Cat fostering

[Confusedcatlady1]

I am thinking of offering my services to my local cat rescue as a fosterer once the lock down restrictions have relaxed. I have three cats of my own so, as a family, we're cat people and I have a separate area that I can keep the fostered cat away from the resident cats. The rescue centre and vets are local to me so it will be easy enough for me to drive to for treatment. Before I commit to this I wondered if any cat fosterers out there could give some insight as what I can expect? Thank you.

It sounds as though you have a good set up if by 'separate area' you actually mean 'separate room or rooms'.

Fosterers are normally needed to foster mums and kittens until the kittens are old enough to be homed. All you would need to do would be to look after them and to make sure the kittens get plenty of socialisation. The rescue will normally provide food.

Most large rescues will generally only use fosterers for this purpose. However some smaller ones, and CP, don't have facilities to look after many/any cats and so use fosterers instead of a rescue centre, placing rescued cats with fosterers until they can be found permanent homes.

The CP centre I volunteer at tends to need foster homes for cats who aren't quite ready to be homed. These are usually cats who haven't been given the all clear from the vet. They may be on medication (so you would need to be ok with that) or could just be a case of needing to recuperate for a couple of weeks. The cats tend to do better in a home environment and also if they are in foster care it frees up space for other cats.
So if you can foster do it as rescues are always in need of fosters.

Thank you both for your advice.
The rescue is actually a CP and I'm at that stage of saying 'yes' but because it's a big decision I just wanted some idea of what it involves. Two of my cats are rescue cats (one was a local stray cat who turned up at my back door and another was a stray who had been fostered from a few days old) and I'm so grateful for the lady who fostered our cat before she came to me - she knew the cat's personality and could match the kitten to a suitable family.

My concern is how much time it involves - I suppose that's a case of 'how long is a piece of string'.

Is it through a CP branch rather than adoption centre? I ask as I believe the branches do use fosterers as TCN described until the cats are homed which I guess is more time consuming than looking after a cat for a few weeks until cat goes back to centre to be homed.
Speak to CP again before committing to it.

If it’s a pregnant cat or one with a litter of newborns, be warned that you really need not one spare room but two, once you get to the stage of gradually accustoming them to time apart. As you have older cats in the house, they can’t come in contact with mother or kittens.

Kittens are teeny manic escape artists...

Meanwhile, unspayed mum will start climbing the walls and trying to escape by shredding the carpet in order to get upduffed again as soon as possible.

Oh, and you WILL fall for one of the litter - probably the smallest and sickest - and struggle to give it up for rehoming.