<p>Since I'm going away for college in the fall, my parents have decided to give my cats away. We can't find any friends who want to take them in, so my dad wants to put them in an animal shelter. I'm trying to convince him that it's a terrible idea, but he says if we don't find any takers we'll have to put them in one of those shelters that kill animals... what do I do? Does anyone know of any good ways to find people who are looking for pets? Please help!</p>
<p>Take them to college with you! I know MIT allows cats on campus. Check with the school.</p>
<p>ouch. my parents are just as much in love with my cats as I am. don’t your parents have any sympathy? anyway there are shelters that don’t kill the animals. do your research. also emory might allow cats.</p>
<p>[Guidelines</a> for Finding a Responsible Home for a Pet | The Humane Society of the United States](<a href=“http://www.hsus.org/pets/pet_care/guidelines_for_finding_a_responsible_home_for_a_pet.html]Guidelines”>http://www.hsus.org/pets/pet_care/guidelines_for_finding_a_responsible_home_for_a_pet.html) This is from the Humane Society of the US. And there are lots of no-kill shelters if you look for them. Hopefully it helps!</p>
<p>Seriously though, your parents must be heartless. How hard is it to feed a cat and change a litterbox once a week while you’re away, for God’s sake?</p>
<p>“Seriously though, your parents must be heartless. How hard is it to feed a cat and change a litterbox once a week while you’re away, for God’s sake?”</p>
<p>That’s not fair. Do you have cats? Once a week is not fair to ONE cat, let alone "cats " .</p>
<p>This post makes me feel so sad. I know I could never give away Mittens. She’s always there for me. Do whatever you can. Don’t let them take your cat away!!!</p>
<p>Changing a litterbox once every 5 days is what I do when I catsit. And I catsit for <em>very</em> neurotic people. (Although they have the litter that’s like little rocks and you use a slotted shovel to pick the poop out of it, which I don’t know if that makes a difference) Maybe their cat just doesn’t defecate that much.</p>
<p>And I of course meant you’d feed and water them every day, duh. </p>
<p>Also I assumed more cats meant more litterboxes, not more often changing one. </p>
<p>…Yeah, I’m a dog/rabbit person. But still, when I catsit it’s very low maintainance and kind of fun.</p>
<p>[THE</a> LITTER BOX](<a href=“http://www.catinfo.org/litterbox.htm]THE”>The Litter Box From Your Cat’s Point of View)</p>
<p><a href=“http://petsupplies4less.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/2008/02/12/clean-cat-litter-box-question-care/[/url]”>http://petsupplies4less.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/2008/02/12/clean-cat-litter-box-question-care/</a></p>
<p><a href=“How Often Should I Change the Litterbox? (with pictures)”>How Often Should I Change the Litterbox? (with pictures);
<p><a href=“CakhiaTV | Trực tiếp bóng đá Cà Khịa miễn phí, xem TTBD HD”>http://www.petsugar.com/2905480</a></p>
<p>The unfair part is to say someones parents are “heartless” , perhaps because they take pet responsibility seriously.</p>
<p>P.S. That’s why when my kids wanted pets, we ended up choosing guinea pigs. I knew I’d eventually end up taking care of them, and was willing to accept the responsibility.</p>
<p>If you live near me I would gladly accept them and take care of them 
I already have two cats</p>
<p>Before your parents take any drastic actions, see if your school will allow you to have a pet in the dorms. I just saw a news report the other day about how more and more colleges are allowing their students to have pets on campus.</p>
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<p>WOAH. Stop it right there. </p>
<p>Have you been to a shelter? If you have, you know how awful they are, how pathetic it is to see all those dogs and cats in the cage-things. Anyone who would rather condemn a pet to death (because, let’s face it, who’s going to adopt older cats?) than feed them and change a litterbox (which, I maintain, is still no big deal and takes ~2 seconds if you’re not going to be nice, and you don’t have to be nice as long as the pets are being cared for ok.) cannot have a heart.</p>
<p>I mean, come on. You don’t abandon a member of your family, and, to me, cats/dogs/rabbits are family, even if they live outside or whatever. (That’s not to say they’re people, they’re different, and more fragile than people and need to be treated as uch)That’s SO wrong on so many levels. When you buy/adopt a pet, you’re agreeing to protect them and care for them forever, not until it’s not convienient for you. That’s NOT taking pet responsibility seriously. That’s being irresponsible and cruel.</p>
<p>(And I don’t like the insinuation that I don’t take pet care seriously. I have dogs and rabbits, and they are very well taken care of BY ME, a teenager. Seriously. Cleaning out a rabbit’s hutch is probably the worst job on the face of the planet (and I’ve also mucked out horse stalls) and makes a litterbox seem like cake. Yet I do it, every week, because it’s my rabbit and my job to keep him comfortable.)</p>
<p>EDIT: Also
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<p>I changed that box once every five days. If Suzie (the cat) was not a big defecater (which she couldn’t have been, she hardly ate anything) that’s completely reasonable AND responsible.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input everyone! My cats are about 3 years old, and they’re kind of ugly (or at least not what I’d classify as “cute”), so I don’t think they’d appeal very much to people who browse animal shelters looking to adopt. It breaks my heart to think that they’ll be shut up in a dark, miserable cage for the rest of their lives. I proposed taking the cats with me to college, but my parents said that no roommate would tolerate having pets in the dorm… 
Thanks for the links provided above, I’ll take a look at them right away.</p>
<p>“And I don’t like the insinuation that I don’t take pet care seriously. I have dogs and rabbits, and they are very well taken care of BY ME, a teenager.”</p>
<p>That may be what you “heard”, but that’s not what I insinuated. Instead, I said a parent who takes this responsibility seriously, should not be considered “heartless”, just because they know they are not up to the task.</p>
<p>“You don’t abandon a member of your family, and, to me, cats/dogs/rabbits are family, even if they live outside or whatever.”</p>
<p>To me, if YOU (not the 0P) feel this way about it, stay home; don’t go away to school and leave your “children” to be raised by grandparents. Also, if you are in “outside cat” person, I hope you are aware of how dangerous and inhumane this can be.</p>
<p>Finally, are we talking about scooping, or cleaning the litter box? The scooping seems to be recommended every day, along with the food, water, cuddling, medical care, and pet sitting as needed. As a parent, perhaps I world accept all this once I accepted my kids getting pets. That’s what I did, but most parents don’t, and I wouldn’t call them “heartless”. They love their kids, want to say “yes”, and don’t get what a responsibility this SHOULD be. My parents took 8 years to she yes to a dog ( said yes to NUMEROUS cat’s that ran the streets, and in retrospect probably suffered for it), and I left for college a few years later. My dad become responsible, developed dementia, and my dog died as a result. I still feel badly about it, 30 years later.</p>
<p>If you clean your rabbit “hutch” once a week, I’m guessing you keep her outside. Yeah. BTW, I’ve mucked stables too. Vegetarian poop is GOOD poop. Cat poop; not so much</p>
<p>I’d check around your area. I’m not sure about there but here we have pet foster homes. It takes some searching. We ran into them at Petco one day getting dog food. We had two cats for awhile living in our house that were foster cats, and now only do dogs. You can give your cat to them, and until they’re adopted they’ll be living in a home with some one there to love them and give them attention. Ask around at the local pet stores.</p>
<p>I’d hate it if my mom got rid of Carmen, our cat, but that cat is more her’s than mine. Last year my mom didn’t tell me the foster cats would be leaving and one of them I wanted to adopt. She was my girl. I know how ya feel.</p>
<p>OK, this is getting stupid, but I’ll reply once more to clear up my thoughts. This is the last, I swear.</p>
<p>It’s not hard to take care of a cat. Multiple cats, maybe, but I’m guessing the OP doesn’t have more than a few. Cleaning a litter box takes 5 minutes, tops, if you have it lined it’s just take the one out, rinse, and put the new stuff in. Anyone can do it. </p>
<p>My point with the rabbit cage is that it’s much harder, because you can’t really use anything but a little bedding because pine chips etc are bad for rabbits. (My rabbit lives inside in the fall/winter and on our screened in porch in the spring/summer, I said hutch instead of cage because cage has bad connotations among some people, don’t think you know me.) It’s harder than a barn stall by far, and I, a total screwup, manage to do it once a week. Cat poop doesn’t smell if you have enough litter. Ever mop up rabbit pee, lol? I can’t even remember to feed myself most of the time and I can do pets! It’s. Not. That. Hard.</p>
<p>Cuddling is optional for the things to live between when the OP is home for breaks (plus, some cats hate cuddling anyways), medical care is rare, and petsitting can be done by your neighbor (like me, lol).</p>
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Ok, ***? I can’t respond to this because I don’t think pets are people (as I enumerated, or thought I did), I think they’re animals that should be respected. They’re family, but not children. That may be a fine line that exists only in my mind, though. </p>
<p>(Oh, and if it came down to I go to a school in my home state or my dog was euthanized, I’d definitely stay home, though I can’t imagine my parents being HEARTLESS (oh, that word again, lol) enough to deliver me that ultimatum.)</p>
<p>Also, to counter your other false personal statement, I’m an inside pet person, besides dogs who should decide for themselves and working animals like mousers and herders whose living environments are dependant on their jobs. So I think you think I’m less educated than I am about this stuff, maybe. Maybe not, I don’t want to patronize you or pretend I know what you’re thinking, because it’s clear we’re having a miscommunication.</p>
<p>If those cats go to a non-no kill shelter (which they will unless the OP follows the links and finds the no-kill shelter in his/her area), there is a high probability they will die. HIGH ****ING PROBABILITY that you are CONDEMNING these animals to death.</p>
<p>…In what universe is killing an animal that isn’t sick the “responsible” thing to do, ever?</p>
<p>i’ll take em if nobody else wants them. house cats make good cat stew.
LOL jus playin</p>