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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 cat that doesn't like being handled by humans unless they are ok with that.

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 unless they have the specialized resources available to care for it, or it is surrendered with its mother. 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 coming from a community cat situation. 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 community cat 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 is stopping cat operations and won't be intaking any cats in the future. They do, however, have an SOS group on facebook. The intent of that group is not finding homes for community cats, but for helping with emergency rehomes and temporary help in keeping your pets. The intent is to help all animals and prevent them ever being put in the shelter system.

  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"

  8. Panora Pets Panora P.E.T.S. has closed their shelter and returned to their original aims helping community cats via TNR. They also assist with Garoutte Veterinary Services

Community Cat

Low Cost Spay and Neuter Resources in Central Iowa​

  1. Raccoon River Pet Rescue Host events for low cost spay events. Events posted to their facebook page

  2. APE, listed below, is available to housecats in addition to TNR. Follow those booking instructions

  3. Same for Furry Friends Refuge. Follow their booking instructions.

  4. Afford-A-Care Animal Clinic Spay Clinic Often half the cost of a normal veterinarian, and with walk in hours.

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)​

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 Polk County (like those of us in Ankeny, currently) they have a low cost TNR program called the Purr Project.

You'll want to hit up the TNR Coordinator for instructions on how to use either program. Contact Page

Operation Catsnip Project

Garroute Veterinary Services Barn Cat Spay​

This spay program operates out of Panora, Iowa currently and post their monthly spay days on their facebook page and the Panora P.E.T.S. facebook page. Any changes of location ought to be noted on those monthly posts as well. Follow the instructions on the post to register a spot.

Despite being a barn cat program, they'll fix TNR cats as well. All cats get ear tips

  1. Spay/Neuter; $75 (Rabies vaccine included in surgery price)
  2. Distemper vaccine; $15
  3. Flea/tick prevention; $13.71/month/cat
  4. Microchipping (still will receive ear notch); $15