Kitten rescuer agrees to foster abandoned cat for local shelter, only to be denied over a technicality and charged $240 to surrender her, rescuer says: "I feel like they tricked us"

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Blake Seidel • Managing Editor & Brand Manager
Jun 2, 2026 5:30 PM EDT

Wouldn't it be nice if doing the "right thing" was always met with a good reward?

People say "a good deed is its own reward", but when they coined that phrase, they weren't living in this economy. Sure, it feels good to do a good thing, but less so when it ends up costing you a lot of money. And even less so when you realize that you were tricked by "the system" into paying fees that you never should have had to pay in the first place.

Our rescuer's story that was posted in the r/CatAdvice Reddit page really grinds our gears for this exact reason. It takes a lot of effort to rescue kittens, both emotionally and financially. They may be smol, but they still need food, medicine, and care, all of which are expenses that you often haven't budgeted for. They rescued an abandoned kitten, and the shelter asked them to foster the tiny baby and try to find a home for it themselves. Knowing that shelters are crowded and underfunded, they agreed to take on the burden for the sake of helping this kitten find her furrever home.

Six weeks later, with no interest in the kitten, they returned to the shelter, only to be denied because of an unspoken policy requiring them to pay $240 to surrender the kitten. 

So, we ask you again, wouldn't it be nice if doing the right thing was always met with a good reward?

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  • 01
    'You do the responsible thing by bringing them in, only to have them act like you're the problem'
    via Curated Lifestyle For Unsplash+

    Woman holding her foster cat after rescue (picture is represented by a model)

  • Unfurtunately, this just feels like another example of an organization creating a system that purposefully tricks good people into funding them. According to the shelter, if the rescuers kept the kitten for six weeks and posted about the kitten on their rehoming website, then that technically makes the kitten “theirs”. Because the kitten is now under their “ownership”, they have to surrender her instead of giving her away as a rescue. This type of technicality should have been mentioned upfront!

    How else are the rescuers supposed to feel, if not deceived? It feels purrfectly clawful to “do the right thing”, and then get slapped in the face (metaphorically) by the system whose rules you played by. 

  • 02
    I'm a little frustrated with my local animal shelter. We had 5 kittens abounded in our car several months ago. We could not care for 5 kittens than needed bottle feeding so we luckily found homes for two of them but we had to take the other three to our county animal shelter. It was no problem and they took them in with no issues.
    via Ok_Independent_9721
  • 03
    Two weeks later another kitten showed up on our porch and would not leave. She was older than the other ones that had been abandoned but she sat on our porch all day all night. It got to the point that if we didn't feed her we felt like she would starve so we took her in and started communicating with the same shelter about getting her dropped off.
    via Ok_Independent_9721
  • 04
    The shelter asked since she was just one kitten and little older if we could care for her and put her on the home to home site attached to their shelter and basically foster her until and try to find her a direct home instead of putting her at the shelter.
    via Ok_Independent_9721
  • 05
    We were fine with this but we're very clear that we could not keep her and could not afford medical care for her. They offered their vet services but they only offer them if you line up at 6 AM Tuesday/Thursday and happen to be in line before they cut off for the day which we couldn't swing with work. They
    via Ok_Independent_9721
  • 06
    advised us to just make it clear on her posting that whoever adopted her would need to provide her care which we did and they asked us to keep her for 6 weeks before we gave up and brought her to the shelter. We got zero hits from the website and we have asked every single person we know to help us find her a home and have been unsuccessful.
    via Ok_Independent_9721
  • 07
    The six weeks are up and we went to take her to the shelter today and they told us since we kept her for six weeks and posted her on the rehoming website that she's technically our cat now and that we are rehoming our cat so we have to pay a surrender fee of $240. 1
    via Ok_Independent_9721
  • 08
    understand animal shelters are overwhelmed and need resources but I feel like they tricked us. If we had dropped her off the day we found her like. the other kittens it would have been free but they asked us to be helpful in finding her a home by basically fostering, we agreed, and now they're trying to make
    via Ok_Independent_9721
  • 09
    us pay and outrageous amount of money to surrender her. Is this standard for a shelter to behave this way or am I crazy that this is bad practice for the shelter? I feel like at the bare minimum they should have alerted us that if we put her on the website and kept her for six weeks it would result in the fee being charged after six weeks when trying to drop her off.
    via Ok_Independent_9721
  • 10
    Cheezburger Image 10635120128
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    A veterinarian writing notes about kittens in a cat rescue shelter, as represented by a model

  • 11
    paisleycatperson I would speak to the director. Even if that is the policy, it's flexible. It's not a law.
    via paisleycatperson
  • 12
    Bloop BloopBloopin Are there any other rescues or shelters in the area? Surrender fee is bulls all it does is encourage people to abandon their animals in unsafe places. And yes that shelter deceived you and I would not engage with them again, and leave a bad google review explaining everything you said here.
    via BloopBloopBloopin
  • 13
    dustyupdoot42 They definitely leave out the part where they prioritize their own capacity over the reality of the situation. It feels like a bait and switch when you do the responsible thing by bringing them in, only to have them act like you're the problem.
    via dustyupdoot42
  • 14
    Altruistic_Jicama626 I'm sorry that's happening. Don't know if they're acting in bad faith or you're dealing with multiple people with different take. Maybe the person who promised you could keep her six weeks, if they were a volunteer, wasn't aware of the policy
    via Altruistic_Jicama626
  • 15
    that you're running into with later surrender― if it even is a real policy. I would definitely talk to the director and hopefully you have a message trail to show them of what you were previously told. Thank you for helping this cat.
    via Altruistic_Jicama626
  • 16
    Select_Air_2044 And this is why people abandon animals at shelters before they open. If you can't afford to feed the cat, how are you going to pay them to take it.
    via Select_Air_2044
  • 17
    StormMission907 Don't feel bad you did a great thing. I am not sure what country or city you are in but that shelter sounds terrible. There must be a cat rescue group in your area. Search around if you can find one.
    via StormMission907
  • 18
    Cheezburger Image 10635120384
    via Werzk Luuuuuuu

    A model representation of a cat owner holding their silver tabby foster cat 

  • 19
    House_of_Cats89 The exact same thing happened to me (though minus the rehoming fee). I found a cat and her maybe 10 week old kitten hanging out in my yard and started to feed them. I contacted the shelter with the intent to try and get the kitten adopted
    via House_of_Cats89
  • 20
    and the mom TNR'ed but it became apparent that mom was also friendly/adoptable. I was literally on the phone with the woman at the shelter while feeding them, and said I'd be happy to bring them both in and foster them if needed, since I fostered for a local rescue. She said
    via House_of_Cats89
  • 21
    that would be great and that someone from their foster team would reach out to sort out paperwork, I'd need to bring them to the shelter for vaccines and spays, etc to which I said fine.
    via House_of_Cats89
  • 22
    On that representation, I brought both of them inside and into my foster room. When after a week I hadn't heard anything and was getting a little nervous as I had no foster contact for any medical issues that might arise, I contacted
    via House_of_Cats89
  • 23
    the woman at the shelter again and she said "oh, actually we have room at the shelter so you can just set up a time to bring them in at this link." Clicked the link and the next appointment is a month away. Ok, that's odd, but fine. I spend significant time socializing the spicy
    via House_of_Cats89
  • 24
    kitten over the next several weeks, I have dewormer so I deworm them, and bring them in on the appointed date. They give me some paperwork, and I'm super confused because there are all these questions about how long you've had the cat, why you're giving up
    via House_of_Cats89
  • 25
    the cat, etc. I am like "none of this is applicable, these are not my cats." At which time I am told that because they have been in my possession for over 3 days, per state law they are indeed my cats and I need to do an owner surrender.
    via House_of_Cats89
  • 26
    I argued a bit but they refused to take them otherwise even when I gave the name of the person I'd spoken with and explained the history, and I was leaving town for Thanksgiving weekend the following day. No surrender fee but I had to
    via House_of_Cats89
  • 27
    sign a FOIA-able form that states | surrendered two of my pets, something I would NEVER do. I have no idea if this is going to cause issues if I ever want to adopt again so I've kept all the emails with the original shelter lady just in case. I was ped.
    via House_of_Cats89
  • 28
    When I subsequently found another cat and her kittens in my yard I spent a significant amount of my own money to sponsor them into the rescue I was fostering for so that I wouldn't have to deal with the shelter again.
    via House_of_Cats89

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