Adopting/Buying a kitten - Pet Stores vs. Shelters

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  1. #11

    Join Date
    Mar 2007
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    Gold Coast Marina
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    17,934

    These descriptions of pet shops are horrific. Are they not regulated? Can't the SPCA do anything? It sounds to me like a shelter animal is the only place a responsible pet owner would look (other than if you wanted some pedigree or something). If anyone is every doing petitions to change the law - pls post here so I can find it to sign!


  2. #12

    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Posts
    176

    Pet shops are really a bit dodgy anywhere - i doubt there are any checks here in HK on them that signify at all-its worth your breeders licence /kennel club licence where I come from if someone even spots you coming out of a petshop looking as if you have done business of a puppy selling kind -I kid you not.....and the ones here -well I won't go into them unless i want to feel haunted and angry - this does not include the ones which are pet supply places... I mean the ones with live animals -also , puppy farming is not just happening in China either by the way -booming business anywhere really...better to try to import from somwhere else for pedigree animals reputable breeders are called that for a reason .that said I have a village moggy , left here by previous tenant ,who is definitely the healthiest happiest ,most relaxed animal i have ever owned!

    Quote Originally Posted by MovingIn07:
    These descriptions of pet shops are horrific. Are they not regulated? Can't the SPCA do anything? It sounds to me like a shelter animal is the only place a responsible pet owner would look (other than if you wanted some pedigree or something). If anyone is every doing petitions to change the law - pls post here so I can find it to sign!

  3. #13
    MattGG

    I agree with you Miss P

    I found Athena in some local Classifieds and I ve been reading some of here blog, What's going on at the shelter of DDF? - Ding Dong Foundation - Yahoo! BLOG , she seems really caring and in it for the cats and I think you wont go wrong adoting from her Athena Ho's Ads from Hong Kong Island (East) Hong Kong @ Athena's Adpost


  4. #14
    MattGG

    I agree with Miss P,

    I have found Athena to be a very good person. See her blog here: What's going on at the shelter of DDF? - Ding Dong Foundation - Yahoo! BLOG

    and some of her adopt a cat ads here: Athena Ho's Ads from Hong Kong Island (East) Hong Kong @ Athena's Adpost


  5. #15
    deleteduser

    Thanks for all the responses guys. Like I said, I was 99% in favor of adopting a rescued cat as opposed to buying from a pet store. And that was before I realized just how bad they were!

    We checked out the SPCA in Mong Kok, but they really didn't have many cats to choose from. Since we were in the area, we also looked at the cats at the pet stores... Some of them were really nice actually, and if they weren't charging $3000+ for a domestic shorthair, we might have adopted this one beautiful orange tabby from one store!

    One store had this tiny little white kitten in a cage, it didn't look like it was old enough to be away from its mother... When I approached him, I thought I saw him meowing, but couldn't hear due to the noise.. As I got closer, I noticed that he was hissing at me! A kitten less than 3 months old, and it is already hissing at people! I can't imagine what is being done to the poor thing.

    Anyway, the folks at the MK SPCA mentioned that the location in Wan Chai has many more cats, so we went there. In the end, we adopted these two beautiful cats, aged around 5 months old. One was a rescued stray, and one was abandoned by his family (the reason said that they "couldn't get along" with it.. WTF?).

    These are two of the most loving, affectionate cats I have ever seen, especially the boy (we named him Jett, since he is absolutely jet-black - even his whiskers are black! I also call him Baby J). Once you pet him long enough, he looks for somewhere to suckle, just like a baby.. Usually he will tuck his head into a blanket, and start kneading and suckling... At first I thought it might be due to stress, but he has really settled in since then, and he only does it when he's really happy. To think that some family abandoned him because they "couldn't get along" with him.. that just blows me away. This is the gentlest kitten I have ever seen...

    The girl, named Zoe, is a bit more nervous since she grew up in the mean streets of Hong Kong. But she is starting to cope just fine. She also LOVES to be pet, and will stop whatever it is she is doing to cuddle you. She is also VERY vocal, always meowing to us to show her content, or when she is upset about something (usually when Jett tries to play with her).

    It's been 2 days since we had them both (we got Zoe first, but Jett had to stay behind to be neutered) and they didn't really get along at first.. Jett wants nothing more than to be play-buddies with Zoe, but she isn't quite down with it yet. I think she is still nervous about her new surroundings, and will eventually warm up to him. You can tell that she is getting more and more used to him by the hour it seems. Usually when we are around, and they are both calm, they get along just fine.

    SPCA was good to deal with; when we adopted, they told us how to take care of them, in a VERY detailed way (I thought she would never stop talking! ). One thing I found peculiar was that when they called us back after Jett's operation, they called my number. When I answered, the person on the other end said "Can you speak Cantonese?" in what I thought was perfectly fine English. I said "Only a little, please hold" and went to give the phone to my wife.. By the time I got to her, the person on the other end had already hung up. Since their number didn't show up on caller ID, we didn't know who it was, so poor Jett had to spend an extra day there

    Other than that, SPCA was great to deal with, and I hope more people consider adopting from them. So many of these poor cats are abandoned by their families - I thought most of them would be strays. How anyone could "not get along" with Jett, I will never understand for the rest of my life.. Oh well... We have him now!


  6. #16

    Join Date
    May 2007
    Posts
    1,006

    they look absolutely adorable !!!


  7. #17
    deleteduser

    You can see some more pics of Zoe here! It's almost impossible to take pictures of Jett; since he is so black, the autofocus can't find him at all (even his eyes are too dark). I can't even do it manually, due to my lack of skills. I'll take some more in the daytime, when I am feeling better (all this time we've been looking at cats, I have had the worst pharyngitis of my life, including a high fever, chills, and body aches)


  8. #18

    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Mid-levels, Hong Kong
    Posts
    106

    Fantastic choice you made there!! Thanks for adopting


  9. #19
    deleteduser

    Be wary though; once you sign the papers they will spend nearly an hour trying to get you to buy everything in their store.. They will tell you that you need to buy flea medicine, worm medication, nail clippers, special hair brush, ear cleaning solution, eye drops, etc, etc. They will also give you a 50% coupon on a small bag of food, but the bag is already about half the price of a bag that is 2X the size, so you won't save much at all.

    As it turns out, one of the cats had tapeworms, so we had to go back and get some medication for that. No fleas though, so they won't be back. They sold us about 6 times as much medication as we needed though, it came to $30 HKD which isn't bad, but should have been more like $5

    it's pretty sad that an organization that relies on donations has to stoop to this level.. By adopting a cat from them, we are the ones helping them! They show their gratitude by selling you a bunch of crap you don't need.

    Last edited by deleteduser; 23-10-2008 at 12:31 AM.

  10. #20
    deleteduser

    BTW here are some more pictures of Zoe and Jett