Pet adoption with small children?
Most of our pets have been adopted, either from shelters (1 cat as a kitten, 2 rabbits at 1 year old) or from people we knew who had to find new homes for their pets (1 cat as a 1 year old from horribly irresponsible owners, 2 cats at 8 years old from an owner moving into a retirement home). As responsible pet owners who spay / neuter as appropriate, own our own home, and get all our pets appropriate vet care, we've never had problems adopting.
However, for the next 7-10 years of our lives, we're hoping to have one or more children under 5 living in our home, which I know can be an issue with some adoption agencies. We're planning to be very careful introducing kids to our current group of pets, and teaching them appropriate behaviors (don't poke the pets, don't chase the pets, do feed them (a reasonable number of) treats, do gently pet them when they want attention, do pay attention to their body language).
We've talked about adding a dog, or another cat when our wonderful 17 year old is no longer with us. I know that a lot of the pets I see listed for adoption say no kids, or only older kids. How much of a problem will we have adopting from a shelter or rescue organization with young children in the house?
However, for the next 7-10 years of our lives, we're hoping to have one or more children under 5 living in our home, which I know can be an issue with some adoption agencies. We're planning to be very careful introducing kids to our current group of pets, and teaching them appropriate behaviors (don't poke the pets, don't chase the pets, do feed them (a reasonable number of) treats, do gently pet them when they want attention, do pay attention to their body language).
We've talked about adding a dog, or another cat when our wonderful 17 year old is no longer with us. I know that a lot of the pets I see listed for adoption say no kids, or only older kids. How much of a problem will we have adopting from a shelter or rescue organization with young children in the house?