Why FosterCat?

Foster Cat, Inc. is all about saving lives. It’s as simple as that. We are an all-volunteer non-profit organization dedicated to the proposition that all cats and kittens deserve safe, loving, permanent homes.

Our foster parents provide temporary care for cats and kittens in their homes until they can be placed for adoption. Their compassion provides the second chance that so many stray, abandoned or homeless kitties need, and the satisfaction of knowing that they have helped save the lives of these helpless animals.

FosterCat provides training and support, medications, food and litter as needed, and absorbs all veterinary expenses associated with the care of our kitties. If you love kitties and would like to be a part of our lifesaving team, consider opening your heart and home to cats or kittens in need. We promise you won’t regret it! If you can’t foster, you can still help save lives as a volunteer or supporting member. Click on “How You Can Help”, above, for more information.

 

 

You Go, Gus!

Since I began fostering kitties some 18 years ago, I have had hundreds of feline “guests” share my home. Some have stayed with me for a few days, others weeks or months, and a few have been with me for years. I have photos of many of them and I can remember something about each one. But there are some that I remember with special fondness, and Gus is one of those.

 

Gus (whose name at the time was Fluffy) came to me from the Western PA Humane Society as a very sick kitty. He had been there for over a month and they had been treating him for a severe respiratory infection with a variety of antibiotics, with no success. He was barely eating, so had to be force fed. He was seriously under weight and his coat was dull, stringy and matted with the residue of various meds. He was anything but “fluffy”; he looked miserable and I’m sure he felt miserable too.

 

Gus spent the next two months in my bathroom. His long road to recovery began after a trip to our vet for an exam and the prescription of several different medications. Every day I brushed him until his coat was clean and free of mats. I coaxed him to eat and he began to put on weight. He looked like a new cat and a very handsome one at that. He was also very sweet and affectionate and I thought he’d be adopted right away.

 

Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out that way. Gus made three trips to the PetSmart adoption center over the next several months, but no one applied to adopt him. During his next stay, when I had gone into the center to put another kitty into a cage, I bent down to visit with Gus, but he was not in his cage I looked in the other cages, but no Gus there either. My heart was pounding when I went to ask one of the managers what had happened and learned that one of the PetSmart employees had adopted him out two days earlier. (Some agencies allow PetSmart employees to make their adoption decisions, and one of them had apparently thought Gus belonged to one of those agencies.)

 

I got the name and phone number of the adopter from PetSmart’s records and contacted them immediately to explain what had happened and to tell them that I would need to qualify them as adopters based on FosterCat’s adoption procedures. As it turned out, they had seven children, of which four were under the age of 6, and before I could finish my due diligence, they had decided that Gus was not a good fit for their home. They brought him back to me and I can’t tell you how glad I was to see him When I took Gus to PetSmart for the last time, it was a little more than a year since I’d brought him home.

 

I had pretty much decided that if he wasn’t adopted this time, I would adopt him myself. But it was not to be. Gus’s new family had actually been planning to adopt a kitten when they saw Gus and fell in love. As it turned out, they had adopted another of our kitties a few years earlier, so now Gus and Oscar enjoy lounging together and watching the world go by. And that is my idea of a very happy ending. You go, Gus!

 

 

Visit FosterCat's Adoptables at these places:

Come see some of our cats at the Cranberry, Monroeville, Northway Mall and West Mifflin PetSmart Locations!

 

 

Animal Abuse Hotline for Pennsylvania

The Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has established a statewide toll-free hotline for reporting cases of animal abuse. Concerned citizens observing incidents of abuse may contact the Society at (866) 601-SPCA.

Our Mission

The mission of FosterCat Inc. is to develop and sustain an organization to provide temporary foster care for cats and kittens in private homes until permanent homes can be found.