Make the plan before a crisis decides for you.
The Lifetime Care Program helps guardians document who should act, where the cat should go, what care must continue, and how Cats in the City and FELINE TRANSITIONS® should respond if illness, incapacity, death, housing loss, or another major life change occurs.
A useful plan connects authority, information, logistics, and care.
The program is designed to reduce ambiguity at the exact moment when relatives, neighbors, hospitals, landlords, or emergency responders may be trying to determine what happens next.
Who is authorized to act?
Name primary and backup contacts, decision-makers, legal representatives, and the people who should not be relied upon.
Where should the cat go first?
Define the immediate safe destination, transport plan, keys, carrier location, and how Cats in the City should be contacted.
What care must continue?
Document medication, food, veterinary history, behavior, grooming, mobility, litter, bonded relationships, and daily routines.
How will care be funded?
Identify available funds, estate instructions, insurance, authorized payment methods, and financial limits.
What is the long-term pathway?
Clarify whether the goal is return to a named person, lifetime care, structured rehoming, foster, rescue placement, or another arrangement.
How will the plan stay current?
Review the plan when diagnoses, medication, housing, contacts, finances, or the cat’s daily function changes.
The cat’s needs may be difficult to reconstruct during an emergency.
A senior, diabetic, medication-dependent, behaviorally sensitive, or medically complex cat may require more than a family member can infer from supplies in the house. The care profile should be usable by people who did not live the routine.
A plan should tell people what to do in the first hours, days, and weeks.
The immediate response is different from the long-term placement decision. Separating those stages helps protect the cat from rushed handoffs and missing information.
Secure
Confirm the cat’s location, access, food, medication, carrier, and immediate safety.
Notify
Contact the authorized people, Cats in the City, veterinary providers, and legal representatives.
Stabilize
Move the cat into a functioning care environment with records and routine continuity.
Transition
Implement the named long-term plan or begin structured assessment and placement.
The strongest plan exists in more than one place.
Keep copies with trusted contacts, legal documents, veterinary records, and an accessible home notice. A wallet card, door decal, or emergency contact note can help responders find the plan.
Care dossier
Medical records, medication, food, behavior, grooming, litter, routines, contacts, and photographs.
Authority and estate alignment
Coordinate the care plan with legal documents, estate instructions, and the people empowered to make decisions.
Emergency visibility
Use home, wallet, phone, and contact-system notices so responders know a cat and an existing plan are present.
Review the Cats in the City Lifetime Care Program and begin documenting now.
The plan can be refined over time. The most important first step is making the cat’s existence, needs, contacts, and immediate destination visible.