Fostering in a small environment

I've been thinking for awhile that Tuck would do better with a friend since he's so active, but I have no clue how he reactss with other cats. Fostering seems like a good way of figuring this out and helping another cat so I'll be visiting the shelter on Monday to see who's there.

I'm worried though because I'm in a very small house. It's a double bed-sized bedroom, livingroom, kitchen, bathroom, and a closet-like space where the washer/drier and litterbox live. The only doors are on the bathroom and bedroom.

It seems cruel to keep a kitty in the bathroo for ? Amount of time while integrating them. But also.... Tucks isn't even allowed in the bedroom while I'm at work because of his habit of getting poop stuck in his tail and then rolling on things. I know this isn't an issue with most cats, but I really do want to keep poop and litterboxes as far as possible from my sleepi g space. Which leaves the bathroom. Thoughts?

I've let the shelter know about the space issue, but with kitten season upon us they're super desperate.

Does the kitchen door close? I've always started my cats in the kitchen, which is bigger than the bathroom but smaller than the other rooms, but I imagine based on other comments above that you might also want to keep litterboxes out f the kitchen.  As an FYI MANY cats refuse to share a box (this is a super common issue) and the advice for 2 cats is to actually have 3 litterboxes, but you'll need at least 2 permenantly so you should start thinkingnow about where you will put those.

I have fostered in a similarly sized apartment but they were baby kittens and never were (or were intended to be) introduced to my resident cats, so the situation isn't really analogous...

In any case, many people do start a cat in a bathroom and it works out okay.  I think the issue would be if introductions take a LONG time. I'm not sure I would use the word 'cruel' but there is a large chance the cat will not be happy in such a small space for a prolonged period and will escape/ make his displeasure known in other ways which could further hinder intros.

Good luck whatever you decide! 

The kitchen is the main room. The house is very old and from what I understand was originally JUST the kitchen with everything else added in bits and pieces over the years.

I have thought of a few places a second litter box could permenantly live. But none of those areas can be shut off. I might end up reorganizing the closet space. Its nearly as big as the bathroom and has more to climb on...

I ended up going ahead with it. This won't be something I'll be doing on a regular basis, because the house isn't set up for it and Tuck would go insane, but so far things are going very well. Foster kitty is fearless and raring to go. Tuck is unsure, but will now eat outside of foster kitty's room without hissing. I was very concerned when foster kitty managed to open the door and have an unscheduled meeting with Tuck far ahead of schedule, but there was no hissing. They just sniffed each other and then returned to their respective territories.