Kitty Kat Haven & Rescue — Local services in Hoover

Went here last weekend as the 3rd or 4th stop at a shelter looking for a cat after 10 yrs since having my old cat, Toonces, in MD. The last time I came here a few years ago, the hours online and on the bldg claimed they were open but no one was there.

Came back wary of the place after the first strike. I walked in and a lady sort of looked at me crazy cause I hadn't rung the doorbell. I mean, y'all left the door unlocked, so...

We looked at some cats and I initially liked Charles until he got overly rambunctious and scratched me, drawing blood. Nope, not disciplined enough for me.

She took me in another trailer out back and, although I liked a couple cats out there, they were bonded and I couldn't adopt both.

We came back to their kitchen area and I mentioned how neat I thought their "catio" was. The taller lady said the cats needed space and enrichment and then basically implied cats shouldn't be confined to an apartment. As someone who apparently shouldn't be able to adopt a cat because she lives in an apartment- gee, thanks. I responded sarcastically, "I guess it's either an apartment or euthanasia, am I right?"

Then, as I was heading out this young guy comes in and states he's dropping off his cat Mushroom and that he's never been there before. The guy says the cat's the only one they have and his cat begins hissing at other cats from the crate. They ask him if Mushroom doesn't do well with other cats and the guy reiterates that she's their only cat so he doesn't know.

After he leaves, the women begin lambasting him for dropping off a cat when the cat doesn't do well with other cats. Well, first of all, he said twice already the cat hadn't been around other cats. And secondly, like me, he'd never been there and didn't know the cats were all out in the open running free. He probably thought they were in separate kennels. Point is, they were rude and demeaning.

As I'm leaving, the shorter woman begins guilt tripping me for not adopting a cat so I begin waxing nostalgic about my old cat and how great he was. Despite kinda getting misty eyed about how much I missed him and how it was gonna be hard to fill his shoes, the woman snaps at me, "Well, I guess you're just a cat whisperer and we don't know what we're talking about."

When I say I've NEVER been treated so disrespectfully by any woman in AL in 11 yrs living here.... I bit my tongue, told them to "have a good one" and got the heck outta there before the brash Midwesterner in me came out.

By the way, the perfect cat like Toonces does exist- just not at y'all's shelter. Found Vollo (see pics) at the Montgomery Humane Society two days later after 3 weeks searching. If I'd settled for one of KKH's cats, I would've been disappointed.

Two stars only for the cute catio. Maybe one day when I marry a rich lawyer and can spend my time volunteering and not working a real job as a single income household, I'll be able to afford a SFH and give Vollo the enrichment he deserves. For now, though, he seems to be doing just fine in my tiny 720 sq ft home...

Unreasonable adoption requirements. Fostered multiple kittens for this organization and raised hundreds of dollars for them. Now I have been told I'm not fit to be a parent to a single cat because I actually work a job outside the house. They will do their best to make sure that you adopt two kittens minimum by telling you that they're bonded pairs or that they don't want them to have single kitten syndrome. So if you are actually a grown adult with a job that requires you to be away from the home, make sure you lie to them and tell them you work from home so that you can adopt a single cat. Looking at some of the other low reviews, I see I'm not the only person who's felt they have unreasonable requirements.

Addendum to respond to their responses below: You told me that I could not adopt the kitten that I wanted to, and that I would need to get a second kitten. When I told you I was not interested in doing that, you said that it was non-negotiable. When I brought it up in the Facebook group you immediately blocked me and unfriended me. This was of course after you had told me that your very first cat you adopted as a kitten and it was by itself and you worked 8 or 9 hours a day and it got by just fine. I went and visited with the kitten in question yesterday and spoke with the foster and he thought that she would do just fine by herself. In addition, The fosters that I visited with said that they have had dozens of kittens adopted by themselves. So kitty cat Haven adopts out single kittens all the time. Do not lie to the people reading this review. So this was all on you KKH. This is referred to as "cutting off your nose to spite your face". You bring a new meaning to the word "unprofessional".

Response to the response: so KKH, are you trying to tell these people that if I had protested you would have let me adopt that kitten? Because those texts really don't indicate that that would be an option. I said it was obvious that I could not change your mind and you did not dissuade me of that observation. When I tried to share what had happened to me with the foster group you evicted me from all the Haven groups and unfriended me like you were a high school girl, rather than try and reach out and clarify something that you think was a misunderstanding, or that's the way you're trying to paint it now. You know what's really unprofessional is posting screenshots of private texts when you're working with the public. Now everyone will know that any conversation they have with you is fair game for you to screenshot and post. And you expect these people to trust you with their address and social security number? All I can say is that you have really damaged your reputation with your response to this. Several of my friends who work with other veterinarians and animal rescue organizations are simply aghast at...

Let me start off by saying my husband and I absolutely adore our two babies that we adopted a year ago from KKHR. They had a great foster who I think truly cared for them. We have always had animals growing up, so I believe we were perfectly suited for these cats. That being said, I am writing this review because over the past year, we have dealt with medical concerns that I do not believe were addressed prior to their adoption. For starters, when we got home with our first cat, he had a large mass on his side that we had not seen at the adoption event. We quickly texted the foster to see if she had noticed it before, and she passed the information along to the director who made an appointment for him to be seen. She did address that she had known about the mass and apologized for not scheduling the appointment before he got adopted. (Personally, I think he should not have been allowed to go to an adoption event with a known mysterious mass!) After reading other 1 star reviews, with the amount of vetting the adoptive parties have to go through to even adopt a pet, these cats should be in PERFECT health. If you are expecting my house and lifestyle to be 100% perfect to bring these cats home, then I should be given the same standard for the health of my pet. Luckily the mass turned out to be inflammation from his neuter surgery and not malignant and the rescue covered his vet visit. Fast forward to two months ago, after a visit to our vet, the vet found lesions in the same cats mouth that required him to go under anesthesia and get 3 teeth pulled. Not only is this a huge financial burden on a young couple, this cat is only 1 year old and has already had 3 teeth removed plus the promise from our vet that this will likely be a life-long issue requiring multiple teeth pulled every year based on the origin of the lesions being related to auto immune dysfunction. Could this have been found before he got adopted? I am not sure, but we are starting to tie the inflammation from when we first adopted him to these lesions that appear auto-immune related. I hope and hope that anyone seriously considering adopting a cat from this organization will do their research and even get a secondary vet exam from a different vet than the one KKHR uses before taking...