Our Programs

Foster Program

Many fosters and foster families watch over and love our kitties. We value those people! We will not give a foster any kitty with issues beyond their capability, nor will we leave them stuck with unadoptable cats.

Our Foster Advocate, our Assistant Director, and our veterinary technicians rotate their availability to answer calls, field suggestions, observe symptoms and behavior, and dispense and administer vaccines, medications, and other therapies that don’t require a vet. Four veterinary hospitals, a traveling veterinarian, and two low-cost spay/neuter clinics work with us to give our babies the best health care possible.

We disclose everything to our adopters that our fosters disclose to us. This keeps the kitties in their forever homes and provides them with long and happy lives. Join our Foster Program.

Foster Hospice

There are kitties with terminal medical conditions that prevent them from being adopted but haven’t yet diminished their happiness. We’d rather these cats be in homes where they are cared for and adored. Kind fosters who will give them the love they deserve while not prolonging life when there is no longer quality take on these cats while Thundering Paws pays their vet bills.

Forever Foster

Similarly, people who cannot afford a cat may take those single kitties who are hard to place while we pay the vet bills. Forever Fosters’ conditions can be eclectic: chronic upper respiratory problems; special diets or cat aversion requiring being in a single cat household; or other issues.

The Sanctuary

We bring in cats to the Sanctuary whom we evaluate and care for, and eventually adopt out if their personality and needs are a match for our adoption program! Last year, we brought in Spirit, from Kerrville, and Meeta, from South Austin. They both came here biting and scratching, with a history we knew nothing of. We saw they wanted to be sweet, but they were frightened. We worked with them every day, showing them love and kindness, and learned so much about them in the process. Both are doing very well now! Spirit has become a resident cat at the Sanctuary and lives with his best friends Newt and Phoenix, both of which are also resident cats that we saved and cared for. Meeta eventually got adopted out, and she lives a cozy and happy life with her adopter and is now Queen of the household. The day she went home was bittersweet, but to see her progress and outcome from where she started was a beautiful example of what Thundering Paws sets out to do, and the results that our work and care can bring forth.

Then there’s Beauregard. Assistant Director Scott Haywood set out traps for eight months before finally capturing him. We had him neutered, rabies vaccinated and corrected his entropion, a painful condition in which the eyelashes rub against the eyeball. What we got back was an FIV positive, lovable, big “wumpus,” the darling of everyone here. People ask to adopt him all the time, but he’s a TNR cat and this is his territory. He would be miserable being inside all the time, yet so far he has deigned to come in at night and sleep on our bed. Just as we return other community cats to their homes, we let Beauregard live in his home—here at Thundering Paws.

Adoptions

Our cat adoption service is the heart and soul of Thundering Paws. We’ve adopted out one-eyed kittens, skittish kittens, shy cats, FIV positive cats, feline leukemia positive kittens, deaf cats, cats with various life-long conditions, cats and kittens whose fosters could not part with them. View Our Adoptables.

Adoption Center

Tomlinson’s Pet Food Store in Belterra Village has a HUGE, fun, cat adoption center, and our kitties are showcased there. Their caring staff keeps the environment clean and, when there’s a lull in business, they pet and entertain the kitties. We are so very grateful for that space! View the list of our adoption events.

Barn Cats

When we rescue poorly socialized and feral cats from other shelters, we sometimes have to consider non-traditional adoption placement. Our Barn Cat Program is designed to help a specific population of cats—those who may not be comfortable living in a traditional home setting but would be incredibly helpful and happy as working cats to local homeowners, landowners, and businesses who have a need for pest control. Learn more about our Barn Cat Program. If you are interested in a barn cat, send us an email.

TNVR DS

In 2020, 30 cats were trapped, neutered, vaccinated, and returned. In 2021, 100 cats were retired from breeding. We’ve taken in kittens and a few cats with serious health concerns. This year we hope to triple our TNVR program in size again! Learn more about TNVR DS.

Monthly Giving

The solution to many of the ills of modern society is service to others. We give people a way to give that is easy yet makes them feel good. Visit our donation page to make a contribution.

Mewsings, Our Weekly Newsletter

Our weekly email newsletter keeps our supporters in the know about what’s going on at Thundering Paws. Subscription is free, of course, and we keep it entertaining with pictures and videos. We invite you to join our community of supporters.

Advice to the Lovelorn

Cat-loving people call and email us with problems with their personal cats, feral cats, community cats, cats and kittens they have found, and we answer them. We take some homeless cats who have no other recourse, and when we can’t, we try to suggest other solutions.

For owned cats, we have solutions to many common problems, yet rather than publishing these on our website, we prefer to communicate directly. So many nuances can be lost without that communication. Send us an message.

Our Rescues

Our animals come from shelters, from our TNVR program, from other rescuers, from people who contact us for help. Everyone gets a home!

Community or feral cats who are doing just fine in their territories are returned spayed/neutered and vaccinated.  Kittens are brought into our adoption program.

We sometimes bring in feral mom cats who have kittens or are too far along to be spayed and allow them to raise their kittens. We then spay the mom, return her to her home, and get the kittens adopted.

Our sanctuary houses a few feral-ish cats who didn’t tame as kittens, yet have no territory to which to return. We’ve had three-legged, one-eyed, blind, and deaf feral cats. Some tame, some don’t, but all have a home here no matter what.

Some cats arrive fearful and cannot be adopted until they learn what it’s like to be touched by gentle hands. Others need time and veterinary care to recover from injuries or illness before they go to their new homes.

While spay/neuter is the only permanent solution to the overpopulation of companion animals, Thundering Paws wants animals who are already born to have full, happy lives. That is why we are a no-kill facility.

Shelter Animals Count

Shelter Animals Count is an independent 501(c)(3) with broad collaboration from the animal welfare community. By creating standardized reporting and definitions for shelter statistics including intake, adoptions, return-to-owner, transfers, euthanasia, and shelter deaths, we will increase live outcomes. The board is dedicated to furthering transparency through sharing of animal shelter data to inform our supporters.

Thundering Paws is a proud participant in Shelter Animals Count.