Finding homes for strays?

We have two little cats living somewhere around our house...we have been feeding them outside for a few days.
We have reached our cat maximum and just have no more room for cats. I hate to leave them outside, and could use some advice.
We would like to bring them inside until we can find them homes. They are coming to us now, and seem to like the attention. We know they don't belong to anyone around us, they are very definite strays.
What I need advice on...
Is there somewhere I can post them to find a home? Does anyone know of any forums, sites etc where I can look to find a home for them?
Should I bring them in to keep them safe for the time until I can find a home, even if I cannot keep them in my home forever?

Any advice would be appreciated.

I would bring them in. That way they will be safe and will acclimate to humans more. Will be easier to re home.

Try posting in your vets office. Sometimes someone will have to put their cat to sleep and eventually will want another cat. Your vets staff can help by contacting these people and see if they would be open to another animal. My vet does this.

I do not believe in Craigs List for living creatures. So I would never post there. People can be very deceiving and can use the animals for nasty stuff.

Never give away an animal to a stranger. Never. If they can't afford to pay for it, how can they take care of it.

You have a good heart for these poor little ones. I wish everyone did.

frankly if you are careful and a good judge of character, there is nothing wrong with craigslist for adoptions. i know that everybody has heard the horror stories about dogfighters and animal testers but if you charge an adoption fee and screen carefully, you can reach a lot of good people this way. in an area like Columbus, i bet there are lots of people looking for pets who will look on CL.

Thanks for the advice I wish we had a huge house and could keep every kitty we find, but we have 8 and it is just too much to take in anymore! We are already having some troubles with two of our oldest, dominant kitties, disliking two of our youngest kitties, so we just can't add to the mix.
We have had them checked out and brought them in, one is about 2, the other is 1ish from what the vet said. They are fine, both female and not spayed. We are keeping them away from the other kitties right now, as our oldest dominant female is not too happy about two unfixed females joining the house. She chases them SO much. We are hoping to get them spayed soon, but money is tight right now, so I just don't know. I know it will be easier to find them a home once spayed...and we have our two boy cats that are not yet fixed (they're the kittens in the house, and just recently old enough to neuter...) fixing 4 cats...the cost of all this is depressing me right now! but I love the kitties, and couldn't bear the thought of the strays being killed outside.
Anyway, we did post an ad on Craigslist for them, but it has not been going well.. We got a couple responses but I was not comfortable with the people from their emails, and decided I was not going to go that route. I plan to talk to the vet next time we go there about posting an ad, and I am trying to look up some rescues and see what I can find...

Originally Posted by farleyv

Never give away an animal to a stranger. Never. If they can't afford to pay for it, how can they take care of it.

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Right. But most important, most people tends to think, what is for free is virtually worthless too.

Thus, if it by any reasons feels awkward for you to demand money for the cat, do agree with the now owner them makes a donation in the name of the cat to some good cause you both find is nice and worthy. Doctors without boundaries, a church group, Red Cross - almost whatever.

I believe this way will also raise a magical bond: the new owner will connect the cat with a nice feeling of donating money to a noble cause...


Yea, this trick may be useful also when you DO demand money. Say, as part-paying for the spaying. And an additional 5-10 bucks as a donation in the cats name...



Another advice may be. If you notice the cats manage dogs well - do mention it in your ads. Or if you notice the cats manage children.... Many cats, especielly the shy, arent comfortable with children. So there is an extra opening...

Talking about children families.
My brother once a little unlucky got both his young females pregnant, and thus had 12 kittens to find good homes for...
He had ads in the local newspapers. Quite many did answered. He tried to pick families with children, preferably 7-12 years. He met them, in his or their homes. The child would turn in the payment (not big but more than pure symbolic, like 10 dollars), and receive the kitten instead to hold. The magical bond again! The parents would stand behind the children during the ceremony, thus giving a quarantee to the whole...
It worked out marvelously. As far as he knew all the kittens had it good and well in their homes also several years, when he left the town.



Good luck and tx a lot!

I am a lucky lady....and we found another stray last night Sadface because I wish we had enough room to home all these kitties but we do not.
The new one is a little baby kitten, he was in our chicken coop trying to eat chicken feed. Poor thing was severly malnourished, matted fur covering an old scab, and covered in fleas. We brought him in, bathed him, fed him and he is thrilled. He is staying in our bathroom right now until we can get him to a vet...he is eating well, but a LOT to the point his belly is just this big round thing that sticks out of his tiny body. He is using the litterbox well, solid poops and all. He found the boxes on his own this afternoon. Smart boy!
We thought we found a home for him which was awesome in one day, but it did not work out. We are getting so attached to him...and he to us. I work late in the home, and he sits with me all night. When I get up and leave the room, he cries until I return, or tries to follow me. When I am here, he sleeps right next to me. (His cries in the bathroom were heartbreaking, so we have him in the living room with a gate)
* Good news maybe....
I contacted a local vet...well a FEW local vets but only one gave me a positive response. The others responded to me basically saying our area is overrun with cats, all the no kill shelters are full, and there is nothing they can do to help out with the strays and no discounts for needing 4, now 5 cats fixed. The one who responded well, let me know about a program the humane society does in the area, where you can get vouchers for two free "fixes" for cats...two per fam per year, so I am going to try to get that. It includes a rabies vac also. The vet also told me if I made flyers they would post in their office, and I could advertise on their facebook page. So, I have a few options! I am going to try to work all that out tomorrow and see what I can do....so fingers crossed for me. I am trying not to stress, but we are having money issues already and having all these extra cats affects my work (i do daycare in my home and worry that with so many cats people will not want their children here... i keep it clean and all, but I try to hide some of the cats when people are here, and baby kittens are harder to hide then my older lazy cats who sleep in our guest room all the time!!) but we just could NOT leave this cat outside.
One of my friends asked me last night why we even brought him in and took the responsibility of trying to find him a home when we were already having money/cat issues, and I tried to explain it to her but she is not a cat lover and did not understand. Who could leave a baby kitten outside when it is starving and injured? I certainly could not...

Boy do we know that feeling. We "had" to adopt Charlie (in my siggy).

Thankfully we didn't have money issues when we first started rescuing, so we have given a lot of vets a LOT of business over the years, and now that we do have issues, they let us pay over time. We also know the staff really well, and they foster for us when they can - and every time this has resulted in them adopting the kittens out. One of the vets also hooked us up with a local foster network, and when they have room, they take the adoptables to foster, and they have more normal adoption capability - Petsmart and other local pet stores - and the process for screening people. We make small donations to them over time so that in the end we pay for the care of the kitties they take from us.

Just keep working at it, and your network will build. I can understand your concern about your day care from home - but everywhere else, don't be afraid to be the crazy cat people. When we have adoptables, we ask EVERYWHERE - people standing next to us in line at the supermarket, the people checking us out, people in the waiting room at the Doc's office.... anywhere you can strike up a conversation. And keep those brochures handy in the car so you can run grab one if someone's interested or knows someone who may be.

Hi to everyone. I have a colony of feral cats that I one day got involved with because they were hanging around a grocery store dumpster , one day I noticed a couple of them limping from the dumpster. On closer inspection of the dumpster I found why the cats were limping, the dumpster bottom was covered with broken florescent bulbs along with some discarded food that was in the dumpster. I started checking the dumpsters and when I found broken florescent bulbs in the dumpster (which was often) I would leave cat food out away from the dumpster so the feral cats wouldn't have to get their feet cut trying to get in the dumpster to eat.
Now the manager of the store is throwing a fit for me to get rid of the cats although the cats doesn't seem to be bothering anything. They're wild so they stay away from the store during business hours. But some people (the store manager) lives for a racket, so now because I cant deal with the manager calling the animal shelter in to remove the cats (they will euthanize them) I have to some how find a way to find them homes which will be hard because first they're wild and 2nd there's a bunch of them (about 10 or 12) but most are young kitten type cats.
I'm glad I found this site because I've found a lot of helpful information on here, I have little to no income at the present but I'm hoping to offer some if only a little (all I can afford) financial assistance to have them spayed and or neutered by those that would offer to give them a home. A lady around the area I live seems to have had a lot of luck finding homes for some abandoned kittens by posting on a local internet gossip forum.
I'm so glad I've found this forum because now I know that there are others like myself that love these awesome little creatures called cats. I just want to thank all of you for doing so much for these loving animals.

Originally Posted by Happytobeheere

I'm so glad I've found this forum because now I know that there are others like myself that love these awesome little creatures called cats. I just want to thank all of you for doing so much for these loving animals.

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You are very welcome in here.

Tx for you helping these our small brethrens and sisters.


Good luck!