You said yes to fostering. Maybe one cat, maybe a litter. Now you've got three animals on different medications, a kitten that needs weighing every day, and a group chat full of questions you can't answer because the information is on a sticky note on the fridge. Or was it in that email from the rescue?
Welcome to the chaos. It doesn't have to stay this way.
The Problem: Information Is Everywhere and Nowhere
When you pick up a foster cat, you usually get a printout or a quick verbal rundown. Vaccine dates, medications, any known issues. You take some notes on your phone. Your partner remembers what the vet said but didn't write it down. The kitten weights are in a notebook by the kitchen scale. The medication schedule is on the fridge. The rescue coordinator texted you something important last Tuesday but you'd have to scroll for ten minutes to find it.
None of this is a system. It's a collection of scraps. And it works fine until it doesn't. Until you can't remember whether you gave the morning dose. Until the rescue asks for an update and you have to piece together a week's worth of scattered notes. Until a cat gets sick and the vet needs a timeline you don't have.
The fix isn't complicated. It just takes a small shift in how you do things.
What to Actually Track
You don't need to document everything. You need to document what keeps the cat safe and makes handoffs smooth. Here's the short list:
- Name or ID and a recent photo
- Age and weight (especially for kittens, where weight is a health indicator)
- Medical history: vaccines, spay/neuter status, test results
- Current medications with doses and schedules
- Behavioral notes: litter box habits, appetite, anything unusual
- Status: available for adoption, on medical hold, spoken for
That's it. Skip the elaborate personality profiles, the color-coded spreadsheet tabs, the paragraph-long bios. Those things are nice for adoption listings, but they're not what keeps a foster cat alive and healthy. You can always add detail later. Start with what matters.
Pick One System and Make Everyone Use It
This is the part that actually makes the difference. It doesn't matter if your system is a shared Google Doc, a notebook that lives in the foster room, or a purpose-built app. What matters is:
It's one place. Not your phone plus a notebook plus a group chat. One place.
Everyone involved knows where it is. Your partner, anyone else in the household who feeds or medicates, and ideally the rescue coordinator too.
Updates happen when things happen. Not at the end of the day when you're tired and half the details have faded. Right then, while you're still holding the syringe or standing on the scale.
This is what we built Pawsies for. Every foster cat gets a profile, medical events are logged as they happen, and everyone on the team can see the same information from their phone. But honestly, even a shared spreadsheet beats a system where important information lives in three people's heads.
The Two-Minute Daily Habit
Here's the thing that actually holds it all together. At feeding time, take two minutes and note anything that changed. Weight (if you're tracking kittens). Appetite: did they eat normally? Medication: given, yes or no. Litter box: anything unusual. Behavior: are they acting like themselves?
That's it. Five lines, two minutes, done.
It feels pointless on a normal day. Everything's fine, nothing to report. But those boring daily notes are what save you when things aren't fine. If a kitten starts losing weight, you'll see the trend before it becomes an emergency. If a cat develops diarrhea, you'll know exactly when it started and what changed. When the vet asks "how long has this been going on," you'll have an actual answer instead of "I think maybe a few days?"
Small, consistent notes beat detailed weekly summaries every single time.
When the Foster Moves On
The other reason records matter: handoffs. When your foster cat gets adopted, goes back to the rescue, or transfers to another foster, all of your knowledge about that animal needs to go with it. What they eat, how they handle other cats, what medication they're on, when the next vaccine is due.
If that information is in your head, it leaves when you stop being involved. If it's in a system, it travels with the cat. The next person picks up right where you left off. No gaps, no guessing, no "I think the last foster said something about antibiotics but I'm not sure."
This is one of the biggest sources of preventable problems in rescue. Not bad intentions, just lost information at the handoff.
Start Simple, Stay Consistent
You don't need a perfect system. You need a consistent one. Pick a place to keep your notes, make a habit of updating it daily, and keep it focused on what actually matters for the animal's health and care.
The cats won't care how pretty your system looks. They just need you to remember their medication schedule and notice when something's off. You can do that.
And if you want a free, simple system that's built for exactly this, give Pawsies a try.