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Intake

• All intakes require approval from intake staff
• Agency transfers or a cat/kitten from a TC managed colony caregiver
• Kittens 8 weeks or older may be transferred from an agency
• Pre-wean kittens may be admitted direct to foster based on availability of space
• Return of previous TC cats or kittens, registered with chips
• Kittens and nursing mothers from Morgan Hill or Gilroy direct to foster
Owner surrenders are on a case by case basis – Please send an email to surrender@towncats.org for more information. 

Intake Policy

Town Cats does not accept stray cats or kittens – See the list of defintions here. Stray cats or kittens should be taken to your local animal control facility. 

Because we are a no-kill facility, our highest priority is to help cats/kittens at risk in shelters. We limit our intake based on the current capacity of the spaces at our adoption centers and foster homes.

*Please note that at time, our waitlist for surrenders is 2-6 months depending on the situation*

Cats/Kittens will NOT be accepted at our adoption centers or through foster homes. Please fill out the surrender form
if you need to surrender your cat. Please Note that completing the surrender form does not guarantee we will be able to take your cat.

Please contact surrender@towncats.org with any questions specifically regarding intake.

Town Cats: Who we are

Town Cats is a private, volunteer-based, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated exclusively to the welfare of cats. We sponsor innovative programs to help cats and serve as a community resource in Santa Clara County. We educate the public on cat issues and we promote the spaying/neutering of all companion animals and the TNR of community cats. We are a highly motivated team of passionate and compassionate animal lovers seeking to do as much good as we possibly can. Town Cats has deep roots in the community. We are a grassroots collective of cat-loving people brought together by common goals and our mission.

Town Cats: What we do

We maintain a limited admission shelter. We rent space and staff a facility in Morgan Hill and we maintain cat adoption centers throughout Santa Clara County with partnering pet food stores. We maintain a network of foster homes dedicated to the care of cats, especially kittens, as well as special needs cats and those requiring hospice care. Our foster volunteers generously open their hearts and homes to provide lifesaving care, bottle-feeding orphaned kittens and giving friendly, healthy homeless cats the time and space they need to find their forever homes. We host adoption fairs at our adoption center sites with the support of our pet food store partners while striving to secure loving, permanent homes for the companion cats in our care.

Town Cats is not an animal control agency

We are not the local municipal shelter. We do not receive any government funding; we are not supported by taxpayers’ dollars. Town Cats does not accept incoming stray cats. Town Cats does not have the resources nor the facility to provide services for stray cats. Stray cats must be taken to the appropriate animal shelter so their owners can have a chance to reclaim them.

The work of Town Cats is supported entirely by the generous hearts and hands of individuals and private foundations. The cats coming into Town Cats will be brought in primarily through rescue/transfer from other WeCARE shelters in Santa Clara County. As space allows, former friendly, healthy Town Cats’ cats who have been adopted and who need to be returned/surrendered will be assessed and accepted into the facility. As space and resources allow, found kittens who are under two pounds may be taken in at Town Cats, if the kittens are healthy and if there is a foster home available. Local kittens or moms with kittens found in Morgan Hill and Gilroy will be a priority when we have appropriate space, as will kittens from trapping projects at managed community cat colonies.

Town Cats receives numerous requests daily to take in cats. We simply cannot humanely take in stray or unwanted cats, including injured cats, which a member of the community wants us to accept. We have limited resources and limited space. The pleas for help and the number of unwanted cats saddens us and strengthens our resolve to empower members of the public to work with us to solve cat-related issues in our community. We encourage the public to work with their local governmental agencies and representatives on animal issues and the overpopulation problem. Kitten season – the birthing season of spring and summer – is a particularly challenging time, as people reach out to us with litter after litter of helpless, orphaned kittens that they have found and want to surrender.

Space for new cats opens up when our resident adoption center cats or foster cats are adopted. We never euthanize as a method of population control or to make room for new cats. Cats in our care have a home with us until they are adopted.

Friendly and Adoptable

Our goal is to help as many cats as possible by taking in friendly, healthy, homeless cats from our community shelters and getting them adopted as quickly as possible into good homes. It is not our policy to accept feral or semi-feral cats and confine them in a shelter.

Residency at Town Cats is temporary. Every social cat in our care deserves a home and a family. Every unsocial/feral cat deserves a working cat placement in a managed cat colony.

Owner surrendered cats and those formerly adopted from Town Cats are taken in on a limited basis and only if there is room at the shelter or in a foster home and only if the animal is determined to be healthy, friendly, and adoptable by shelter staff. There is an owner surrender form as well as an associated surrender fee to help offset the cost of caring for the cat going forward. The cats’ vaccines must be current.

To be considered for acceptance back into Town Cats, a person must contact us and make an appointment by sending an email to surrender@towncats.org. All cats must be approved in advance so it is essential that you contact Town Cats prior to the time you wish to surrender the cat. If we have space available and we agree to take your cat, our Shelter Intake Coordinator will schedule an appointment with you. It is critical that you arrive at the required time or call us if you are going to be late. The surrender process takes approximately 30 minutes. Under no circumstances will we accept a cat without an appointment.

Town Cats is a proud member of the WeCARE Coalition (Community Alliance to Reduce Euthanasia). Town Cats sometimes “pulls” cats from our WeCARE partners’ shelters, such as the “Two to Three Pound Kitten Program” that we have with our partner SJACS. As space allows we will also transfer social adults into our adoption centers. We have transfer agreements with the government shelters that are our WeCARE partners.

Town Cats does not accept incoming stray cats

Good Samaritans who find a stray cat should contact their local municipal shelter. This is where an owner would search for a lost pet. Any cat over two pounds is defined as a stray cat. Town Cats does not have the resources or the facility to provide services for stray cats.

If you have found a stray cat, please contact animal control for the city in which you reside. Local shelters are listed at Shelters First.

Morgan Hill:
The City of Morgan Hill Animal Control Services operates out of the Field Operations Division of the Police Department.
Phone: 408.779.2101 (Non-emergency Dispatch)
https://www.morganhill.ca.gov/

Gilroy:
Animal control services for residents of the City of Gilroy are provided by the Gilroy Police Department.
Phone: 408.846.0338
Website: https://cityofgilroy.org/

Unincorporated areas of Santa Clara County:
County of Santa Clara Animal Shelter
Location: 12370 Murphy Ave, San Martin, CA 95046
Phone: 408.686.3900
Email: scc.animalshelter@aem.sccgov.org

Kittens less than two pounds

Found kittens that weigh less than two pounds may be taken in at Town Cats by appointment only, if they are healthy and if there is a foster home available. Local kittens found in Morgan Hill and Gilroy will be given precedence, as will kittens from trapping projects at managed community cat colonies. Please contact surrender@towncats.org for inquires.