Short version: fostering a cat means taking one in temporarily, whether that’s a mom with a litter, a kitten too young for surgery, or an adult who does badly in a shelter, until it’s ready to be adopted. The organization usually pays the vet bills and often supplies the food. You provide a room, a routine, a lot of attention, and rides to appointments. There’s no single place to sign up in this metro. You apply to one organization at a time, and they want quite different things.
That last part is most of what’s below.
What a foster cat actually is
Not every cat in the system is ready for an adoption floor on the day it arrives, and fostering is how that gap gets covered. The Animal Humane Society describes the typical foster candidates as kittens too young for spay or neuter surgery, animals recovering from surgery or illness, and pregnant or nursing animals. It says nearly 1,000 animals who come to it each year need foster care before they’re ready for new homes.
Smaller cat rescues describe much the same list, with a few additions. Feline Rescue in Saint Paul names expectant mothers, cats with nursing kittens, injured cats, cats with chronic conditions such as diabetes, cats with feline leukemia, and frail or elderly cats. It says its foster network looks after more than 150 cats and kittens at any given time.
And then there are rescues with no building at all. For them, fostering isn’t an add-on. It’s the whole operation. Cause for Paws, based in Roseville, describes itself as all-volunteer and foster home–based: every one of its cats lives in a volunteer’s home until it’s adopted. If you want to see which organizations work that way, we keep a list of foster-based rescues.
Pick the kind of cat before you pick the organization
“Fostering cats” covers several jobs that have almost nothing in common. Knowing which one you’re signing up for matters more than which logo is on the paperwork.
Bottle babies. Orphaned newborns. The Bitty Kitty Brigade, a neonatal kitten rescue, is plain about the schedule: kittens up to three weeks old are fed every two to four hours around the clock. That’s newborn-baby territory, and it’s the job that saves the most fragile animals in the system. The Animal Humane Society calls its bottle-baby role an advanced one that needs cat and kitten experience.
Weaned kittens. Roughly six to twelve weeks. No overnight feedings, lots of chaos, and a real job underneath the fun: getting them used to hands, noises and people so they’re adoptable. Anyone who’s watched a litter of eight-week-olds discover a paper bag knows it’s not a hardship posting.
Moms with litters. A pregnant or nursing cat and her kittens. Feline Rescue says a mother cat with young must always be kept safely away from other pets, because of her instinct to protect them. Plan on a room that’s hers.
Adults who need time. Cats recovering from surgery, cats on daily medication, cats who shut down in a kennel, and seniors. Quieter work, and sometimes the longest stays.
Respite. Short-term cover while another foster is away. Pet Haven and the Bitty Kitty Brigade both mention it. It’s a good way to find out whether you like this before you commit to a litter.
What the organization covers, and what you do
The programs we read line up closely here, which is reassuring.
Covered, in the programs we checked:
- Vet care. Five of the six programs we read say they pay for medical care, and Minneapolis’s foster page doesn’t say either way. Usually that means the organization’s own partner clinics, with approval first. Pet Haven is explicit: don’t take a foster animal to a vet without prior approval from its vet care manager.
- Food and supplies. The Animal Humane Society lists food, medication, kennels, toys and basic supplies. The Bitty Kitty Brigade and Pet Haven say much the same.
- Someone to call. Pet Haven assigns each new foster a mentor. The Bitty Kitty Brigade says it offers 24/7 support.
Your side of it, as the programs describe it:
- A space. Not a big one. The Bitty Kitty Brigade says the youngest kittens can live in a tub, older ones in a playpen, and from six weeks up a spare room, office or large bathroom works. It should be temperature controlled and escape proof. Cause for Paws requires foster cats to be kept indoors only.
- Transport. Vet visits, rechecks, spay and neuter appointments, and sometimes adoption events. Cause for Paws brings cats to adoption days at pet stores. The Bitty Kitty Brigade and Feline Rescue have adopters meet the cat in your home.
- Updates. Photos and an honest description of the cat’s personality. The listing an adopter reads is often written from what you tell the rescue.
- Letting go. Feline Rescue and the Bitty Kitty Brigade both screen adopters through their own teams before you meet anyone. Pet Haven fosters work with its volunteers to respond to applicants. Either way, you’re the one handing over the carrier.
How the application usually goes
Expect something closer to a job application than a sign-up form. That’s the same thing we said about adopting through a rescue, and for the same reason: the organization is responsible for the animal the whole time it’s in your house.
Here’s what the steps look like at a few of them. These six are here because they publish their foster requirements in detail on their own sites, which made them checkable — not because we’re recommending them, and they aren’t the whole list. Plenty of other rescues run foster programs too, and the foster-based list linked above is the place to see them.
- Minneapolis Animal Care & Control says anyone can apply to foster. After the application comes a 10–15 minute online training, then a call from staff. You’ll need an emergency contact, and you need to be able to get to the shelter for supplies and care.
- The Animal Humane Society asks applicants to watch a video, apply through its volunteer portal, and do a virtual interview. Fosters must be 18 or older and live within 60 miles of its Golden Valley, Coon Rapids or Woodbury locations. It suggests a $35 donation after acceptance and says you can skip it.
- The Bitty Kitty Brigade runs an application, a review within seven business days, a 30-minute phone interview, a training video and quiz, a monthly live orientation, a signed waiver from everyone in the household, and a home visit. Fosters must be 21 or older and live within an hour of Little Canada. It also asks you to apply only if you can start within 60 days.
- Pet Haven onboards virtually, asks to see your whole home, and requires fosters to be 18.
Age minimums, distance limits and house rules all vary. That’s the case for reading two or three programs before you apply to any of them.
If you rent, or already have cats
Renters: the Animal Humane Society tells applicants to check with their property manager about pet restrictions and fees, and says it can’t reimburse pet fees a landlord charges. Read your lease with a foster in mind, not just your own cat.
Resident pets: most programs welcome people who already have animals, with conditions. The Animal Humane Society asks for a 10-day slow introduction and recommends keeping foster animals separate for health reasons. It also says it can’t treat or reimburse care for your own pets if they catch something from a foster. Feline Rescue asks that your pets be current on vaccinations. Pet Haven and the Bitty Kitty Brigade also want them spayed or neutered.
Check your city’s animal limit before a litter comes home
This is the local detail nobody mentions, and the one most likely to catch out a first-time kitten foster. A mom and five kittens is six cats.
- Minneapolis requires a multiple animal permit for four or more cats, four or more dogs, or five or more cats, dogs, rabbits and ferrets in any combination. The permit involves an inspection by an animal control officer.
- Saint Paul requires a Keeping of Animals permit for more than three cats or more than three dogs, with an application, a petition and an inspection.
- Suburbs set their own limits, and they aren’t all written the same way.
Whether foster animals count toward those limits, and whether kittens under a certain age do, is exactly the question to put to your city and to the rescue before you take a litter. The rescue has almost certainly been asked before.
One thing about every figure on this page: check the organization’s own page before you rely on it. Age minimums change, programs pause applications when they’re full, and city ordinances get rewritten, and none of that reaches an article written in September. We checked each of these against the source it came from, and the source is still the one that’s right today. Treat what’s here as a map of how cat fostering works in this metro, not as a rulebook.
Where foster cats come from
Plenty of them start as somebody’s stray. Saint Paul’s city shelter says most animals it holds that aren’t reunited with an owner are released to approved rescue partners rather than adopted out directly. If you want to help those animals, it suggests fostering with one of those partners. Feline Rescue and the Bitty Kitty Brigade are both on its list.
That same page is also clear that the city isn’t taking in healthy stray cats right now, only sick or injured ones and kittens without a mother. So if you’ve found a cat rather than gone looking for one, fostering isn’t the first step. What to do when you find a stray covers who to call. And don’t assume you can just keep found kittens as “fosters.” The Bitty Kitty Brigade says all kittens have to come through its intake first. It only takes truly orphaned kittens up to five weeks old, and it asks you to contact it before doing anything else.
Fostering through the holidays
Winter is a perfectly good time to start, as long as you plan around travel. Most people’s calendars fill up in November and December.
Pet Haven asks new fosters not to plan any travel within the first three weeks of bringing a pet home, and it offers respite or boarding at no cost after that, provided you tell your coordinator ahead of time. The Bitty Kitty Brigade says the same kind of cover is available, with notice. Pet Haven would ideally like fosters to commit for six months, and it asks you to stay with the animal you have until it’s adopted. So if you’re leaving for two weeks at Christmas, say so in the interview. That’s much better than finding out in week two.
Two more things worth knowing. The Animal Humane Society runs a Temporary Pet Housing program for animals whose owners are dealing with a housing crisis, a medical issue or an abuse situation, and fosters care for those animals too. And you can say no. The Bitty Kitty Brigade says you can decline any offer, and the Animal Humane Society says fosters are never expected to take an animal that isn’t a good fit.
About falling for one
It happens often enough to have a nickname. Most programs allow it, with conditions. The Animal Humane Society says fosters and their immediate circle can adopt once the animal is cleared, as long as they tell the foster coordinator before bringing it back and go through the regular adoption process. Pet Haven offers foster-to-adopt.
Just go in knowing that a foster who adopts every cat is fostering one cat. That’s a lovely outcome for one cat. It’s also a room that isn’t free for the next one.
Start here
Decide which kind of cat you can realistically take: bottle babies, weaned kittens, a mom and litter, or a quiet adult. Check your lease and your city’s animal limit. Then read two or three programs and apply to the one whose rules fit your life.
If you’re weighing dogs as well, our guide to dog fostering in the Twin Cities covers that side. For cats, the directory of Minnesota rescues and shelters is the place to find organizations near you and see who they’re caring for right now.
