Well, I don’t want to give up my cat. I also seriously doubt that any religious order will take me in because of my disabilities. I have literally had nuns from convents tell me that no convent will accept me because of my disabilities.
To state such a thing is wrongful to my mind, Holly. Sometimes God can indicate His Will not my positive factors, but by negative factors such as impediments. For example, Jesus being God knows our love for Him and that we would desire and strive to enter religious life, but He has another plan for us, so He puts in place impediments to religious life in order that we not go in that direction as our journey in life, because we are unable. It is quite natural and normal for a person who does love Jesus ardently to desire to give their whole lives to Him. With religious life there are quite public rituals, dress, environment etc. etc. that ‘shout’ to the whole world "I love Jesus and desire to give my entire life to Him and have done so! With the single life and in love with Jesus, there is nothing like this. One is hidden as it were and most often no one knows except Jesus of our great love for Him. We SHOUT nonetheless - simiply look at little St Therese of Lisieux, she was not canonized because she was a Carmelite nun, but because she ardently loved Jesus and gave her whole selfhood and life to Him unreservedly. We can do this too though we are not Carmelite nuns nor even nuns or religious sisters, but humble secular lay people. St Therese has been, and is, a great influence forgood in not only The Church, but the entire world - not because she was a nun, but because of the way she lived her journey loving Jesus, giving her whole self to Him, her life…a grain of wheat must die in order to flower. And we are asked to die to our own self - and this might mean die to our deepest desire and hope. That is probably one of the most painful things one can experience in life.
It was not St Therese that effected all that happened after she died both in The Church and in the world, it was Jesus and THROUGH her, because of her - and that she did die to herself. She, the grain of wheat, died to herself - and look what happened!
No one can state whether a religious community would accept you or not as an absolute or for absolutely sure. Some just might.
Have you considered a Secular Institute of Consecrated Life? These woman make canonical vows and are therefore in the consecrated state of life, which is the category for religious life per se also. However most all live in their own homes, meet regularly, are totally responsible for themselves just as any secular person. They live a formal Rule of Life.
You could make private vows and live just a single life in the secular world as a lay person - although you don’t HAVE to make private vows. You could write a Rule of Life for yourself or follow an established rule of life with your own statutes. But if it is religious life per se you desire, then keep trying as long as the desire persists. Goodness! I know what a suffering it can be over years to be continually turned away from the Convent door, sometimes quite crushed by what was said to me. But it is not people in whom I invest, it is Jesus. It is The Lord! I have eventually found because of the great Peace and Joy I experience (Fruits of The Holy Spirit) the way Jesus invited me to travel in the single life under private vows. It has been a very long road with many little sufferings. But we don’t make the sign of The Cross for nothing, nor proclaim it as our symbol. We live it out in our own lives united to His Sufferings whom we love.
As I said, I have had the experience myself and it is uncharitable and wrongful to send a person away from an application or enquiry re religious life with statements that are negative about the person. It can be crushing to say the least. And religious per se are supposed to be ideally living out Charity in every moment in their lives and with every person - not crushing them ‘because they aint good enough for them and they don’t think that one is good enough for anyone like them’ - it is their offence against Charity and their problem…should it occur.
God bless you and grant you much Peace and Joy. How He must love a person who can’t bear the thought of leaving their cat. After all, He created our furry friends too and loves them. And how our little furry friends need us. They are very vulnerable without us needing love and care just as any creature does. Without us, domesticated animals are alone and victims of their own vulnerability - they could not even feed themselves and would find survival on their own in the wild a cruel way to live. Jesus knows all this. You’re cat is blest and very blest in you.
I have read where young women entering religious life found one of the hardest things to do was to leave their little pet or pets…and what about how the pets must feel to loose a beloved master or mistress for their entire lives. They feel it too. Sometimes, Jesus does not want the little furry pal to be left and so He grants to the owner a firm desire to never leave them. All is Grace as Little St Therese said, ALL EVERYTHING NOTHING EXCEPTED!
God bless you, Holly…Tigger
and I can understand not wanting to give up the cat; however, that is much like the follower that wanted to bury is his father first…
because it is not a challenge? 
). None of these children have the foggiest notion of what it is to be celibate/chaste… trust me, the boy has to be gently re-directed on a fairly regular basis – but he’s only three and I doubt very much has any idea as to what is going on. Gota luv the children 
