Cat Town follows two rules for kittens adopted from our care.
1. Kittens already in bonded pairs must be adopted together.
2. If not already part of a bonded pair, kittens must either be adopted with another kitten, or go to a home that already has a young cat to serve as a confident role model.
There are a number of important reasons for these policies. Just like humans, cats form strong bonds and feel distress when they are separated from companions who provide them with emotional support. We help hundreds of cats get adopted each year, and have seen a number of negative impacts when cats (and kittens) become separated from their companions before they arrive into our care.
Additionally, most cat experts agree (including the Kitten Lady, Pam Johnson-Bennett, Companion Animal Psychology, and many others) that adopting two kittens is in the best interest of both the cats and their humans, as we see positive behavioral attributes in households with two versus one cat. We have summarized a few common reasons below, but encourage adopters to do their own research on these benefits before you adopt to understand the positive effects of adopting kittens in pairs.
Having two kittens doesn’t stop either from bonding with their people.
Having two kittens allows each to see that they are safe in new environments by observing one another. We have repeatedly seen shy cats become brave much more quickly than single kittens with no confident role models.
Kittens have fun playing with each other — which is less work for the adopter — and having a playmate prevents many challenging behavior issues. Kittens learn about appropriate play by chasing, pouncing, and wrestling with their littermates — which also helps them learn not to bite hard. Humans are not able to provide the same feedback to them, no matter how hard we try.
In our rescue work, when we encounter adult cats with behaviors that are dangerous to humans, they frequently were raised as single kittens. We have not seen the same degree of intensity in cats raised alongside other cats.
If adopters decide to adopt a second cat later on, it is much more difficult to introduce another cat in a home.
At Cat Town in particular, we work hard to socialize hard-to-place “Forgotten Kittens.” These youngsters often come into our care with little to no experience with humans, and our volunteers spend weeks or months helping them develop trust and confidence around people. Forgotten Kittens learn what it means to trust humans from more confident cats, and our policies ensure that these kittens have their very best chance of successful integration into their new homes.
If you think one or more of our kittens is a good fit for your home, please complete our Adoption Inquiry form to start the adoption process!