Which SPCA were you looking into?

When I went to go adopt a cat with my fiancé, the SF SPCA were so upfront about known problems with the cats they had that I was surprised because it wasn't something I had really considered. We ended up adopting a cat from SF Animal Care & Control in the end since the SPCA had no more younger-than-5-years cats to adopt that day. SF ACC (and I assume SF SPCA too) not only test for health and behavioral issues before even making pets available for adoption, but also keep track of day to day behavior and are upfront about everything they found out while they've had the cat. It wouldn't be in anyone's benefit to make someone adopt a pet without learning of major, discoverable problems anyway, since the cats would be back for adoption soon if it was that bad.

Anyway, we found the sweetest 2 year old cat that had been abandoned by her owner that had nothing bad about her except that she doesn't like other cats and that she had been around at the shelter for a couple months because nobody wanted an "older" cat to adopt. She loves to just sit around and preen herself, and occasionally knocks our mice over or sits in front of our computers or on our laptops asking for treats. Life is so much better with her around, no idea what we would have done without her or with a different cat, and we were also of the "we really want to get kittens, maybe we should check breeders" mindset thankfully changed by an SPCA volunteer that gave us a heads up about the ACC shelter across the street. Maybe you can find a cat like her too instead of getting a kitten from a breeder :)

The really bad cases were in Singapore. I'm probably waiting until I buy/rent a house in WA next year, so maybe up in Bellevue I'll look, but one of the world's top 5 Russian Blue breeders is in Hillsborough, and she offered one of her retired show cats, which might be better than a kitten. The advantage of a kitten is I want to train the cat to be comfortable in cars, as well as (ideally) to use a toilet. Show cats tend to be used to travel, at least.

IIRC, cats that are trained to use a toilet have issues when they get older. You might want to look into that.

Yeah, on further research, I think I'll just get a super-automatic litter box. It's not just when they're older; it's when they're at a vet, in transit, etc.

I have no experience with cats, but a lot of experience with adopting dogs from the SPCA (Pasadena) or private shelters. I.e., mutts from the pound. If you know something about pets, and/or the shelter has expertise with adoption, you should be able to adopt a dog who would be a good match for you or your family.

You should be able to set aside a few months to deal with any issues the dog has, like anxiety or other behavioral issues, and to dial in the diet and routines like walks. The shelter should be able to help with some of this. Taking this time is similar to dealing with a puppy.

I know you wrote about cats, but I felt a need to chime in about adopting companion animals from a shelter instead of going to a breeder. Adoption from a shelter is a perfectly good option, and it's a way to do some animal a favor, maybe saving its life.