Foster - Help rehabilitate a cat in need
Fostering saves lives, and helps cats and kittens to adjust to a normal home life. Please note that we work with difficult cats most of the time – you will need patience and understanding that each cat is different and could take more time to adjust to human contact.
A foster carer is someone who agrees to care for one or more of our rescue cats or kittens on a temporary basis until furever homes are found. When the cat in your care is adopted then you can opt to take on another cat to care for so that we can continue help cats to live their best 9th live.
What do I need?
- A genuine passion for animal welfare, and cats of course! No prior experience necessary as we provide training.
- Patience and understanding that some cats will require work to earn their trust before you can touch them
- Be the owner of your home, or have written permission from your landlord stating that you are permitted to provide foster care for cats.
- Any current animals must have their vaccinations and flea/worm treatments up to date, and must be de-sexed.
We would prefer it if your animals get along with cats or have had positive experiences with them previously. We do prefer non-smokers or carers who do not smoke inside, where the foster cat will be housed.
So, what does it involve?
All of our foster carers are provided with a foster carers manual before they receive their first foster cat so that they can refer to it if any queries arise. We are more than happy to have you contact us about any concerns with your foster cat at any time of the day or night.
Any cats you agree to foster for us will be provided for by The 9 Lives Project in the way of bowls, bedding, toys, flea/worm treatments and any other medical requirements. The only real cost to you is time and love unless you wish to help us by purchasing and donating food and flea treatments for the cat in your care.
We also ask that you make yourself and home available (at your convenience of course), to allow prospective adopters to meet the cat you have in your care in the hope that they will want to make them part of their family. This may only happen once or as many times as it takes to get the cat adopted.
When we place your foster feline with you we ask you to sign a contract which ensures you care for the cat the way we have asked and clarifies that while in your care they are still belong to 9 Lives Project Rescue. We will also supply you with health monitoring charts that we ask you to complete on your foster cat for the first few weeks they are in your care. We ask you to do this so that you can assess if the cat is having any issues either with eating, drinking or going to the toilet. This is the easiest way that we can identify if the new feline has any issues/problems that we need to address.