Foster Program

Thank you for your interest in fostering! Read on to learn what it takes to be a Feline Lifeline foster and whether it's the right fit for you.

Thank you for your interest in fostering!
Read on to learn what it takes to be a Feline Lifeline foster & whether it's the right fit for you.

The Basics

  • Fostering means temporarily caring for a cat or kitten in your home until they are adopted. As a foster, you provide a safe, loving environment and work with us to help them find their forever family. Our fosters are a critical part of our rescue — without you, we simply cannot save more lives.

  • We have two primary foster needs:

    • Bottle baby & nursing litter fosters: Experienced fosters who can bottle feed neonatal kittens or care for a mother cat and her nursing litter. This is specialized, time-intensive work — and incredibly rewarding.

    • Adult cat fosters: Homes for adult cats who may not immediately catch someone's eye online, but who absolutely win people over in person. These cats need a patient foster who believes in them and can showcase their personality.

    We are a small, foster-based rescue. We work with a limited number of skilled fosters rather than a large rotating roster, which means each foster placement truly matters.

Requirements

  • To foster with Feline Lifeline, you must be able to:

    • Host meet and greets at your home (see below for more detail — this is essential)

    • Keep your foster cat(s) completely separate from any personal pets

    • Provide weekly high-quality photos and videos for our Instagram

    • Travel to the Pasadena area for vet appointments, vaccine clinics, and medication pick-ups as needed. Don’t worry, we will cover all medical bills!

    • Commit to the full foster period — we depend on you to see it through

  • This one is non-negotiable (with the exception of bottle baby and nursing litter fosters, who have different needs). When someone is interested in adopting your foster cat, we arrange a meet and greet at your home. This is how adoptions happen. If you are not comfortable having a vetted, pre-approved adopter visit your home, fostering won't be the right fit — and that's completely okay! We just want to be upfront so everyone's time is respected.

  • We require that foster cats be kept completely separate from your personal pets at all times. This protects everyone: your pets, the foster, and you. It also gives the foster cat a calm, low-stress space to decompress and show their true personality. Please make sure you have a dedicated room or space for your foster before applying.

  • Proximity to Pasadena is a bonus but not a deal-breaker. What IS required is a genuine willingness and ability to drive to Pasadena for vaccines, medication pick-ups, and vet appointments when needed. If you're not able to make that commitment, fostering may not be the right fit at this time.

Supplies & Support

  • It's a huge help if you can supply food and litter — and we are deeply grateful to fosters who do. That said, we know not everyone is in a position to cover those costs. If you need us to provide supplies, just let us know. We'll work it out together. We can also loan essentials like a litter box and scoop if needed.

  • We provide guidance, veterinary care, and food/litter if needed. You won't be left on your own. That said, fostering does require a degree of self-sufficiency and comfort caring for animals. It is for people who know how to care for a cat, not for those who are contemplating adopting but want to see if they are “up for it” first.

Photos & Social Media

  • Instagram our most powerful adoption tool. Great content = more eyes on your foster = faster adoption. We ask every foster to provide weekly high-quality photos and videos, without which we cannot promote the cat(s) in your care.

  • High-quality does NOT mean you need a professional camera. It means:

    • Well lit — shoot near a window or in a bright room. Avoid flash, dark corners, or backlighting. NEVER SHOOT INTO THE LIGHT! The source of light should be behind you, illuminating the cat, not in front of you and behind the cat.

    • Clean background — tidy up the frame. A cozy blanket or simple backdrop works great. The cat should be the focus, not your exceptional interior design choices.

    • In focus and steady — get down to the cat's level, be patient, and wait for the good moment.

    • Showcasing personality — a cat mid-play, mid-yawn, or mid-biscuit-making is worth a thousand posed shots.

    We'll share photo examples with you once you're onboarded as a foster. When in doubt: bright, clean, and cute.

Important:
What We Don’t Do

  • No. We do not offer foster-to-adopt arrangements. This is a firm requirement of our insurance provider — once a cat is in our rescue, ownership and liability must remain clearly defined until an official adoption takes place. If you're interested in adopting a specific cat, please apply to adopt directly. Fostering is a volunteer gig, not a low-stakes opportunity to see if a particular cat is the right fit for your home.

  • We understand the impulse, but no, fostering is not a trial adoption. Our fosters are caregivers, not prospective owners evaluating compatibility. We need fosters who are fully committed to caring for the cat regardless of adoption interest. A foster placement that unexpectedly falls through puts the cat back in limbo — and that's exactly what we're trying to avoid.

  • That depends on the case. At times, we are in need of experienced fosters who can care for underage kittens for a defined period of time. However, by and large our need is for volunteers who can commit to seeing a cat or litter of kittens through to adoption.

Ready to apply?

If you've read this and you're still in, we would love to hear from you.

Foster Application