Cat Parent Guide

Part of our mission is to educate and support our community and our adopters in continuing quality of life for all cats and kittens.

Transitioning Your Cat/Kitten To A New Home

Integrating cats can be a challenge. Adult cats are territorial and do not usually take well to unknown cats suddenly appearing. The inclination of man adult cats is to act aggressively (with some outright attacking a stranger cat), to try to make it go away, or to run away from it in fear. Some cats are more aggressive than others. Other cats might be cautious but curious, seemingly open to accepting the other cat.

Cats need some help from humans to adjust to each other peacefully and less stressfully. Therefore, a slow, carefully managed introduction over many days or even weeks, sometimes months, is needed to give the best possible outcome. Rushing things will not make the cats accept each other faster, but will likely wind up making them not get along.

Please check out Jackson Galaxy's video to help with making a Base Camp.

Cat and Kitten Vaccination Schedule

Vaccines are given to prevent several severe diseases for cats and kittens. All cats should receive 4 core vaccines; Rabies, Feline Viral Rhinotracheitis (FVR), Feline Panleukopenia (FP), and Feline Calicivirus (FCV).
All cats and kittens that come from Los Gatos foster homes have had the age appropriate vaccinations before being adopted.

Benefits of Spaying and Neutering

All cats and kittens that leave Los Gatos foster homes have already been spayed or neutered. But should you add another family member, there are many benefits that come with spaying and neutering any future animals.
By spaying and neutering your pet, you'll help control the pet homelessness crisis. Millions of healthy dogs and cats are euthanized in the US each year simply because there aren't enough homes. There are also medical and behavioral benefits.
Female pets will live longer and happier lives. By spaying your animal, it can prevent uterine infections and decrease the incidence of breast tumors. Spaying before her first heat offers the best protection from these diseases. Neutering your male pets prevents testicular cancer and some prostate problems.
Spayed animals will not go into head. Female felines usually go into heat 4-5 days every 3 weeks during breeding season. To advertise for a mate, they'll yowl and urinate more frequently. A female cat can have more than 100 kittens in her reproductive life. Between her and her offspring, they can give birth to 100-400 kittens in 7 years. By neutering your male pets, they will be less likely to want to roam and may become better behaved.

Save The Paw, Don't Declaw!

In the adoption contract for Los Gatos Foster Animals it states that you will agree not to declaw the cats. We wanted to provide you with a little more information as to what declawing actually is.

Declawing is NOT medically necessary for cats. The surgery entails the amputation of a cat's 3rd toe bone. This is where the nail is attached at. A comparison would be cutting off a person's finger at the last joint of each finger.

So what are some alternatives to declawing:

Scratching posts/pads
Regular nail trimming
Pheromone Sprays/Diffusers
Appropriate environmental enrichment
Training cats to scratch appropriately

The Truth About FIV+ Cats

Los Gatos has a lot of cats and kittens that come into rescue. Sometimes we get cats that are FIV+. There has been some misconceptions about FIV and most cats in other shelters are euthanized. FIV+ cats can live among others as long as they are friendly to others and live long healthy lives. We hope that with this information you will consider adopting some of our FIV+ cats.