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Together, We Can Build Something Extraordinary. Imagine walking into a space where animals and people both feel like they belong. Cats lounging in sunny reading nooks. Dogs greeting visitors in bright, cozy rooms. Friends sharing coffee. Kids laughing with puppies. Remote workers typing away with a cat curled up nearby. This is the PetPromise Pet Connection — a place of joy, healing, and community.

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A PLACE OF BELONGING

WHAT TO DO IF YOU FIND A CAT OR KITTEN

first steps

FIRST: Look for Status Clues

Collar. If the cat has a collar, the cat is most likely a lost pet or a pet cat who lives nearby and is allowed to roam outdoors. If the collar includes identification, try to contact the owner.

Ear-tip. A community cat who has been spayed or neutered will have a tipped or notched ear (where a section of an ear has been surgically removed). An ear-tipped cat in good body condition may have a caretaker in the neighborhood.

Microchip. If you can get the cat into a carrier or borrow a humane trap, take him/her to a veterinarian or animal shelter to be scanned for a microchip.

SHARE: Get the word out

Talk with neighbors, mail carriers, and anyone else in your neighborhood to see if they know anything about the cat, or if they know someone nearby who feeds community cats.
File a Found Cat Report with PETFBI (a Lost Pet Registration Site). Someone may have filed a lost cat report that is a match.
If the cat is friendly, purchase a breakaway collar and include a note asking the owner or caretaker to contact you.
Post flyers in your neighborhood and, while you’re doing that, look for signs—like food and water bowls, shelters and other cats—that someone is caring for community cats. Introduce yourself as a fellow animal lover who has come across a mystery cat.
Post found notices (with pictures) on social media sites, including NextDoor, and local Facebook groups for your neighborhood and lost and found pets groups.

if you found an adult cat

If a Lost Cat: If the cat is scared and eludes the owners’ attempts to retrieve them, check out these tips for trapping a lost cat.

If a Free-Roaming or Indoor/Outdoor Pet Cat: If the cat is an owned pet who is allowed to roam freely outside, politely talk to the owners about the hazards of allowing their cat to roam outdoors and the statistics of indoor only cats versus indoor/outdoor cats' lifespans (12-15 years versus 2-5 years.) If their pet isn’t spayed/neutered, you can provide information on local low cost spay/neuter programs and the benefits of spay/neuter. You might offer to help transport the cat to the clinic if transportation is a problem.

If a Spayed or Neutered Community Cat: If the cat is a sterilized community cat who is cared for by one or more neighbors, you can offer support in a variety of ways, such as by donating cat food, helping to build a winter shelter, or feeding when the caretakers are out of town.

If a Unsterilized Community Cat: You may discover that your mystery cat is being fed by one or more households but hasn’t been spayed/neutered or vaccinated. By helping to get the cat altered, you can provide a longer, healthier life for the cat and help reduce more homeless kittens being born without homes. (See these resources for low cost spay/neuter services.)

STILL A MYSTERY?
Sometimes, you may not be able to identify an owner or caretaker for the cat. In this case, what you do should be guided by the cat’s level of socialization and the capacity of our local shelters and rescues.

If the cat is socialized and friendly, contact central Ohio shelters and rescue groups for help getting the cat vetted and placed into an adoption program. If the rescues and shelters re overwhelmed, consider fostering the cat until you can find an adopter or until rescues and shelters have more capacity (**If you are willing to foster the cat while he/she is looking for a new home, foster-based rescues like PetPromise will be much more likely to be able to assist with the medical care and placement of the cat.). If fostering is not possible and the shelters and rescues are at capacity, you can get the cat sterilized and continue providing care while you search for a home for him/her.

NOTE: While there are no hard-and-fast rules, a cat who approaches you and is friendly toward humans is more likely to be a pet who is allowed outside or a lost or abandoned pet. A cat who is unsocialized (or feral) is more likely to be a community cat. (While a cat that remains unapproachable after several days of feeding may be feral, it is still possible that it is a pet that is very scared, lost, or has been outside for a while and has had to learn to be fearful and cautious. Not all pet cats are friendly and trusting of strangers (especially outside of their home environment), and some community cats are friendly and social. So socialization alone won’t tell you if a cat has an owner or caretaker, but knowing how the cat behaves around people will help guide your efforts to help them.

you found kitten(s)

Before you scoop them up to rescue them evaluate the situation. In most cases, removing the kittens is not the best response.

HEALTHY KITTENS? Give mom time. Mother cats may leave their kittens for several hours at a time. If the kittens are warm and don’t appear sick or in distress, their mom is likely nearby, getting food or hiding from you.

The kittens’ best chances for survival are with their mom. Her milk is much better quality than kitten milk replacement. She’s able to keep them warm and stimulate them to pee and poop, as well as help them learn to be cats.

NOTE: your presence may keep the mom cat away, so monitor the nest from a distance. Or sprinkle a ring of flour around the nest or place some light twigs atop the kittens. If these are disturbed when you return or the kittens have full, rounded bellies, the mother cat is caring for her babies.

What You Should Do:
Help the mother cat do her job: Provide high-calorie food and fresh water in a nearby location (but not too close to her nest). If you hover around, she will likely move the kittens. Keep your distance and let her do the hard work of raising her babies.

Canvas the neighborhood: Mother cats will often move away from their regular feeding area to give birth. She could be someone’s pet or a member of a group of community cats being fed nearby. Talk with your neighbors and post on local social media sites to learn who may have been feeding her; they may be searching for the cat and her kittens and be able to help you as you work through the next steps. If the mother cat is friendly, you may be able to put her into a carrier with the kittens and move them indoors to keep them safe while you try to find help for them.

Start checking with shelters and rescue groups now to try to find shelter space or foster care and low-cost spay/neuter and trap-neuter-return programs for the mom and the kittens in the future.

(NOTE: That foster based rescues like PetPromise are much more likely to be in a position to help provide medical care and to help get the mother cat and kittens adopted if you are able to foster them during the process.

Depending on what shelter/rescue options are available and your own capacity, you may choose to foster the mother cat and the kittens (if the mother cat is friendly) while she raises them and she and her kittens can be spayed/neutered and adopted. If the mother is not friendly, you may choose catch the kittens once they are at least 5-6 weeks so that they can be socialized. (it is best to leave kittens with their mother until fully weaned but if Mom is feral the kitten's chances of being socialized and adopted decreases. Just be sure that you trap the mother cat and have her spayed before taking her kittens or she may leave only to become pregnant again in the next few weeks.