don't seem to have a cat that would fit our apartment - most of them "love the outdoors" and we won't be able to provide that everyday. Thanks again

As I think was already stated in the other thread dedicated to adopting animals from shelters, the SPA Fribourg has so many cats that not all of them get put on the website, due to not having enough resources to put them there. If you are serious in finding an animal, give them a call and speak with them (French and German speaking) about your needs, etc. and I am sure they will be helpful.

ps--this is the thread that should help you Adopting a pet from a Rescue Centre

Why not try this database? I believe its the main one here in Switzerland. you might need to travel in order to get the perfect cat based on what your home environment can provide, since the ones near you dont have anything suitable:

http://www.tierdatenbank.ch/cms/de/t...unschtier.html

These are great websites/suggestions. Thanks for the help, this should suffice! Hope you're all well

Lars

Hi Lars
It can be very hard to get a cat from a shelter, sometimes I even think that they actually just want to keep them.

When my cat died I wanted to get a new cat from the shelter and they came round my house to see if I was capable to have them.

I even got a recommendation from my vet saying I am a great person to have cats as my cats are always healthy, I get them injected etc on time etc but after 2 weeks of waiting I heard back saying I live too close to a road and it's too dangerous.

I live on the outskirts of Zurich and unless they wanted me to live on a farm, I don't think you'll find a better person. There is a road but its reduced to 30km/h so its even a child friendly area.

But hey its obviously better to be in a shelter, with 1000 other cats than be at my lovely place where someone truely loves them

haha

Hi TSWZH

My neighbour has a two year old Bengal - Taira - that needs a good home. They recently had twins and Taira is weeing on the baby beds, car seats etc. She is a beautiful feline PM me if you are interested please. (Taira looks almost identical to the Begal in the attachment).

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TSWZH,

Every shelter has it's own policies, put in place based on their experiences, for the good of the animals in their care. Please don't write off adopting a rescue based on one experience.

If one shelter is not a good match for you, why not look farther? It's quite likely you will find a shelter with more flexible guidelines, who would be happy to home to you.

I would counsel you to take this shelter's objections to heart, though, and think about how you might address the issue should it come up again. For instance, think about how you would reassure a shelter about the safety measures you had in place for your old cat, and what could you do to ensure the safety of another cat given the proximity to the road.

Or taking another tack, think about how you could show that the road is not the danger that the shelter assumes it is - for instance, spend some time counting cars - what's the average traffic really like during the times your cat would be outside? As local vets or police how many accidents there have been in the last x years (a driver is supposed to report running over an animal).

I know that it can be very demoralizing to be turned down when all you want to do is to do a good deed. But remember that the shelter staff don't know you - it's up to you to go the extra step show them that you are the best home possible for one of their charges. Think of it as you would a job interview - sometimes a well-thought out presentation is needed to sway the decision makers.

But if this one shelter is firm on their policies, then do continue looking - other shelters may well have different views.

Wishing you all the best.