Help for Shelters

Could a Free Cat Homing Page help Your Shelter?

If you run a Rescue Centre, Shelter or Rehoming Group - Cat Chat is here to help You... and your Cats!

If your rescue group or shelter doesn't yet use the web to feature cats seeking homes, you are missing out on many potential new homes! If you already feature your cats on the web, you can still have a free CatChat Homing Page.

You don't have to be a registered charity to have a CatChat page, but we do insist that all cats featured on your page who are old enough, must either already be neutered/spayed, or will be neutered prior to homing.

Cat Chat currently finds homes for over 5,000 cats each year from rescue groups and shelters across the UK.

About Our Free Cat Homing Pages:

No Cost to you: We set the page up for you, and host it and promote it on the Cat Chat Charity's web space, at no cost to you. All you do is input the cat's details... and wait for offers of homes to start coming in.

Unique to your Rescue: Your rehoming page is unique to your rescue group or shelter, headed up with your rescue's name, contact details and logo (if you have one). We also provide you with unique logins to access your page.

Easy to Update: The pages are easy to update yourself, through any web browser. No web design knowledge is required, (we supply simple step-by-step instructions) and no special software is needed. However, if updating the page yourself is a problem, we have a small volunteer Help Team who will help with your updates if needed.

Test Drive your page: You can test your page out until you are happy with it before it goes 'live'. We will not link your page up for the public to see until you are ready.

You have Control: You have complete control over all aspects of rehoming - we don't get involved in your homing procedures at all. Our job is to get your cats seen, to promote your page, and to put more potential homes your way!

Contents of your page: You can feature as many cats seeking homes on the page as you wish, including a photo of each cat. Also, you may use the page to publicise other aspects of your rescue, i.e. items needed, fundraisers, volunteers needed etc. (NB: There must always be some cats for homing on your page, not just other items, as cats seeking homes are what the public visit Cat Chat for!)

We'll get your page seen! To maximise visitors to your page, we place links to your page throughout the Cat Chat website. These links are regionally targeted, so that most visitors to your page will live in or near to your rehoming area. We are well indexed by Google and other search engines, so your page WILL be found! Also, when your page has been 'live' for a short while, it will also be picked up individually by search engines.

Additional Promotion: If you already have a website of your own, we will link to it from your Cat Chat page to send more visitors to your site. Similarly, you could if you wish, add a link to your Cat Chat page from your own site.

Coming soon... in 2012: We are currently developing a new, improved style of homing page, unique to Cat Chat, which will be available sometime in 2012. Once they are available, all shelters with a current style page will be given the option to upgrade to the new style page. These new style pages will also be FREE.

Want a Cat Homing Page for your Rescue? » Click Here

TOP TIPS for Good Homing Results:

1. Regular Updates: Update your page regularly - ideally weekly (or more often if you wish), or at least fortnightly, adding new cats on as required, and deleting homed cats. You can start a page with as few as 3 cats, but we find that an ideal number for good homing results is between 8 and 15 cats on a page. To maintain our homing standards, all pages are closely monitored, and we may remove pages which are not updated for over two months. (NB: if updating your page yourself is a problem, we have a small volunteer Help Team who can help if needed).

2. Photos: Including a photo of each cat greatly increases their chances of homing offers. No matter how good or bad the photo is, people 'connect' more with a cat if they can see it. If you have any problem at all uploading photos or preparing them for your web page, our volunteer Help Team will be pleased to assist.

3. Honest Descriptions: Be totally open and honest about the cat's needs and character - no matter how 'hard to home' this may make them seem! Cat Chat is visited by a high number of experienced, 'rescue minded' cat people, and the right homes are frequently found for the more tricky-to-place cats - so tell it like it is!

What Rescues say about their Cat Homing Pages:

Thanks for the opportunity of our webpage. After going live only 3 weeks ago we have had great response, with some amazing, nurturing homes and are blown away at how things have changed for us. Thanks again - you are wonderful people who are so supportive of our common cause. (Willows Cat Adoption Centre, South Shields)

I just wanted to say that your team of helpers/admin are absolutely fantastic.  I send info about our new cats to them, and they get the cats on your website almost immediately.  They are amazingly efficient and so friendly and helpful. (RSPCA West Norfolk)

Wonderful news... within one day of our  cats photos appearing on Catchat, Tilly the kitten had a lovely new home and then 3 days later, Winnie the cat (who'd been with us for five months) had got a home too! (RSPCA Craven & Upper Wharfedale)

We are having a truly great re-homing week thanks to Cat Chat. Your site is working absolute wonders for us and we are extremely grateful for your continued support! (Cat Action Trust, Carmarthenshire)

Hi guys, More good news - 3 more of our cats have found new homes after being spotted on catchat - Beattie, Snoopy and Jasper all say a huge thank you! We can't believe how good this website is! (Bristol and Wales Cat Rescue)

I have to say we do so well with rehomings because of your site, you are a god send! (RSPCA Manchester & Salford)

Well - you've done it again!! Both Splodge and Fluffy have got brilliant homes thanks to Cat Chat! We are delighted - homing is soooo hard but people seem to go to your virtual shelter thick and fast!! Thank you and lots of purrs from those lucky cats settling into their new homes. (Belfast Animal Rescue)

Hi everyone, Just to let you know that you have yet again helped to rehome 3 of our lovely cats. I just don't know how to thank you for the service you provide.  Your website must be one of the most popular around for cat lovers to sign into.  Thank you once again. (Dornoch & Cromarty Firth Branch Cats Protection)

This week we have had several calls and are now looking at homing up to six cats  once we have done the home checks. Your service is utterly  brilliant, Thank you so much for this opportunity it is unreal seeing these cats go to lovely homes thank you. (Team Cat Rescue, Birmingham)

Thank you so much for all the interest we have had via the internet since we set up on your site, a high percentage of our cats have been homed after people have seen them on Catchat. I don't always get the details through of exactly which cats were homed as a result of Catchat but I know it's a lot. Thanks very much.  (Reading and District Cats Protection)

What a month! I can't believe how quickly our cats are finding new homes at the moment, it's absolutely brilliant. In the last week through Catchat we have rehomed 6 cats. What would we do without you! Thankyou from all at Oak Tree Farm and all our loved-up pussycats. (RSPCA Altrincham)

We have had an enormous response from our Cat Chat homing page. The response has been great, and we have re homed sooooo many cats due to the site. Thank you! (The Heatons Animal Rescue Group, Stockport)

We're happy to report two more homings through our Whinnybank catchat page this week. Thanks again for our page as it has surpassed all our expectations! (Whinnybank Cat Sanctuary, Fife, Scotland)

We just dont believe the success we've had with your free web pages this week .First to a new home on Sunday was Scruffypuss and Fussypuss. Then it was the turn of Lovealot quickly followed by his brothers Noshalot and Munchalot . This morning Lydia and Lark went off together and Purralot and Rascal are off in the next couple of days. Nine of our cats have really landed on their paws this week all thanks to your pages. Thankyou yet again. (Paws Inn Cat Rescue, Cheshire)

Just wanted to give you some feedback, I was helping at the Yorkshire Animal Shelter yesterday and even though our rehoming page has only been up since last week, they have had lots of people coming via your website. This is great news, more people and potential homes. (Yorkshire Animal Shelter)

Georgie has now been rehomed via our rehoming page. Benny has also got a home pending home check and Dusty is having someone coming up to see her next Sunday so hopefully she'll be rehomed as well. Dusty and Benny is via your rehoming page as well so it's really working. Thanks once again. (Flintshire Cat Rescue)

The Trust receives many referrals from your site, which is fantastic, and Cat Chat really does play a key part in the rehoming of our cats not only from London, but Tunbridge Wells and our Hastings branch too, and we can never thank you enough for that. You must be one of the top rehomers in the country, with all you do for all cat rescue centres all over, you must have helped home so very, very many cats which is a truly fantastic achievement, cats all over the country are purring contentedly in their new homes thanks to you. (Celia Hammond Animal Trust)

Just wanted to say a huge thank you for such a fantastic website. Since July when we added our first cats to it, we have had the best interest in our charity we have ever had, and rehomed many more cats than we usually do, and it's all down to your fab site! (Pets Alone, Stockport)