Why Teenage Kittens Are Underrated

In Defense of the Teenage KitteN

We get it. Tiny kittens are ridiculously cute.  The oversized heads, the tiny paws, the little round bellies... The fact that they can fall asleep basically anywhere and somehow make even eating dinner look adorable.

But we’d like to make a case for an age group that doesn’t get nearly enough attention:

The teenage kitten.

You know the ones. They’re no longer tiny enough to fit in the palm of your hand, but they’re definitely not grown-up cats yet. They’re long and lanky. Their ears may or may not appear to belong to a much larger animal. And they are still, in every way that matters, kittens.

They also happen to be pretty fantastic pets.

You Actually Know Who You’re Adopting

Very young kittens are adorable little mysteries.  At eight or nine weeks old, their personalities are still developing. That tiny snuggler may grow into an independent adventurer. The quiet one may discover at four months old that her true calling is parkour.

With a teenage kitten, much more of that personality has already emerged.
Is she a lap cat? You’ll probably know.

Does he want to follow you from room to room supervising everything you do? His foster can tell you.

Does she love other cats? Dogs? Kids? Does she sleep on your head? Carry toys around the house? Demand to participate in Zoom meetings?

This is one of the biggest advantages of adopting from a foster-based rescue like Kitty of Angels. Our kittens live in real homes, so their fosters get to know who they actually are.  And when you’re choosing a new family member, that’s pretty useful information.

They’re Still Kittens. We Promise.

Somewhere along the way, people seem to get the impression that a six-month-old kitten has packed a briefcase, opened a 401(k), and become a middle-aged accountant. Nope.

Teenage kittens are still gloriously ridiculous.

They chase toys. They wrestle. They zoom through the house for reasons known only to them. They climb things they shouldn’t. They investigate bags, boxes and anything else you foolishly believed belonged to you.

There’s still plenty of kitten chaos.

It’s just often a slightly more manageable variety of kitten chaos.

You Can Skip Some of the Tiny-Baby Stage

Tiny kittens are wonderful. They’re also tiny babies.  They need more supervision. They’re exceptionally talented at finding microscopic spaces you didn’t know existed. They haven’t necessarily learned what’s appropriate to climb, scratch, bite, eat, knock over or launch themselves from.

Teenage kittens have usually gotten some of those early lessons under their belts. They’ve had more time to learn how to live with humans. They’ve developed better coordination. Their foster families have been helping them learn good habits and become confident little members of a household.

They’re still going to do dumb kitten stuff.  We would never deprive you of that.  They’re just a little farther along in their education.

They’re Ready to Be Part of Your Life

​One of our favorite things about teenage kittens is that they’re at such a fun stage.
They’re young enough that you still get to watch them grow up, but old enough that you can already see the cat they’re becoming.

And because they’ve spent those important early months in foster homes, we can help match adopters with kittens whose personalities actually fit their lives.

Want a couch buddy?  We’ve probably got one.
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Looking for a confident little lunatic who will entertain you daily?  Oh, we definitely have one.

Want a buddy for your current cat?  We can tell you which kittens have been thriving with feline friends.

That’s the beauty of adopting a kitten whose personality has had a little time to show itself.
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Meet Some of Our Current Teenagers

Winsome has two great loves in life: being involved in absolutely everything you’re doing and telling you all about it.This affectionate, chatty boy will follow you around, cause a little mischief, wrestle with his sister, and then settle into your lap to purr and make biscuits. The only thing bigger than his spectacular ears is his heart — and those ears have set a very high bar. ❤️

Don’t let Pumpkin’s shy-at-events routine fool you. Put her back in the comfort of her foster home and, apparently, a tiny comical terror emerges. 😂 She’s the perfect example of why meeting kittens at adoption events doesn’t always tell you the whole story - sometimes their real personality is waiting for you at home.

Dot is what we might politely call a stage-five clinger. And we mean that as the highest compliment. This sweet, cuddly girl would very much like to be wherever her people are, preferably touching them. If you’ve been looking for a kitten who thinks personal space is wildly overrated, Dot would like a word.

And because rescue changes quickly, some of these teenagers may have already found their families by the time you’re reading this...which is exactly what we’re hoping for.

Don’t Overlook the Big Kids

​There will always be something irresistible about a teeny-tiny kitten.

But if you’re thinking about adding a kitten to your family, don’t automatically scroll past the slightly bigger ones.

The four-month-olds. The six-month-olds. The nine-month-olds with enormous ears and legs they haven’t quite figured out yet.

They’re still babies.

They’re still hilarious.

They’re still growing.

And one of them might turn out to be exactly the cat you’ve been looking for.
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Ready to meet them? Check out Kitty of Angels’ currently available cats and kittens and find your new best friend.

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