Glossary

Foster care

Caring for a shelter or rescue cat in your own home for a limited time until it is adopted, often a kitten, a mother or a recovering cat.

Also called: fostering, cat fostering, foster home, foster parent

Foster care means looking after a cat that belongs to a shelter or rescue group, in your home, for a set period. The organisation usually supplies the food, litter, supplies and veterinary care, and you provide space, time and affection. Fostering frees up room in the animal shelter and gives the cat a calmer setting than a kennel.

Cats that need foster homes include orphaned kittens that need bottle feeding, mothers with litters, kittens too young for surgery, cats recovering from illness or an operation, shy cats that need socialising, and seniors. Time commitments range from a few days to several months. Bottle-fed newborns may need feeding every few hours, so ask for the exact demands before you agree, and ask the group's vet about any health risks to your own pets.

Good practice is to keep foster cats apart from your resident pets at first, follow the group's quarantine and hygiene rules, and keep records of weight and appetite. Fostering is a rewarding way to help with kitten season, and some fosters later adopt, as in foster-to-adopt. Saying goodbye is hard, but each cat you place makes room for the next. Report any sign of illness to the group straight away.

Last reviewed November 7, 2026

In the index now

Related terms

Animal shelter A facility that takes in stray, lost and surrendered animals, holds them, and works to return them to owners or place them in new homes. Rescue group A volunteer-run organisation that takes in cats from shelters, streets and owners, cares for them in foster homes and finds them permanent homes. Kitten season The warm months, from spring to autumn, when many unspayed cats give birth and shelters take in far more kittens than usual. Foster-to-adopt An arrangement in which you take a shelter or rescue cat home for a trial period before deciding to adopt it permanently. Special-needs cat A cat that needs extra care because of a disability, chronic illness, injury or age, and is often harder to place for adoption.