Cat Adoption Team works to connect homeless cats with loving new families and to support those relationships over time. Life is better with a cat, so we want to make life better for them!
CAT's Programs & Services
CAT takes our role as feline experts seriously. With support from donors, staff, volunteers, and our whole community, we work hard to deliver quality programs and services that make life better for cats and the people who care for them.
We believe everyone deserves to experience the love and benefits of the human-feline bond, and we aim to make successful, happy cat adoption matches.
We’re here to help guide you in choosing a wonderful cat companion, introducing them to your home, and caring for your new kitty. All cats and kittens are spayed or neutered, up-to-date on vaccines, and microchipped before going home with you.
After your adoption, you can count on us to provide resources and support to keep your bond strong and your cat happy and healthy. You can reach out to our CAT Helpline with questions anytime!
Ready to add a new cat to your life?
We’re here for you and your cat! The community support programs at CAT offer resources and advice to help strengthen and sustain the well-being of people and pets in our community.
Through our CAT Helpline, Keeping Cats in Homes fund, emergency boarding, and related programs, CAT provides support and information to help keep cats with their families whenever possible.
Our CAT Helpline counselors can connect you with essential services like low-cost spay/neuter, behavior and training support, temporary crisis boarding, financial support for pet-related care, and more.
We can also help advise you in finding a new home for your cat, including rehoming on your own or guiding you through our admissions process.
To contact the CAT Helpline for assistance with rehoming or for other support, email us at [email protected] or call (503) 925-8903 ext. 5.
In addition to ensuring that all shelter cats and kittens are spayed or neutered prior to adoption, CAT also provides low-cost spay and neuter services for pet cats in our community.
We offer three pricing levels to help make this service available to all who need it. Each year, our spay/neuter clinic performs about 1,000 surgeries for pet cats!
One of CAT’s core values is to provide excellent veterinary care to the cats and kittens we serve. At our onsite hospital, we do just that!
Our medical team includes veterinarians, certified vet technicians, and other trained paraprofessionals. The first animal shelter in Oregon to have an onsite veterinary hospital, CAT’s medical ward now features a surgical suite and prep room, private exam room, x-ray/ultrasound and laboratory services, and isolation areas to care for cats with infectious diseases.
Thanks to the support of our donors and the expertise of our hospital staff, we’re able to perform surgeries and procedures beyond routine medical care, including fracture repairs, urinary blockage corrections, and eye surgeries.
All cats in our care receive basic preventive care, as well as other medical treatment and services they may need to prepare for happy, healthy adoption.
More than 500 volunteers are part of a CAT community that works together every day to help make life better for homeless cats and kittens. Volunteers contribute their time, skills, and talents in areas as varied as socializing cats one-on-one to raising awareness at outreach events.
Training is available! We welcome people of all backgrounds, interests, and experience levels.
CAT’s nationally recognized foster program provides temporary care for both kittens and cats. Most of our foster volunteers take in kittens that are too young for adoption and too vulnerable to be safely housed in the shelter. Some fosters also care for kittens and adult cats in need of behavior support or who are recovering from illness or injury.
Once cats and kittens are ready for adoption, they move from the foster program into our adoption program. They might be adopted directly out of their foster homes or they may return to CAT’s shelter or move to an offsite location for adoption.
Foster homes are vital to providing housing and care for cats and kittens in need of some extra TLC. And CAT’s foster program is a lifesaving model that other shelters and rescue groups can use. We offer foster resources online through our Fostering 4 Rock Stars program.
CAT is a limited-admission, adoption guarantee shelter. That means we only take in cats that we have the space and resources for, and that we commit to giving every cat we take in all the time and care they need to find a loving home.
We offer enrichment, behavior modification, excellent veterinary care, and a variety of housing options to meet the individual needs of the cats and kittens in our charge.
In order to provide quality care and optimal chances at adoption, CAT has a limit to the number of cats and kittens our organization can care for at any one time. We don’t want to bring in more felines than we can manage in a healthy, respectful, loving way. Our goal is to meet the individual needs of each cat in our care while providing them the best possible chance of finding a new loving home.
A majority of cats at CAT come in through our Nine Lives Transfer Program, and we also support individuals who need to rehome a cat. For information about bringing a cat to CAT for adoption, please see our admissions information.
About 80% of the cats and kittens for adoption from CAT come from other shelters, rescue organizations, and veterinary clinics, including local county animal control services. We seek out and cultivate partnerships with other organizations to transfer cats and kittens into our shelter for adoption and care.
Our Nine Lives Transfer Partners include animal shelters and rescue groups in the Portland metro area, as well as others throughout Oregon and the Pacific Northwest.
As our local and regional communities increase their lifesaving, we’re able to assist communities from outside these areas to have a positive impact for cats nationwide.
CAT operates a thrift store in the Raleigh Hills neighborhood of Southwest Portland, Oregon. The CAT Thrift Store collects and resells donated new and gently used quality items to raise funds that support our cause. The Thrift Store also raises awareness about CAT, houses a”shelter ambassador” cat for adoption, and hosts and participates in community events to engage the public with our organization.
Established through a generous planned gift honoring a lifelong cat-lover with a soft spot for older cats, the Aleece Runge Fund for Senior Cats covers CAT’s costs to provide unique services for cats age 8 and up.
Thanks to this fund, adoption fees for senior cats in our adoption program are waived. These cats also receive special pre-adoption medical screening and dental care; a take-home package that includes a heated bed and a month’s supply of food and medication (if needed); and post-adoption financial support of up to $1,000 per year to help cover future veterinary expenses.
In addition to supporting cats for adoption, a portion of the fund is set aside to help support pet parents so they can keep and care for their senior cat as part of our Keeping Cats in Homes fund.
CAT partners with Washington County Meals on Wheels to provide cat food to local seniors and homebound clients who request food for their pet cats. The pet food is distributed directly to these Meals on Wheels clients monthly. Donations of new, unopened dry or canned cat food are always welcome! (Small bags of dry food are most needed.)
You can drop-off donations of cat food for the CAT Food Bank at CAT’s Sherwood shelter: 14175 SW Galbreath Dr., Sherwood, Oregon 97140.
CAT is a founding partner of the Animal Shelter Alliance of Portland (ASAP), a coalition of shelters and veterinary organizations. All ASAP founding organizations are committed to working together to save lives through collaborative projects such as Spay & Save and inter-shelter animal transfer programs. CAT also works with other public and private shelters and animal welfare organizations in Oregon, Washington, and beyond.
