It’s kitten season. Each spring and summer, as sure as the tulips and strawberries come, animal shelters across the nation burst with adorable feline furballs.

So it’s no accident that the ASPCA chose June to be Adopt-a-Shelter-Cat Month. But when you visit your local shelter, don’t forget that there are many advantages to adopting an adult cat instead of a kitten.

For starters, the playfulness of kittens is part of their charm, but it has its downside.

“You have to be able to live with what we call the kitten-zoomies,” says Gail Buchwald, senior vice president of the ASPCA’s Adoption Center and Mobile Clinic in New York. Kittens have very high energy levels. They can be trained, but be warned: “It’s like telling a teenager to chill out,” she says.

Bringing any new animal into your household requires some adjustments, of course. But babies of any species require more “child-proofing” and often have an inconvenient concept of the daily schedule.

“If you have plants, rugs, things that can be knocked over – all of those things are going to be changed,” Buchwald says. “These antics are cute, but maybe at five in the morning when you’re trying to sleep you don’t want the blankets pulled off.”

Raising a kitten is less complicated than raising a puppy – no need for housebreaking or teaching polite behavior in public. But, “frequently people have misconceptions about what it takes to entertain and be the caregiver for a kitten,” Buchwald says. “People will bring a kitten back to the shelter and say, ‘There’s something wrong with him, he never calms down, he runs around all night.’ We say, ‘Diagnosis: Kitten.'”

In contrast, adult cats are calmer and less energetic. In addition, by 2 years old, they have clearly developed personalities.

“Then you really get to see what kind of cat you’ve got,” Buchwald says. “If someone comes in and says, ‘I want a lap cat,’ I can do that.”

There also are health issues to consider. Cats must be 6 months or older before they can be tested for two serious diseases, feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) and feline leukemia virus (FeLV).

Cats with FeLV typically don’t live past age 2 or 3. FIV, in contrast, much like human HIV, can be managed with the proper care. But the burden of both diseases can be avoided if you adopt an animal that’s already old enough to have undergone the test.