Let’s get your cat adopted!

Happily Ever After

  • Creating a compelling adoption listing

    We cover everything that you need to create a compelling listing tailored for a socialized cat. This will help you maximize the number of people who click on the listing and inquire about the cat.

    You’ll learn what kinds of photos to include, photography tips on how to get those amazing shots, what you should include in the video, how to easily use your smart phone to edit a video collage that showcases the unique qualities of your cat, and how to create a listing description that will increase adoption inquiries.

  • Making the perfect cat/adopter match

    Successful adoptions start with you making a really good cat/adopter match. We’ll cover the adoption process step-by-step specifically for a cat that was socialized through SSL from initial contact, meet & greets all the way through bringing the cat to his new home.

    You’ll learn how to quickly figure out if an adopter may be a fit for the cat and the cat a fit for the adopter, how to not miss out on the perfect adopter who may not seem like a great match on paper, and how to get other cats adopted even without posting them.

  • Post adoption support

    Excellent post adoption support is vital for the cat to blossom back to what he was like just before he went to his new home, acclimating to a new home and people within only 1 - 4 weeks!

    Proper support is the key to a successful adoption so that the cat doesn’t get returned. Even if the adopter keeps the cat, you invested so much effort into rescuing and caring for the cat that you want him to be a happy camper—completely in love with his new family instead of spending months or the rest of his life hiding under the dresser.

It’s imperative that the cat graduate from the SSL program before getting adopted.

The two times I had cats go to adopters who were willing to continue the socialization mid-way through the process (the cat’s first time around), it didn’t turn out ideally. The adopters kept the cats and love them, but the process took too long and the cats didn’t reach their full potential.

Why do we do this? Creating a compelling adoption listing

Let’s be honest, we are all so busy with everything that rescue entails that we don’t have much time to spend on adoption. However, I believe that adoption is the most important part of rescue. If we don’t prioritize adoptions, we will quickly run out of capacity/space/foster homes and no longer be able to rescue more cats. We also invest so much into rescuing the cat that placing the cat in a home where he will be happy for the rest of his life should be our top priority.

If you are fostering a cat for a rescue group or rescuer, you also care a lot about the cat going to a great home. You can directly make a huge impact in making this a reality! Follow the advice on how to create a compelling adoption list and put together amazing photos, a heart-tugging video and awesome description. You can then hand this over to the rescue on a silver platter so all they have to do is upload them to the adoption sites!

Why do we do this? Carefully matching the cat and adopter

When you make the perfect match, your adopters will be so happy and in love with the cat when he blossoms again during the acclimation period and the cat will live a happily, being equally in love with his forever family. Isn’t that our goal for every rescue kitty?

Don’t feel desperate and adopt out the cat to the first person who inquires. You want a love match with someone who has the patience and understanding to give the cat space. You want an adopter who has the patience and willingness to follow a quick version of the SSL program in order to gain the cat’s trust. And at the end of the day the adopter will be happier to have a cat who is a good fit for what she is looking for.

You might be thinking, it will be impossible to find someone interested in a scared cat, but when you have the right frame of mind you will find there are actually a lot of people who would love an SSL graduate cat!

Why do we do this? Post adoption support

You saw first hand how effective SSL was to help your cat blossom into a love bug. The cat needs to go through this same program with the adopter—but it’s much quicker the second time around (only 1 - 4 weeks) because the cat already went through it all once before.

Please do not just send the adopter the link to this site and leave her to figure this out on her own. I purposely put a ton of detailed information on this site for rescuers and fosters so they are equipped with everything they need to work with cats who are going through this program for the first time. This site will be overwhelming for an adopter so she ends up not doing it. It also doesn’t give the adopter a good adoption experience.

Adopters need to feel supported. They also need to feel like doing this when the cat first arrives is easy and doesn’t take much effort (which is true!). Follow the instructions below on how you can achieve all of this.

Why bother investing so much of your time, money and resources rescuing the cat if you won’t put in 15 minutes once a week (only 1 hour total) for proper post adoption support to guide the adopter through the process?

If the adopter struggles and the cat isn’t able to blossom back to where he was before he got adopted, you also risk the cat getting returned which is really stressful for the cat. (With the proper post adoption support every SSL graduate cat I’ve adopted out blossomed back to where he was prior to adoption and all of them continued to get cuddlier and more loving with their adopters beyond what they were like when they left me even after we completed the post adoption support.)

Creating a compelling adoption listing

Links

  • The photos and videos Instagram guide that I share on the screen in the videos below.

  • The VideoLeap smartphone video editing software that I use to create my adoption listing videos. (I don’t get any benefit from recommending it, I just find it to be easy to use with rich capabilities.)

Part 1: Photos

Who can resist an adorable cat photo? It’s really easy to capture cute moments, achieve good lighting and create a feeling that the cat is your soulmate with these simple pet photography tips. Make sure to include photos that show multiple aspects of the cat in terms of appearance and personality. Include props to make the photo more interesting—especially if you have a black cat so that she doesn’t just look like the hundreds of other black cats on the adoption site. (One day I may add a section specifically on how to photograph black cats.)

You can also easily improve photos using the built-in editing app on your smartphone! In fact, I do every step of creating an adoption list (including posting them to the sites) on my phone.

You can download a checklist of the types of photos to include in an adoption listing on the resources page.

Part 2: Video content

Video collages in adoption listings give adopters a sense of the cat’s unique personality and increase the likelihood of adopter inquiries. Feature video clips that showcase the cat’s quirks so that he stands out from the crowd. Make sure to include clips that show the cat interacting with humans, hanging out with other cats and/or dogs (if applicable), being sweet and being playful. Check out the example videos that I share to get ideas!

You can download a checklist of the types of videos to include in an adoption listing on the resources page.

Part 3: Editing Videos (How to use iMovie & VideoLeap)

There a many video editing apps for your smart phone. You can use the free iMovie app, which comes with your iPhone. I used to use iMovie for my adoption listings and it works perfectly fine for this purpose. However, once I found the VideoLeap app (available on iPhone and Android) I ended up really liking the flexibility that it provides in terms of positioning text, creating layers and more music options. You can use the basic capabilities to create emotionally stirring adoption listing videos.

I quickly demo how to create a video in both iMovie and in Videoleap so that you see how easy they are to use and become familiar enough with the apps to be able to start using them. You can search YouTube for full tutorials, but this demo contains all the functionality that I use for adoption listing videos.

There was a delay in the phone mirroring app (to the PC) so in some sections of this video you will see a lag between what you see on the screen vs. what I’m talking about.

Example of how to come up with a description

A real-life example of what I would highlight and include in an adoption listing description. We used Canby and Milo as the example because I wanted to share how you can still create a compelling description for a cat that would normally be challenging to get adopted. If we used a lap cat as an example, that wouldn't be as useful for you. I highly recommend that you make sure the cat completes the full program before adopting out the cat to ensure a successful adoption (no hiccups during the 1 - 4 weeks of acclimation and the cat doesn't get returned). Canby and Milo can still make more progress so Cindy and I will work 1:1 to get them further along (even if she adopts them, they'll be even happier kitties).

Making the perfect cat/adopter match

Content coming soon!

In the meantime, sign up for the upcoming live sessions about this topic in the Events section of this website.

For now I’ll leave you with an important tip: you/the foster should always wear earbuds when doing video meet and greets because the cat will get scared by the voices coming from the phone. I’ve had instances when the foster joined the video chat and the second the cat hear the voices, the cat dashed off to hide and never came back out during the meet and greet.

Post adoption support

Content coming soon!

In the meantime, sign up for the upcoming live sessions about this topic in the Events section of this website.

I’ll also create a separate page that you can send adopter to in addition to you directly providing proper post adoption support via 15 minute video chats once a week for 4 weeks (that’s only one hour total!).