- Joined
- Jul 24, 2009
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- 24
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Hey everyone,
I'm 22 and will be starting an 8-year graduate school program in a few weeks. I have loved and been around cats all my life, and I am thrilled that I will finally be living in a spacious place that allows cats (in college I lived in the dorms, followed by an apartment complex that would evict you if they caught you with pets in your place
). There's an animal shelter in the city I'll be moving to, and I hope to adopt a cat, or maybe two, in the next few months. I have been looking at the shelter's adoptable pet webpages for months and months, and all the cats look sooo cute and so deserving of a loving home that it makes me sad that I can't all of them home with me!
I guess what I'm looking for is a young cat (less than a year old) who has a gentle and loving disposition. I have a big soft spot for orange tabby boys, since our family cat Calypso (who will be staying with my parents when I move - I'll miss him terribly!) is a 4-year old orange boy who's the sweetest cat I've ever known (we got him from a shelter when he was 7 months old - he picked us! Calypso was in a cage by himself, and he reached through the cage and gently touched my dad's hand with his paw
....he's a very gentle and loving cat all-around.)
But I have some concerns. I will be away from home (on the college campus) probably 10 hours a day, 6 days a week. I want a cat who is still young enough to bond with me easily and whose behavior patterns and personality are not yet firmly established (based on experience I've had with cats that were adopted at 2-3 years old), but as cute and utterly adorable as kittens are, I don't have hours and hours every day to spend litter-box training and loving on a new kitten. I want to make sure my cat gets enough love and attention, so that the cat will grow up to be friendly and affectionate, rather than aloof and wanting to be left alone all the time (though I know cat personalities can only be molded to a certain extent). Is there a particular age of cat I should look for? I was thinking 4 months-9 months - the "young adult" stage where they're loving but not super-needy (and hopefully litter-box trained!) - what do you all think?
I am also toying with the idea of adopting two siblings, so they're less lonely during the times that I'm gone (like I said before, this program lasts 8 years, and after that, I'll be working in positions that require fairly long hours). The shelter that I plan on adopting from seems to have constant influxes of litters of multiple siblings....Has anywhere here adopted siblings together? Is there a better combo to get - two brothers? Two sisters? A brother and sister? Or two unrelated cats, maybe grouped in the same cage or room at the shelter, about the same age, adopted at the same time? Still, I don't want to bite off more than I can chew - i.e. two dominant cats who constantly fight, or a cat who doesn't get along with other cats...has anyone here had sibling cats who don't get along?
BTW, my home will be spacious - carpeted stairs, lots of windows overlooking trees (our family cat loves to birdwatch and sunbathe - I'm hoping my cat will too), and a small den with a skylight window that I will be converting into the cat room. I plan on staying there for the duration of grad school, so hopefully it should be a comfortable, stable home for a kitty.
If anyone has any advice to offer, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks for reading =D.
I'm 22 and will be starting an 8-year graduate school program in a few weeks. I have loved and been around cats all my life, and I am thrilled that I will finally be living in a spacious place that allows cats (in college I lived in the dorms, followed by an apartment complex that would evict you if they caught you with pets in your place
I guess what I'm looking for is a young cat (less than a year old) who has a gentle and loving disposition. I have a big soft spot for orange tabby boys, since our family cat Calypso (who will be staying with my parents when I move - I'll miss him terribly!) is a 4-year old orange boy who's the sweetest cat I've ever known (we got him from a shelter when he was 7 months old - he picked us! Calypso was in a cage by himself, and he reached through the cage and gently touched my dad's hand with his paw
But I have some concerns. I will be away from home (on the college campus) probably 10 hours a day, 6 days a week. I want a cat who is still young enough to bond with me easily and whose behavior patterns and personality are not yet firmly established (based on experience I've had with cats that were adopted at 2-3 years old), but as cute and utterly adorable as kittens are, I don't have hours and hours every day to spend litter-box training and loving on a new kitten. I want to make sure my cat gets enough love and attention, so that the cat will grow up to be friendly and affectionate, rather than aloof and wanting to be left alone all the time (though I know cat personalities can only be molded to a certain extent). Is there a particular age of cat I should look for? I was thinking 4 months-9 months - the "young adult" stage where they're loving but not super-needy (and hopefully litter-box trained!) - what do you all think?
I am also toying with the idea of adopting two siblings, so they're less lonely during the times that I'm gone (like I said before, this program lasts 8 years, and after that, I'll be working in positions that require fairly long hours). The shelter that I plan on adopting from seems to have constant influxes of litters of multiple siblings....Has anywhere here adopted siblings together? Is there a better combo to get - two brothers? Two sisters? A brother and sister? Or two unrelated cats, maybe grouped in the same cage or room at the shelter, about the same age, adopted at the same time? Still, I don't want to bite off more than I can chew - i.e. two dominant cats who constantly fight, or a cat who doesn't get along with other cats...has anyone here had sibling cats who don't get along?
BTW, my home will be spacious - carpeted stairs, lots of windows overlooking trees (our family cat loves to birdwatch and sunbathe - I'm hoping my cat will too), and a small den with a skylight window that I will be converting into the cat room. I plan on staying there for the duration of grad school, so hopefully it should be a comfortable, stable home for a kitty.
If anyone has any advice to offer, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks for reading =D.