With the overwhelming kitten season this year leaving too many cats needing a home and too few fosters to help, I wanted to put the need for temporary homes out there for discussion. I’ll make this article short and allow the comments to carry it.
How are things in YOUR area? I’m curious as to whether this is only occurring in the south or across the United States.
I stay as informed as possible, meaning I check around on Facebook and see how foster homes are desperately needed. Many fosterers are overwhelmed and have more than they can comfortably care for. One foster mom told me a lady offered a HUGE sum of money for a rescue to take in her unwanted litter. No rescue in her area had space, which shows money can’t buy everything.
Fosters are packed. Even humane societies that boast about being no kill are filled with cage after cage of unwanted cats. The system, for lack of a better term, is bottlenecked.
There are a lot of black kittens out there and this is a dangerous month to adopt those out because of Halloween dangers.
Cat lovers, consider taking a cat or kitten in need into your home for a short time. There are plenty of foster-to-adopt programs out there and it’s also a good way to learn whether you’re prepared to take on a cat for the next 20 years. Some people only THINK they want a cat and fostering will allow them to test the situation out before making a long-term commitment.
Cat rescues, please feel free to ask for fosters and give the contact information for your area. Fosterers, you can post a photo and rescue contact information in the comment section of any cats in your care.
Great article, Elisa. This is why spay/neuter is needed for domestic cats, and TNR programs for feral cat colonies. Until the feline population explosion can be somewhat controlled, too many cats will continue to suffer. 😢💜💜🐾
Thanks Kris. IMPORTANT: Please tell us where you are. I presume the email address is the correct one for contacting you? If you provide some more details I’ll turn your comment into an article and promote it.
We have been caring for a feral colony in our backyard for almost 9 years. My husband tries to socialize them, and if they can be, they are put up for adoption. We had some help in the past, but can’t get any for the 5 kittens in our ‘kitten’ room who are ready for adoption. We have 3 cats of our own, ages 14, 10 and 9, plus the 8 ferals outside, 4 of which have been spayed/neutered. This is all at our expense, and we have put out probably thousands of our own money to take care of them. We cannot do this anymore, and I put out a plea for help. One person contacted me to foot the bill for the spay/neuter if we can trap them. We also now have a person in our neighborhood who has started to trap the cats, then will call Animal Control to pick them up. To answer this question – yes, there was a kitten explosion in our colony, we have 5 kittens who need good, loving homes, and 9 cats outside that we still feed and try to care for.
I have been a foster carer once and I adopted the kitten! End of fostering 😉
My experience with fostering is that sometimes you get stuck with them.
My friend Marleen posted the following on Facebook:
There isn’t really a “kitten season” any longer in the south. Not sure where the line is drawn going north but we are year-round now just as it is in the very most southern states as Ga and Fl. There is not a home for each one. There are fosters who will never find a home. So what happens to all those who need a home and cannot find a home and I don’t mean a home where they are put out to be killed by other animals or people. If a rescue does not have a facility to move cats in and out, fosters won’t come forward as they are not looking to add huge numbers of cats to their home for life. Who pays for all of this? After the elections, the fight for mandatory spay-neuter will continue and push forward to stop this insanity.