How to Find a Home
For a Cat

I Want to Surrender My Cat

Since LAST HOPE handles stray and feral cats and their offspring, we are not the right organization for you. However, Municipal Town Shelters will take in privately owned pets for a fee, but the waiting list for intakes can be extremely long. Many No Kill shelters accept owned pets through a waiting list and required donation.

Because the shelters on Long Island are overflowing, placement of your cat into one of the above facilities will be difficult. If you have a cat that has given birth to kittens, you need to find a home that can care for the kittens properly and can afford necessary veterinary care, especially vaccinations and spay or neuter at 4-5 months of age. Please get your cat spayed as soon as your cat has weaned her kittens. There are low-cost spay neuter programs on Long Island. LAST HOPE offers FREE spay-neuter of owned cats and dogs for individuals on disability, public assistance, unemployment, social security, etc. Please click here for information about this program or other additional resources for low-cost spay-neuter of cats.

There is no guarantee that a cat will not be euthanized if it enters a town or city shelter, so it is important that you examine the reason for wanting to relinquish your cat and see if you can somehow work something out.

If you are having trouble making a decision, you should refer to the following sections, which address the most common reasons people report for giving up a cat:

Moving
Inappropriate behavior
Owner has died
Can’t get along with other pets

If you insist on placing your cat, we suggest you get on the waiting list of all the No Kill Shelters on Long Island. In addition, you should advertise for adoption by creating a flyer. Post it in your veterinarian’s office, local pet food stores, on the web (Petfinder), and local newspapers.
Any cat you place for adoption should be spayed or neutered and up-to date on vaccines and flea treatment, worming, etc.

I Want to Surrender a Stray or Feral

Read below for more information

Is the cat a stray or feral cat?

Stray cats are usually tame and comfortable around people, often someones pet that has become lost or abandoned. They will frequently rub against legs and exhibit behaviors such as purring and meowing. In contrast, feral cats are notably quiet and keep their distance. Stray cats will also often try to make a home near humans—in garages, front porches or backyards. Most are completely reliant on humans as a food source and are not yet able to cope with life on the streets.

Before you try to place an unowned stray cat, you should confirm that the cat is indeed a stray and not someone’s pet. You can place “Found Cat” signs around the neighborhood, and at local veterinarians and groomers; advertise the cat in the Pennysavers and local newspapers. Go to the closest municipal shelters and put up pictures of your found cat. Check the LOST cat postings at the shelters as well. Check the website Lost and Found Pets of Long Island. They will post your found cat free of charge in hopes of finding its family. You can also post a listing with a photo on Facebook.

If no one claims the cat, you should begin the process of trying to find it a home if you do not want to keep it. You should list the cat on the waiting lists of all No Kill Shelters identified previously. In addition, you can make up adoption flyers for this cat and place them in supermarkets, pet food stores, groomers and veterinarian offices. Advertisements on Petfinder and in local newspapers are also helpful. Spread the word, too, by asking relatives and friends to let people know you have a lovely cat for adoption.
**We do advise that if your finances allow it that you ascertain the cat is spayed or neutered and have the cat seen by your veterinarian for appropriate vaccines.

Feral cats are wild-raised or has adapted to feral life.
LAST HOPE will not come and remove them. If you want help become part of the solution for feral cats, you will need:

1. A humane trap
2. A cage to hold any kittens and the adult cats, postoperatively
3. A place to put the cage –a shed, garage, basement will all do.
4. Litter pan(s), litter, food and water bowls, cat food (both dry & wet)
5. Instructions from Alley Cat Allies on how to domesticate and socialize kittens.

If there are kittens, you must remove them from the mother at about 5-6 weeks. Waiting too long will only hinder making the kittens adoptable. There are special kitten traps. You cannot take the kittens directly from the traps to a shelter because they need to socialized and used to humans. Confining them in a cage makes it easier for you to handle them. The more handling: the tamer they will become, especially if less than 8 weeks old. Letting them loose in a room is not recommended as they will hide and become difficult to grab.
All feral cats in the colony need to be trapped and neutered – click here for more information about our FIX-A-FERAL program. If you choose not to socialize or capture the kittens when they are young enough, you will need to trap them for spaying and neutering at 4 months of age as well. Two towns on Long Island now offer free spay-neuter for its residents and feral cats-Oyster Bay and Hempstead. Please contact the Animal Shelters in these respective towns for information.

Once you feel the kittens are ready for adoption, using the litter pan and eating by themselves, you need to start the process of trying to place them. This can be done by you with extreme care or by placing them in one of Long Island’s No Kill shelters. These shelters all work on a waiting list (the names were provided previously). You cannot just show up at the shelter and expect the kittens and/or cats to be taken in. Every shelter has an intake protocol. The municipal shelters on Long Island are trying to become No Kill so that means that they too have a waiting list for intake. If you just show up at your local shelter with a litter of kittens, they may take them from you, but they may also euthanize them. If a cat gets sick in a municipal shelter, it may be euthanized; in a No Kill shelter, it will be treated (unless the cat is critically ill).

We hope that this information answers many of the questions you may have about cats and kittens whether they are owned, stray or feral. Together we can all make a difference.