The Cat House — Local services in Lincoln

I was highly recommended to visit this place, but my experience turned out to be a nightmare. I submitted my application and was accepted before visiting to see the cats, without my son. A volunteer showed me several cats, and I mentioned that I would return on Sunday with my son to introduce him to one specific cat that they had recommended. The volunteer assured me that it would be no problem and said they would make a note of it.

When I returned on Sunday with my 5-year-old, he immediately fell in love with the cat. I asked to start the adoption process, but the volunteer informed me that the cat was never actually available. They were holding her for someone they knew, despite not having an approved application for that person. There were no notes on the cat's door indicating she was unavailable, and they had been showing her to potential adopters.

When I expressed that I felt misled and that I had inadvertently lied to my son, the volunteer responded, "You didn’t lie. You were given bad information." Bad information that THEY gave me. When I asked questions I was given no answers and was told that it was "up to the board." It was so confusing and felt deeply unfair. My family left heartbroken and without a cat, only to receive an email the next day saying that the person they were holding the cat for could not take her in and asking if I could come get her.

This experience felt shady and unprofessional, and I believe it was detrimental to both the cat, who missed out on a loving and available home, and my child. I would not recommend this...

Altogether disheartening experience.

My fiance and I have been looking at adopting here for over a year, and planned to do so in December now that we are moved in together. We live alone with no other pets in a one bedroom cat friendly (without declawing) apartment.

Our schedule moved up because my finance’s grandmother surrendered her kitten, who we were very fond of, because she could not keep him. We contacted the Cat House the day after about adopting him and were asked to submit an application which we did happily.

The following Saturday we had an interview in which we stated we lived with no other pets, were well informed on feeding a diet of wet and dry food, would be purchasing pet insurance for him so that his vet bills would always be covered, and he would have more than two litter boxes in our home. We are also financially independent and make more than enough to support the welfare of a cat.

We were left on the hook with no further information for a week and a half of radio silence.

Today I received a generic email stating we had been denied not only from adopting Beau but from adopting any cat from the cat house. The email was clearly copy and pasted as there was no explanation offered, and nothing personal about our case besides my name.

I believe this place wants to do the best for the cats in their care but I can’t help but feel confused and heartbroken and just altogether extremely disappointed in the way this place conducts...

I am not the kind of person who typically leaves a review unless something is very bothersome to me. With that being said, the cat house is probably one of the most frustrating places to adopt a cat. They will lead you to believe that you get accepted for an adoption just for them to tell you the next day that you got denied and even acknowledge that they told you you were going to get one, but will not give you a reason for denying them. What’s especially annoying about this, is that they say it has nothing to do with how they care for animals but how the cat house thinks that they should take care of a cat. So you could be a very good cat owner but if they have a disagreement in how you should be taking care of them, then they’re not gonna adopt them out to you and that’s just not fair because everyone sees differently on how an animal should be taken care of and if they know that the cat is safe, then I don’t see why it would be an issue. If they were to be able to fix this kind of mindset, then I do believe that they would have great potential in making a better place for those cats but as of right now I believe that the cat house is the worst place for these cats to be. And don’t just take this one review into account look at the multiple reviews that were left saying the...