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Shelters

Community Cat

Kitten vs Adult Cat Surrender​

Most of the shelters mentioned for kitten surrender can take in adult cats. To surrender an adult cat it has to be friendly, want to be around humans, and ready to move into someone's house right now. Adult cats don't carry the same cute factor as kittens for most adopters, and you can burn bridges with a shelter quickly by trying to place a fully feral cat.

In all cases of surrender, these shelters are often full and you'll probably have to call multiple to find one with an opening.

Central Iowa resources for kitten surrender and fostering:​

  1. Animal Rescue League Cat surrender, fill out one page per kitten. ARL will assess the application and call back. It helps if you can somewhat tame the cats and ensure they like to be petted, picked up, held, and played with. The ARL will not take a cat until they are 8 weeks old. When surrendered the ARL will post them so fosters can volunteer to take them in and further socialize them.

  2. Furry Friends Refuge Furry Friends prefers cats to come to them at 7-8 weeks old if previously feral. They need to be tamed enough to be held and be petted as they’ll most likely wind up in a foster home.

  3. Rescue, Rehab, Rehome RRR also prefers younger cats, if they come from a previously feral life. They need to be tamed enough to be held and petted as they’ll be placed directly into a foster’s home.

  4. Aheinz 57

  5. Hope Animal Rescue of Iowa Hope, like many shelters already listed, doesn’t have a physical shelter. All animals are fostered and ideally should be tamed already so they can be held and petted.

  6. Happy Tails Ranch and Rescue

  7. Animal Lifeline of Iowa Animal Lifeline specializes in special needs animals which includes: "injured, handicapped, have a serious medical condition, are abused, are pregnant, are nursing moms, or are orphans that require bottle feeding"

Community Cat

TNR Appointments​

Getting a cat fixed, rabies vaccination, microchipped, and ear tipped at a normal vet can run $300-$400 as of the writing of this post. This is unfeasible for those of us caring for community cats and even many families. Not being able to spay/neuter a cat often just contributes to the cat populations in Iowa cities. Below is a list of affordable options in the Des Moines metro area

APE (Boone)​

Appointment Booking + Details

This program is available to people who TNR community cats as well as providing low cost options for those with house cats. They operate most Mondays and some Fridays each week. Click on the link above to learn more and schedule an appointment.

Furry Friends Refuge (West Des Moines)​

Appointment Booking + Details

Surgeries with Furry Friends are Mondays and Thursdays and must be scheduled in advance. They require 48 hour notice for cancellations or moves. Max of 3 appointments per person at a time. Click on the link above to learn more and schedule an appointment.

Animal Rescue League (Des Moines)​

Appointment Booking

The ARL has two programs. Operation Catsnip is a TNR project for Des Moines residents and more details can be found on their web page easily if you qualify. For other residents of Central Iowa (like those of us in Ankeny, currently) they have a low cost TNR program with very limited availability on Tuesdays and Thursdays of a handful of appointments each.

They are paid for up front and must be moved or cancelled 24 hours before the appointment if necessary. The appointments often book out the full three weeks in advance. The appointments must be for community cats that don't have a home.

Here's how the Purr Project program works:

  1. Schedule Surgical Appointment-REQUIRED
    • $60 per cat – includes spay/neuter surgery, Rabies & FVRCP vaccinations, microchip, and ear tip
    • You may only schedule 2 appointments per day and need to make individual appointments
    • If there are no appointments available, please be patient and keep checking back. The online scheduler is open 3 weeks at a time

We understand trapping cats does not always work on a schedule and we will work with you as best we can, but you may need to schedule appointments across multiple days.

  1. Trap Cat(s)

    • The cats may trust you but outside of their normal environment they are very scared and stressed, so for the safety for them and us, we require them to be in a live trap to come in for surgery and recovery
    • You can get live traps at Fleet Farm, Tractor Supply, etc.
    • The live trap needs to be weighed beforehand and write the weight on top of the trap. You can do this yourself if you have a bathroom scale at home or you can bring it in to our Pet Help Center; 5452 NE 22nd Des Moines, IA 50313 phone # 515-473-9102
    • Cats in carriers WILL NOT be accepted, they MUST be in a live trap
    • Do not put more than 1 cat in a trap

  2. Bring Cat(s) in for Surgery

    • Surgeries are performed Tues & Wed & Thu and the cat(s) would need to be dropped off in the trap between 7:30-8a at 5452 NE 22nd Des Moines, IA 50313
    • The cat(s) would then need to be picked up the same afternoon between 4:30-6p. You would then release the cat(s) from the trap the following day after surgery.
    • Keeping the cat(s) in the trap the entire time is for its safety and ours as well. Too many cats get loose when people try to transfer them to a carrier or other holding device.
    • The cat does get a visual exam but not a full physical exam due to most of the cats cannot be handled.
    • Eartipping is required-this is a safe and universally accepted method to identify that an outdoor cat has been spayed/neutered. This procedure is performed under sterile conditions while the cat is anesthetized for its spay/neuter surgery.
    • If our veterinarian feels the cat is not healthy enough to withstand anesthesia or surgery, the decision will be made to humanely euthanize the cat.