The shelter alternative (cheap and compassionate)

If you want a purebred cat, with the papers to prove it, your only choices are catteries or pet shops. If you don’t care about the purity of the breed, the most humane way to obtain a cat, and certainly the cheapest, is your local animal shelter or humane society. The cats there (and many of them are still kittens) face the inevitable future of being euthanized, so you get a pet and save her from death at the same time.

The typical animal shelter today charges an “adoption fee,” which is really a bargain since the shelter will have already neutered the cat and given her the required immunizations. The author’s cat Lucy was a five-month-old kitten when she was brought home from the county shelter, where she had the good sense to be the friendliest cat in her litter. Considering the adoption fee was a mere $15, Lucy has proved to be quite a bargain.