Outcome: Meet the needs of the individual
Focus on outcome
Throughout a cat’s stay the focus must always be toward its outcome – what is the best solution for this cat?
- For cats that are suitable to be pets, to find a home with people
- For cats not suitable to be pets, to live an ‘alternative lifestyle’
This constant focus on outcome encourages a more proactive way of working where potential homes can be found and prepared in advance (see working with the community), just waiting for the right cats.
Making plans for the future of so many individual cats is a serious task and sometimes it may feel like a great deal of pressure: Am I making the right decision? What if my choice for this cat is wrong? Think of these two scenarios:
- You place a cat in an outdoor alternative lifestyle environment only to find that the cat soon gravitates indoors to the nearest person’s lap! The way to look at this situation is that you now know what the cat wants and you allowed it to choose! Hopefully, if this does happen the person the cat has chosen will be willing and able to care for it. This is still a good outcome.
- You place a cat with people in the belief that it is friendly and wants to be around people and then find that the cat is very uncomfortable and the new owners are very dissatisfied. You can help the owner to put this right (place the cat in an alternative lifestyle environment and find the owner a more suitable cat) and you shouldn’t see this as a failure; mistakes can happen, but being able to monitor these homing decisions and make changes if they are not working is very much in the spirit of doing what is right for the cats in your care! CFH is about doing the very best you can with the information available.
