How to Handle a Stray Cat - Adopting a Stray Cat

1. Try to find the owner of the cat after you have it safely sequestered. If you want to adopt the cat if no owner shows up, this may be one of the things your state requires you to do before they can claim ownership. Even if you would really like to keep the cat, try your best to find their owner. Remember that if it was your cat, you would want it returned to you.

2. Wait for a month before giving up the search for an owner. If no owner is found after a month, go to the same animal shelter you notified about the stray and either decide to care for the cat, making you the owner, or to give the cat to the shelter.

3. Have the cat spayed or neutered, tested for diseases, and fully vaccinated before allowing it to mingle with any other cats in your household. Most stray cats are not already ‘fixed’. Not being fixed is actually likely the reason they became lost in the first place, since intact pets are more inclined to roam and fight.
- This is also the only way to be certain it will never add to the enormous problem of surplus cats and kittens.
- Your veterinarian will be able to tell you which tests to run and what vaccines should be given. Take care that your other animals are fully vaccinated, as well.

4. Feel good that you have helped a frightened, starving cat find a safe place. You have prevented it from suffering the hardships of a life on the streets it was never suited to survive.

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