If you find an injured cat, out of hours, please call your local vet who will operate a 24-hour service.

The purpose of our Adoption Centre is to find permanent, safe and loving homes for unwanted or abandoned cats and kittens in York and the surrounding area. There are various reasons why cats are brought into our Adoption Centre. Often they are found straying, whether through abandonment or the cat simply having wandered away from home. It is lovely to be able to reunite at least some of these cats with their owners. We also take in cats from homes where people are no longer in a position to be able to care for them.

We have a total of 33 cat pens and can accommodate around 60 cats and kittens during our busiest periods.  This includes 3 pens set aside for isolation purposes.

Every cat that comes into our care will stay with us until we find it a new home. It makes no difference how long this might take. We will never put a cat to sleep, unless advised to by a vet.

Before we rehome a cat or a kitten:

• They receive a thorough medical examination from our vet.
• They receive their first vaccination and, depending on the length of their stay at the Adoption Centre, their second vaccination. If a cat is homed before the second vaccination is due, this will need to be provided after homing.
• They are microchipped.
• They are bloodtested for FIV and FeLV if in a higher risk category.
• They are neutered (if old enough - usually between 4-6 months of age). If you adopt a kitten who has not yet been neutered, it will be your responsibility to ensure this is done.

We will always do our best to match every cat with the most suitable home for them. Whether it be a cat we know to have lived with children and other animals before, or a nervous cat in need of a quiet home and a patient owner, we will always keep the cat’s needs in mind.

At present, we rehome approximately 400 cats a year, and hope to only improve on this number.

A Note of Thanks

Our work at York Cats Protection would not be possible without the tireless efforts of our dedicated band of volunteers.

There are too many to mention, and no doubt countless people who give their time and help that we are not even aware of. People supporting our Cats Protection shop, providing a hand at our Open Days or simply raising fantastic amounts of money, without which our work could not continue.

One group of people the staff at the Adoption Centre would like to make a very personal thank you to, are those jolly troopers who turn up on a morning - come rain or shine! - to help keep our cat pens looking sharp, and our lovely cats well cuddled. It's one thing to show up early morning, in the bitter cold, to face a physically demanding clean-up when it is your working day-to-day job - quite another to do this voluntarily. As if that wasn't enough, they're actually cheerful with it! A merry, laugh-a-lot bunch, giving the Cat Care Assistants a much-needed boost, and of course, a real helping hand. They come, clean, cuddle - most importantly, they bring biscuits. Who would have thought such people exist?

This is just our chance to let them know how much they are valued, and what a difference they make at the Adoption Centre. You know who you are, thank you to you all.