She is always welcome to visit: we have so much wool, and the spinning wheel produces more! And then there are the laser pointers ...

I think there are special pensioner rates for people who are not on incomes as large as ours, and then you can also foster cats for free if you volunteer with the shelters, which often leads to adoption by the back door, but that way they get to check people out by their behaviour over time. As you rightly say, having a stiff upfront fee means that you will probably be a serious cat adopter to stump it up!