catlovermi

While this suggestion does not magically enable you to keep your cats with you if you are without housing or in housing that does not allow your cats, it offers a potential bridge to get you through to times when your housing situation may have changed for the better to allow you to live with your cats:

Introduce yourself to some local cat rescues - look for ones where the people are rational and deal with reality. Tell them your circumstances. Maybe you could create a partnership where you get someone in their rescue chain to foster (i.e., house) your pets during any time that you do not have housing that would allow them. Perhaps you could even maintain a visitation through the courtesy of the foster home, and offer during those times to help with chores such as thorough weekly litterbox cleanings, washing cat dishes, doing catfood or litter shopping, etc. You could offer in return to pay the cats' expenses (and maybe even the expenses for one or more other foster cat(s) - remember in the rescuer's eyes the space and expenses that your cats take up is the same space of saving another cat from euthanasia, so if you provide MORE funding beyond your cats to help save ANOTHER life, they will be seeing the possibility to help ANOTHER cat destined for doom), do volunteer work for the rescue such as taking calls or screening applications or doing reference checks or doing evaluations at shelters for potential foster cats.

Rescues know that bad circumstances happen to good pet owners. Their goal is to provide the animals with long-term, committed homes. Your asking to provide this home during impossible circumstances shows you are not abandoning your pets but rather trying to find a way NOT to abandon them, even under circumstances beyond your control.

Do not place an ad on craigslist or other such place - it's the wild west and there is no way to know who you are dealing with. Go to registered real rescues with non-profit status - this is called a 501 C 3 status - ask if their organization is a 501 C 3 organization and if yes this will tell you they are likely a good candidate as rescue and not some shady organization.

There are solutions out there, if you look for help, and ask for help, in the right places, and are willing to balance the equation with what you could provide in return. You are always able to provide something.

Sending encouragement,

CLMI