How to find a home for a found kitten
Apartment pet limits and full local sanctuaries make keeping rescued kittens impossible when you cannot afford them or have too many already. Without knowing how to screen potential adopters or finding open shelters, rescuers are left overwhelmed and struggling to place the animals.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
- The most recent one is from October 2026.
- This comes up 13.2× more often in r/cats than across the site as a whole.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Taking the kitten to a pet shelter or animal rescueDid this help you?
- 2Feeding kitten milk, kitten pate wet food, and providing warm blanketsDid this help you?
- 3looking for a better job to stabilize the situationDid this help you?
- 4reaching out on social platforms and forums to find adopters directlyDid this help you?
- 5reaching out to local rescuesDid this help you?
- 6posting in local Facebook groupsDid this help you?
- 7Looking for feral cats needing homesDid this help you?
- 8Calling numerous local and distant shelters, rescues, and animal control agenciesDid this help you?
- 9Posting kittens for free or with a rehoming fee on online apps and classifiedsDid this help you?
- 10Attempting to independently vet prospective adopters and driving hours to drop off animalsDid this help you?
- 11Asking local shelters to help with vetting adopters while acting as a fosterDid this help you?
- 12Asking local rescue groups for courtesy listings while fostering until adoptionDid this help you?
- 13Calling local shelters and rescuesDid this help you?
- 14Posting on social media to find homesDid this help you?
- 15Charging a small rehoming feeDid this help you?
- 16Putting up posters and spreading flyersDid this help you?
- 17Asking neighbors to check their gardensDid this help you?
- 18Leaving a travel basket outside with strong-smelling food like tunaDid this help you?
- 19Informing the adoption rescue and verifying microchip contact detailsDid this help you?
- 20Taking the cat to a vet to get scanned for a microchip.Did this help you?
- 21Posting on local online forums to find a new owner or adopter.Did this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I wish we could add him to our indoor family, but we already have four cats and two dogs!”source ↗
“Now we have 8 and no luck finding homes for any of the refugees so far.”source ↗
“The local cat sanctuaries i know of are full and I’m not financially able to afford this large of a kingdom.”source ↗
“I love them all but I’m struggling.”source ↗
“We cannot take her in sadly.”source ↗
“If anyone is in Western NY, or North West PA are able to take her and provide the treatment needed, please DM me, I would really rather not have to put her down, she is one of the loviest sweetest cats I've found.”source ↗
“I can't keep her (pet limit in the apartment) but I need to find either a foster or someone to adopt.”source ↗
“I have never had kittens, always adopted older cats so i have no idea what to ask for when I ask for adopties.”source ↗
“i’ve called every single local shelter and rescue as far as LA all the way to the IE.”source ↗
“everywhere i called, they’d redirect me elsewhere saying they were full. i fully wanted to surrender them all somewhere- what all of them were telling me was it was kitten season and they couldn’t take them”source ↗
“i have 6 stray kittens in my backyard. they are about 2 months old. ive fed and given them shelter for 2 months. i’ve found homes for a couple. ive driven as far as 4 hours to give one away. i’ve tried to get them taken into shelters as far as 2 hours from me.”source ↗
“i don’t have money for vaccinating and spaying 6 kittens. no shelter wants to help me do that.”source ↗
“Adopted a 1,5 year old cat last monday... she slipped right past me to the garden. I tried to lure her back in but she pushed herself beneath the yard door and escaped.”source ↗
“She has not had time yet to get accustomed to my home so I am afraid she can’t find her way back..”source ↗
“I also put her travel basket in the garden with tuna fish in it so that she might smell it and come back.. but my area has a lot of cats and others have just been taking it out :(”source ↗
“I wish I could find a kitten like that without coughing up thousands of dollars.”source ↗
“i made a post about trying to get a litter of kitties that were birthed in my yard taken in. called all shelters and rescues nearby, resorted to social media and i’ve gotten a few taken in already. the post itself was about a prospective owners messages to me being a little off putting about how she was talking about the cat.”source ↗
“i do want to know if i’m fucking up the kittens lives or doing wrong by them!”source ↗
“literally just trying to get them taken in😭 i found homes for 3/6 so far. no luck with shelters/rescues.”source ↗
“Any advice for finding him a forever home? He’s probably about 3.5 months old, looks like a border collie pitty mix.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 4What to do when local animal shelters won't take a stray dog?
- 11How to tell how old a found kitten is and what care it needs
- 2How to tell if a found cat has an owner
- 8Will a former stray cat ever become affectionate?
- 2Did I separate a stray cat from her kittens?
- 3Will my cat get depressed leaving a multi-cat home?