Feline-Ality: Meet Your Match

Finding the perfect cat has become a lot easier — and a lot more accurate than the old "that cat looks nice" approach.

The San Francisco SPCA is one of the first shelters in the country using Meet Your Match, a program that brings people and cats together in lasting relationships.

Here's How It Works

Adopters arriving at Maddie's adoption center are asked to fill out a survey (Adobe PDF, 356 KB). It takes less than five minutes.

It is not a test and there are no right or wrong answers — only questions intended to gauge your expectations in a pet and determine what type of cat would be best suited to your home. It's also a helpful tool in matching a new cat with any cats already in your home.

When the survey is scored, SPCA volunteers are able to determine what "felinality" suits you best. For example, most folks grade out as ideal Sidekick guardians. In turn, most of our cats grade out as Sidekicks, a middle-of-the road cat who's social and affectionate, deals fairly well with new situations and enjoys play.

We determine felinality by taking the cats into a room with a behavior specialist armed with a stop watch and a clipboard. We put the cat through its paces, timing the cat-to-human approach, grading the reaction to petting and a variety of other tests — including hugging and tail tugging.

The cats are graded on two scales, one measuring how social the cat is and the other measuring how the cat deals with new situations and people, bravery in other words. We then assign one of nine felinalities, ranging from the independent and cautious Secret Admirer to the gregarious and valiant Leader of the Band.

It gets the potential guardian involved in the adoption process in a meaningful way, and is much more accurate than walking around Maddie's window shopping. And because everyone knows what to expect, the cat's transition from home to shelter is smooth.

And most importantly, it provides a big head start into that "happily ever after" animal-human bond.

You can download and complete the survey here (Adobe PDF, 356 KB) and bring it into Maddie's with you, or you can do when you arrive at the shelter.

Download the Meet Your Match survey (Adobe PDF, 356 KB)

View the Meet Your Match Feline-alities chart (Adobe PDF, 230 KB)