Thank you for your interest in rehoming a cat from the RSPCA Chesterfield Animal Centre.

We want as many people as possible to be able to rehome a cat from us – what’s important is matching you and your family with the right cat. Below you can find information about what steps to expect during our rehoming process along with lots of other useful information. We hope to see you soon!

Adopting a cat from the RSPCA Chesterfield Animal Centre

Our Chesterfield Animal Centre Cat Adoption Unit is open for public viewing between 12pm and 3pm every day except Mondays. Alternatively, you can apply online to adopt a cat.

How the process works

1. View the available cats on our website and read their profiles.

2. Complete the online cat application form for the animal you are interested in adopting or visit our Chesterfield Animal Centre. 

3. If you meet the needs of the cat, then a member of the team will discuss your application with you and the next stage of our rehoming process. For online applications, please note that we are only able to contact successful applicants. 

4. If you and your chosen cat are a good match, we’ll arrange for you and any other members of your household to meet the cat at the animal centre.

5. If the introductions are successful, we will arrange an appointment for you to adopt your new family member from the animal centre.

6. As part of the rehoming process, we’ll ask you to provide us with videos or photos of your home and garden and any existing animals you have. We’ll also need to see written permission from your landlord to keep a cat if you live in rented accommodation and the vaccination record for any cats you already have. In some cases, we may come and visit you before or after the adoption.

7. You will receive a follow up call or email from the animal centre after the adoption to find out how your new cat has settled in. We’ll ask you to provide some form of ID (proof of name and address) prior to the adoption.

Adoption fees | Cats over 6 months from £130 | Kittens under 6 months from £160

If you would like to support our work, please visit our donation page. Thank you.

Why rehome from us?

Though there are many places you can find cats or kittens for sale, we recommend giving a rescue cat or kitten the chance of the happy life they so deserve.

“We came to the RSPCA Chesterfield Animal Centre and were given fantastic advice on the best cat to adopt for my 80 year old mother. Sandy has become a much loved member of this family. Thank you very much Chesterfield RSPCA.”

– Pat Smith | July 2017

Help and support for adopters

Introducing a new cat to your home will be exciting, rewarding and at times, challenging. It may take quite a while for your new rescue cat to settle into life with you, but don’t worry, if you do encounter some tricky bits, you’re not alone. Once you’ve adopted your new rescue cat, we’ve prepared lots of free online content for you about cat welfare and advice.

Remember, we’re still here for advice and support. Please get in touch with the animal centre and we’ll do our best to help with any questions you may have.

 Important information

Please be aware that information relating to the temperament and behaviour of our cats has been based on observations of them whilst in our care. Please note that there may be differences in behaviour observed in an animal centre environment compared to in a home environment. Any background information or history from before our cats came into our care has been provided by third parties and will be shared by us in good faith. We cannot give any guarantee to the validity of the information provided or how one of our cats may behave or react in a new home.

Veterinary responsibilities

Please be aware that after the adoption, you will become legally responsible for obtaining and funding all future veterinary treatment for your new rescue cat. This includes treatment for any pre-existing condition(s) and/or any conditions that your new rescue cat may have contracted at the animal centre and applies whether or not the symptoms were present or made known to you prior to adoption.

Frequently asked questions about cat rehoming

Our Chesterfield Animal Centre Cat Adoption Unit is open for public viewing between 12pm and 3pm every day except Mondays. Alternatively, you can apply online to adopt a cat.

If our website states that a particular cat is currently in a foster home, please contact the animal centre on 01246 273358 to arrange an appointment to visit the cat. All cats that are currently in a foster home can be brought to the animal centre for viewing by prior arrangement.

Adoption fees for cats:

  • Cats over 6 months from £130

  • Kittens under 6 months from £160

    These fees help us to cover the costs of caring for hundreds of cats every year. Every cat adopted is:

  • Neutered (or comes with a neutering voucher)

  • Microchipped

  • Vaccinated* (all cats are given standard vaccinations, but this excludes feline leukaemia)

  • Vet checked

  • Treated for fleas and worms

  • You will also receive four weeks’ insurance with Petplan absolutely FREE. This is all included in the one-off adoption fee.

* This may be part or fully vaccinated depending on how long the cat has been in our care and its medical condition. Please note we can not complete any vaccination courses post adoption.

Owning a cat is a wonderful privilege, but with that comes financial and legal responsibilities. We are always very grateful for the offer of loving homes for our cats, however your current financial situation could impact on your ability to adopt, or to adopt a particular cat considering its welfare needs.  

We have a duty to take reasonable steps to ensure that potential adopters have the ability to meet routine and emergency vet bills along with any other financial commitments that come with owning a cat. In some circumstances, such as people currently unemployed, on low income and/or low income benefits, we may need to ask for further information and/or evidence of your ability to fund veterinary costs so we can be sure that you are able to meet your responsibilities in relation to the Animal Welfare Act 2006.

We deal with each situation on a case by case basis but if after considering your individual circumstances and the information provided, we have any concerns about your ability to meet the costs of owning a cat, then unfortunately we would be unable to proceed with rehoming to you.

 Animal Welfare Act 2006

Section 9 of the Animal Welfare Act places a duty of care on people to ensure they take reasonable steps to meet the welfare needs of their animals to the extent required by good practice. In short this means positive steps must be taken to ensure owners care for their animals properly and in particular must provide for the five welfare needs, which includes the need to protect an animal from pain, suffering, injury and disease.

Further information about what this means in practice can be found in a specific Code of Practice produced by Defra (for England) and by the Welsh Government.

PDSA

We do not recommend relying on another charity to help finance your existing cat’s veterinary treatment and careful consideration should be given to this, as the charity’s service could be reduced or withdrawn at any stage or you could find that you become no longer eligible.

If you plan to use the PDSA to help finance your veterinary fees, we strongly advise that you contact them first or visit their website to check if you are eligible to qualify for PDSA veterinary services and live within a catchment area of a PDSA service. 

Please note that the PDSA has closed its Pet Practice scheme in the Chesterfield area to new registrations. 

In light of the above, we are unable to adopt to anyone who would be dependent on the PDSA or another charity as the principal source of funding for veterinary treatment and you would therefore need an alternative means of meeting these costs should you wish to rehome a cat from our animal centre.

Insurance

We would always recommend that pet owners consider taking out pet insurance. This will help you to cope financially with any unexpected bills. However, it is important to be aware that insurance will not cover preventative treatments such as vaccinations or flea and worm treatment and nor will it cover any pre-existing conditions that your cat has prior to the commencement of the insurance cover. You would therefore need to have sufficient funds to meet these costs and would also need to take account of the relevant excess (this is the amount of each claim the policyholder must pay) that applies to the insurance policy.

Yes. If you live in private rented accommodation then you will need to provide the animal centre with written permission from your landlord stating that cats are allowed to live at the property.

We do not require written permission for council or housing association properties.

As long as you are permanently resident in the UK and you are able to visit the animal centre as many times as necessary to complete the rehoming process, you are welcome to rehome from our animal centre.

Please do not travel to our animal centre to visit our cats without an appointment as our cattery is currently closed to the public. If you are making a lengthy journey to visit the cats at our Chesterfield Pets at Home Cat Adoption Lounge, you may wish to call in advance before travelling to check if there are any suitable cats available.

Every adoption is treated as an individual case, so while the process normally takes about a week, it can be shorter or longer depending on a number of factors, and this typical timeframe should not be taken as a guarantee.

Occasionally cats might need to get to know their new owners more gradually over several visits and others might be completing veterinary treatment before they can be adopted.

If you know there is a big event (moving house, going on holiday, a new baby) coming up soon, it’s best to start the process after everything has settled down, so that whenever you find your new cat, you’re ready for them.

We promote responsible pet ownership as part of our rehoming procedures. All our cats are vaccinated against common diseases and, where possible, neutered.

If you wish to adopt a cat from the animal centre, any existing cats must be fully vaccinated unless a vet has advised otherwise. We also strongly recommend that any existing cats are neutered and this is an essential requirement if the cat you are interested in adopting is of the opposite sex and cannot be neutered before adoption (or of in the case of a male cat not enough time has elapsed since castration for the cat to be guaranteed to be infertile).

We aim to publish new animals on our website weekly and update reserve information daily.

However, please be aware that our rehoming pages may not represent all the animals we have staying with us and during busy periods information may not be fully up-to-date.

Please feel free to contact the animal centre for the latest information.