How to Rehome a Domestic Shorthair

There is no breed standard to quote here, and that is the point: the domestic shorthair is the general Canadian cat population, every temperament and colour included. What the rehoming stories share is that they are about the household, not the cat:

• Moving and housing. The big one. No-pets clauses, rental turnover, a landlord's change of heart. If a move is forcing your decision, our moving guide covers the timeline and the keep-the-cat options first.
• Allergies. A new partner, a new baby, a reaction that worsened. Our allergy guide covers what to try before deciding.
• Finances. Vet bills, food, and rent all rose, and some households have to choose.
• An owner's illness or death. If you are handling this for a parent or an estate, our owner-illness guide walks it through without judgement.
• Behaviour, occasionally. Litter box issues and cat-to-cat conflict are the honest exceptions, and both are workable with disclosure: the next home manages what it knows about.

Whatever the reason, say it plainly in the listing. Adopters respond to a straight story, and an ordinary cat with an honest write-up beats a vague one with better photos.

A quick untangling, because the labels confuse people into underselling their cats. Tabby is a coat pattern: the stripes, swirls, and the trademark M on the forehead. Tuxedo and calico are colour patterns: black-and-white formal wear and the tri-colour patchwork. Domestic shorthair and domestic longhair describe coat length in the general cat population. None of these is a breed, and TICA's Household Cat category exists precisely to celebrate that: non-pedigree cats compete at cat shows on temperament and condition alone.

What this means for your listing: describe the cat, not a label. "Brown tabby, green eyes, six years old, sleeps on the bed, greets visitors at the door" finds a home; "mixed breed cat" finds a scroll-past. Do use the pattern words, because adopters genuinely search by look, and "rehome my tabby" is a phrase typed into search bars every week in Canada. And never pay for a DNA test or invent a breed to make the listing fancier. The cat you have is the most popular kind of cat in the country, which is exactly why the next section matters.

Here is the truth this guide owes you. Kittens place themselves; a healthy kitten with decent photos is spoken for in days. Adult domestic shorthairs take longer, because they compete with every shelter and rescue in the province, and pretending otherwise sets you up to panic and hand the cat to the first applicant. Three things close the gap.

1. Photos that do the cat justice. Clean window light, eye level, no flash, and at least one photo of the cat doing something characteristic: loafing, playing, draped on a person. Add a short video; motion sells personality that stills cannot. This is the single highest-return hour of the whole process.

2. A fair fee and real screening. A modest fee filters out impulse takers and the people who collect free animals for the wrong reasons, and it costs a genuine adopter nothing to accept. Pair it with a vet reference and a meeting at a home. The indoor-only conversation belongs here too; our Ragdoll guide covers it in depth and it applies to every cat, ordinary or not.

3. Patience matched to the cat. A healthy adult with a good listing typically places in three to eight weeks. Seniors take longer, but the demand is real: quiet households and retirees often specifically want a calm older cat whose personality is a known quantity, so tell the senior's story warmly and let it find its people. Bonded pairs must stay together, full stop; two cats that groom each other and sleep tangled are a pair, and our Siamese guide covers the bonded-pair rule in depth, including why splitting them fails everyone.

Disclosure for an ordinary cat is short, and one item matters more than all the others combined.

• Litter habits, truthfully. This is the make-or-break disclosure for any cat. If there has ever been a spraying or missing-the-box problem, say what happened, what the vet found, and what management works. A home that knows can plan; a home that discovers is a bounce-back.
• The complete vet records. Vaccination history, spay or neuter status (have this done before handover if at all possible), dental notes, and anything a vet is watching. The Cornell Feline Health Center is a solid reference to pass along to a first-time owner.
• Behaviour with children, dogs, and other cats. What you have actually observed, not what you hope. For most cats this section is a selling point.
• Any bite or scratch history, with context. What happened, what triggered it, what has changed since.
• The personality, in specifics. Lap cat or parallel cat, talkative or quiet, favourite spots, favourite games. Specifics are what make an ordinary cat's listing extraordinary.

Charge a modest rehoming fee, even for an ordinary cat, and especially for an ordinary cat. Free-to-good-home listings attract impulse takers and worse, and the fee is the cheapest screening tool that exists. For a healthy adult domestic shorthair a modest fee, generally below what the pedigree guides in this series suggest, is normal in Canada (this is a directional range, not a fixed rule), paired with a vet reference and a meeting at your home or theirs. Donate it to a cat rescue afterward if keeping it feels wrong; the screening value is the point, and the rescues taking in the cats that were not rehomed carefully could use it.