Calling all cat and kitty lovers – the Bastrop County Animal Control shelter has a deal for you.

The shelter is seeking individuals or families willing to foster two cats or kittens at their residence until another person or family can be found to permanently adopt the felines.

The interaction between the foster family and potential new owners of the cats and kittens would occur away from the shelter, but once a person decided to adopt the feline(s) from the foster family, they could bring it back to the shelter to complete a completely free adoption process, said shelter director Troy Walters.

It would be a savings of from $15 to $45, the normal adoption fee for cats at the shelter.

“We’re looking for people willing to take home two cats or more, then they contact other people and say, ‘Hey, I’ve got two cats that I am fostering, are you interested in adopting them?’” Walters said. “It will take some work on the part of the foster family to try and get these cats adopted. Maybe they can use Craigslist or Facebook to help get the cats adopted.”

When someone decides they would like the cat(s) being kept by the foster family, they will then bring the cats back to the shelter.

“We will neuter the cats, put in an identity microchip and give them a free adoption,” Walters said.

Walters said the free adoption would also be available to the fostering family/individual, should they eventually decide they would like to adopt the cats they are caring for or perhaps want to permanently adopt other cats at the shelter.

“We’re hoping some of the people doing the fostering of the cats might decide, ‘Hey, I’d like to keep this cat’,” Walters said.

Walters said they would like foster families to keep the cats at least 60 days to see if they could be adopted, but if that turns out to be unsuccessful, they could bring them back to the shelter.

Walters said the process to foster the cats is relatively simple.

“We’ll interview potential foster parents at the shelter,” Walters said. “The people who come forward for this type of program are usually already animal lovers.”

He added that foster families would incur some cost in feeding the cats, but not much.

It’s the first time the shelter has offered a foster program that leads to free adoptions, Walters said.

“We have a bunch of cats and kittens – over 100 of them – that we would like to see adopted,” Walters said.

The alternative is not always pleasant, because some cats have to be euthanized in order to manage the burgeoning shelter population, Walters said.

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