Foster Care Program
What to Consider when Fostering Cats and Kittens
First of all, thank you for your interest in becoming a Foster Parent. We want this experience to be a positive and fulfilling one for you and your family. You will be giving your foster cat/kitten a chance to adapt to a home environment while waiting for a permanent one. Veteran NTCR fosters will help you go through the initial process if it is your first time.
NTCR wants you to know that if not for caring and compassionate people like you, hundreds of wonderful cats and kittens will be euthanized or will die living as strays.
Before committing to open your home to a homeless cat/kitten, please consider the following questions. If you are still interested, please click here or the bottom of this page to go to and fill out the Foster Care application form.
- Will you be able to separate your foster(s) from the family pets for at least 10 days? This is for the safety and well-being of pets involved
- Will you be able to spend quality time with your foster(s)? It is best to spend at least 20 minutes a day with each foster. Socialization is as important as feeding and keeping them clean. It can make the difference a cat/kitten is adopted or not.
- Will you be willing to work with our vet care system? See Shelter Medicine Appendix Only vets working with NTCR can treat our foster cats/kittens at selected facilities. Some procedures are done for substantial savings to NTCR. All medications prescribed by our vets must come from our sources only, if foster gets medications from outside our system, then any cost incurred will be the foster’s responsibility. If you choose to go to a vet outside our system without our prior consent (other than life-threatening emergencies, in this case contact 214.454.9395 so we can make payment arrangement with the Vet consulted) Please try to contact NTCR before the situation becomes an emergency/after hours situation.
- Will you feel comfortable explaining to friends that these cats/kittens are not yours to adopt out and they must go through the regular adoption process at NTCR?
- Are you willing to bring the foster cat/kitten to the adoption center at Petsmart in McKinney on adoption days?
- Can you commit to spend the entire foster period with the cat(s)/kitten(s)? If you are not able to foster and have someone else care for your foster(s) for a period of time, NTCR needs to be informed and have a chance to contact the sub-foster parent.
- Are you aware that there is a chance of the foster causing damage to your home? For example: scratching furniture, curtains if allowed in areas where they are present. Not all cats/kittens will climb and scratch destructively. However, it is a risk if you choose not to isolate the cat(s)/kitten(s) in a safer, more restricted area of your home. Teaching fosters to use a scratch ing post shall be part of the socialization of the cat(s)/kitten(s).
If you still have questions and/or concerns about fostering, please feel free to discuss it with our foster coordinator and/or our foster volunteers.
As with anything else that involves change, they may be an adjustment period for you and your foster(s). Patience is the key. Many of our cats/kittens come from rough situations and are frightened. Some never felt the contact of a human. Their only way to communicate their fears is what we humans refer to as abnormal or deviant behavior. Some will hide, while others may exhibit any number of behaviors: inappropriate urination/defecation, growling, hissing, snapping, cowering in corners, etc.
We need homes for domesticated cats/kittens. Some may need to recuperate from illness; others may just be too young to adopt--we call this program “Grow a Kitten.”
Often it takes just a little longer to adopt the adults/juveniles cats, and we ask for patience from our fosters while we do everything in our power to find good permanent homes for them
Adoption
- We run ads in local papers
- We post our adoptable cats on our website as well as petfinder.com website
- We organize adoption week ends
Intake Process and Placement in Foster home
- Cats/kittens will enter our system from Animal Shelter ( NTCR pulls most its cats/kittens from Collin County Animal Shelter) after being combo tested for Feline Leukemia and FIV, being wormed, deflead and first FVRCP if old enough.
- Cats/kittens entering our system from any other person/group must be first approved by NTCR
- Each cat/kitten will be assigned a system number. At that time the foster will be given an estimated date the cat/kitten is scheduled to be fixed.
- NTCR will contact the foster with an exact date and time to bring the cat/kitten to the vet to be fixed. Recovery time varies from a few days for males to 2 weeks for a female
- At the estimated adoption time, NTCR will contact the foster to schedule adoption times.
- NTCR encourages fosters to take pictures of their cats/kittens and give a short bio so that we can post them on our website ASAP.
- We have kitty condos( just a few so far), for our fosters to use if needed
- Make sure that when you receive your fosters that NTCR has all pertinent info: age, sex, color and system number. You will be given a form with all these info + services given at time of intake, we will ask you to keep the info on this form updated. We will be sending out a small guide listing these info.
- NTCR will also send a small guide out to the fosters listing some typical symptoms/diseases/treatments. We hope this will help you.
- When you bring your foster cat(s)/kitten(s) home for the first time, try to confine in a small room ( bathroom, powder room and laundry room are ideal) that can be shut off from the rest of your family and personal pets. Put out water, food and a litter box. In addition, consider leaving the carrier out, with the carrier’s door opened for the cat/kitten to crawl into until it feels secure enough to explore the new room on its own.
- Be sure to remove toilet paper and clear things off the counters and any other surfaces the cat could jump onto and accidentally knock over.
- Talk very softly anytime you are with the cat/kitten in that room.
- Try to avoid sudden loud noises
- Depending on previous circumstances, cat/kitten may be ready to explore and let you pet him gently shortly after arrival or it may take several hours or days: BE PATIENT THAT IS OKAY
When the cat/kitten decides to go to the next level of friendship, you will know! In most cases it will quickly realize YOU ARE THE FOOD GIVER and will love you for it!
Please keep in mind that although the cats/kittens may appear healthy, we often do not know if they were exposed to any diseases, infections or parasites, other than what we have already tested or treated for. We strongly recommend that you wash your hands after handling. A few things, like ringworm (fungal infection similar to athlete’s foot in humans) are contagious to humans. It is easily treated if you are sensitive to it. Click here to go to the Foster Contract.
