Cats Protection League Wellington - Older cats foster programme

At the Cats Protection League Wellington, we often take in older cats whose owners are no longer able to care for them. This could be because their elderly owner has died or gone into care, resulting in a huge life change for a cat who might have lived with and loved this person all their life.

At the shelter, our volunteers give the cats as much love as possible until we can find them new homes. However, for many people the potential cost of taking on an elderly cat, or one with an ongoing medical condition, is off-putting because of the vet bills they might face.

As much as we love our oldies, we want them to spend their twilight years being adored in a home, not in a shelter. To that end, we created our foster programme.

The foster programme is a permanent arrangement between CPL and the fosterer. They commit to loving and looking after the cat for however long it has left. We take the financial worry out of that by covering all the vet bills for cats over the age of 13. If we have younger cats with a chronic condition that will require ongoing vet care, we make them available for fostering as well, and will cover the vet costs associated with that condition. The fosterers pay all the usual costs associated with food, flea and worm treatment.

Currently we have around 50 cats who are in foster care around Wellington, and several more cats who are eligible for the programme living at the shelter. Of course, this costs us a lot of money. In the 2015 financial year, our vet bills for the foster programme came to $21,000. But we think helping these wonderful, loving cats have a new chance to love and be loved again for however long they have left is worth every cent.

If you’d like to help us keep these older cats healthy and happy in new homes, please donate and help us cover the vet bills for our foster programme.