Giving : Fostering
Our foster families are very special people - we ask you to give all your love and care to an animal, for a while, then let it go - off to a new life in a new home.
CATNIP has facilities to accommodate some animals, but we do not currently run our own refuge.

Instead we rely on short term fosterers to look after animals until they can be rehomed and use our own accommodation as backup. Generally speaking, animals are better with a foster-family than in a shelter.

[We do have some openings for long term fosterers, who would like to help out, can't adopt as their visa length is fixed, but who want a longer-term relationship with a single animal. Typically cats we would place in long term fostering would be healthy, but will have tested FIV positive - and thus be harder to re-home. In principle we are prepared to travel further to place such animals in a foster home.]

We can provide references from past fosterers on request.

We provide food and pay medical expenses for the animal while it is your care.

We can normally remove an animal from you within 24 hours if required, sooner in an emergency. If you are going on holiday, we can remove the animal while you are away.

As part of our screening process, we will visit your home.

If you are in rented accommodation, we may ask you to provide evidence that your lease permits you to keep animals. That said, we are less concerned about your having formal permission to keep a cat as we can remove it at short notice if required.

In general we prefer our foster families have prior experience of keeping animals - but it does depend on the needs of the particular animal and we are happy to consider all applicants.

Not every person making an application can provide a suitable environment, but we will try to make your interaction with us as "un-bruising" as possible.

We particularly welcome applications from foreign residents who are not in Japan permanently, but who have kept animals before.

All animals are fostered on the basis of a formal fostering agreement under which NPO CATNIP retains legal responsibility for the animal. We will also ask you to sign an additional document for each cat that you foster.

You can see samples of both documents at the links below

General Fostering Agreement:
https://catnip.or.jp/files/sample_catnip_fostering_agreement_en.pdf

Specific Cat Agreement:
https://catnip.or.jp/files/sample_catnip_foster_specific_cat _agreement_en.pdf

In principle, we will show you copies of blood test results and vaccinations certificates when we bring the cat to you.

If you think you might be able to provide a short-term home for a cat, please fill out our foster application form