The short answer
Rehome her privately if you can. A listing on LocalPetFinder is free, takes about ten minutes, and she stays home while you choose the family. Charge a modest fee, disclose FIV and FeLV status in writing, keep bonded pairs together, and never post the words free to good home. If private rehoming will not work, contact the Greater Moncton shelter about intake. Before either route, see a vet if litter habits are the issue, because that complaint is medical far more often than it looks from across the room.
You Are Not Failing Your Cat
Most people land on this page at an awkward hour feeling terrible about it. Rents in Greater Moncton have climbed hard and fast. A landlord changes the rules mid-lease. Somebody starts wheezing after the baby arrives. A relationship ends and the apartment that fitted two people and a cat now fits one. The volunteers who run cat rescue here have heard every version, and the owners they actually worry about are not the ones reading up on how to do this properly.
A planned, screened rehoming is an act of care. The cats who come off worst are the ones put out the back door to sort themselves out, handed to whoever answers a free ad first, or dropped somewhere quiet by an owner who ran out of ideas at midnight. That is not what you are doing.
First: Is the Problem Actually Fixable?
Not always, and no judgement either way. But cats have a way of presenting fixable problems as permanent ones, so one honest pass before you list is worth the hour it takes.
- Peeing outside the box. The top surrender reason, and the one most likely to have a medical cause behind it. Crystals, an infection, or sore joints that turn a high-sided box into an obstacle all look like defiance. See a vet first. When it is behavioural it is usually logistics: one box per cat plus a spare, uncovered, unscented litter, and somewhere she does not have to pass another animal to reach.
- Spraying or marking. Intact cats spray far more than altered ones, so if she has not been fixed, start there. P.A.W. runs a low-cost spay and neuter program called PAWsitive Fix, and the NBSPCA Happy Tails Fund covers surgery and core vaccines for households in financial hardship. Marking that persists after surgery usually traces to a stressor: a new pet, a move, or a neighbourhood cat visible through the window.
- Shredded furniture. Not a reason to give up a cat, and declawing is no longer an option anywhere in Canada. Two tall sisal posts, a horizontal cardboard scratcher parked beside whatever she is currently ruining, and a set of nail caps handle nearly every case for less than one vet visit.
- Allergies. Get an allergy panel from a doctor before assuming the cat is the trigger. Plenty of suspected cat allergies turn out to be dust or mould, and the older housing stock around the city carries both. A HEPA purifier, a bedroom she does not enter, and weekly damp-wipe grooming buy many households years.
- Vet bills. Ask your clinic about payment plans directly, because more offer them than advertise them. Phoning two or three clinics around Moncton, Dieppe and Riverview for quotes is worth the twenty minutes, since prices differ more than people expect and 15% HST rides on top of all of it.
- A short-term crisis. A hospital stay, sudden travel, six weeks between leases. Ask friends and family plainly, and say the word temporary out loud when you ask. It is a different request from surrender and people answer it differently.
Your Options in Greater Moncton
Option 1: Private Rehoming
You find the home yourself, through your own network or by listing free on LocalPetFinder. You read the replies, ask the questions, and say yes only when you mean it. Your cat leaves the house once, on a date you agree, and arrives straight into the next one.
Pros
- ✓ You choose the family
- ✓ No shelter room, no cage stress
- ✓ Free to list, no waitlist
- ✓ You set the fee and the terms
- ✓ Bonded pairs stay together on your terms
Cons
- • The screening work is yours
- • Typically two to six weeks
- • You feel the goodbye directly
Option 2: The Greater Moncton Shelter
People for Animal Wellbeing on Greenock Street is the operating shelter for the region and also holds the animal control contract for Moncton, Dieppe and Riverview. Cats adopted from there go home at $250 for an adult or $295 for a kitten six months and under. Because the animal control role fills a share of the building with strays, owner surrender terms and capacity move through the year, so contact them and describe your situation rather than planning around an assumption.
Pros
- ✓ Professional handoff, they take it from there
- ✓ Medical assessment before adoption
- ✓ The largest local adoption audience
- ✓ Runs a working-cat placement stream for unsocialised cats
Cons
- • Space competes with animal control intake
- • Kitten season is the tightest stretch
- • You lose all say in who adopts
- • Shelter rooms stress most cats
How it works: contact P.A.W. through paw-sba.ca with your cat's age, health history, litter habits, and any FIV or FeLV results, and ask what their current intake looks like. Their Barn Buddies stream places cats who are too unsocialised for a living room into working homes, which is worth asking about if your cat came from a colony rather than a couch.
Option 3: Foster-Based Rescue
Foster rescues put cats in volunteers' spare rooms rather than shelter kennels, which is the gentlest surrender outcome a cat can get. Abandoned Cat Rescue is a registered charity based at Salisbury West serving Greater Moncton, running fostering, adoption and colony work together. Cat Rescue Maritimes is an all-volunteer charity that has run trap-neuter-return across New Brunswick and Nova Scotia since 2005 and has a Moncton chapter. Whether either can take an owner-surrendered cat depends entirely on free foster capacity that week, so ask directly.
Pros
- ✓ A real house rather than a shelter room
- ✓ Behaviour observed properly before placement
- ✓ Careful, match-led adoptions
Cons
- • Intake capped by free foster rooms
- • Volunteers reply in days, not minutes
- • You lose say in the final placement
“Everyone Says They Have No Room”
When three organisations in a row say no, that is a capacity report rather than a verdict on your cat. Understanding why helps, because it changes what you do next.
The arithmetic here is unforgiving. Foster-based groups can hold exactly as many cats as they have empty spare rooms, and those rooms fill from spring onward as litters arrive. The shelter carries the animal control contract for three municipalities, so strays are already claiming space before an owner surrender enters the queue. Colony cats persist across the region in barns, outbuildings and behind the industrial strips, which is why kittens turn up in waves rather than steadily. Healthy, well-loved cats get turned away every week purely on space, and their owners hang up convinced they have run out of road. They have not. A shelter place is only one route to an adopter, and it is the slowest one.
Cat Intake Around Greater Moncton (Quick Reference)
| Organisation | Owner surrenders? | How to enquire |
|---|---|---|
| People for Animal Wellbeing | Regional shelter and animal control contractor. Terms and capacity vary; contact them and describe your cat | paw-sba.ca |
| Abandoned Cat Rescue | Volunteer foster network serving Greater Moncton. Capacity depends on free foster rooms | abandonedcatrescue.org / 1-506-215-0059 |
| Cat Rescue Maritimes | All-volunteer charity with a Moncton chapter, colony and TNR focus. Ask about your specific cat | carmacat.org |
| New Brunswick SPCA | Provincial animal protection body rather than a Moncton adoption shelter. Runs the Happy Tails hardship fund | nbspca.ca/happytails |
Capacity changes week to week and this table is a starting point rather than a promise. If everyone says no, the next move is private rehoming.
Skip the waitlist: rehome her privately
A LocalPetFinder listing takes about ten minutes and costs nothing. Your cat appears alongside rescue cats, in front of the same Moncton, Dieppe and Riverview adopters already browsing the shelter, without waiting for a foster room to open.
Start Your Free Listing →How to Rehome Your Cat on LocalPetFinder
Submit Your Listing
Fill out the rehoming form: name, coat type, age, sex, altered status, litter habits, indoor or outdoor history, FIV and FeLV status, how she is with children, dogs and other cats, and at least one clear photo. Daylight, eye level, face visible. Honesty is the whole strategy. A listing that says shy for a fortnight then a lap cat forever finds the adopter who wants exactly that.
We Review Within 24 to 48 Hours
Every listing gets checked for completeness, photo quality and red flags before it goes live. Once approved, your cat appears alongside rescue cats on the Moncton cat listings with an Owner Rehoming badge, so adopters know exactly what they are looking at.
Adopters Contact You
Interested people reach out through the platform and your email is never shown publicly. You decide who to answer, who to meet, and how fast to move. Your cat stays home the whole time, which takes the pressure off saying yes to the first message that lands.
Meet, Transfer, Done
Cats do not do neutral-ground meetings the way dogs do. A carrier in a parking lot is a terrified cat, so hold the meeting at your home, then visit theirs or ask for a video walkthrough before handover day. When it feels right, hand over the records, the food, the litter and the blanket, take the fee by e-transfer for the paper trail, and update the microchip registration. Most rehomings here finish in two to six weeks.
The Cat-Specific Things You Must Disclose
Dog rehoming guides talk about bite history. The cat version of that list looks different, and skipping it is how a placement falls apart in week three.
Indoor or outdoor history
A cat used to going out will work the door of a new house, and a cat who has never been out will panic if the new owner assumes she wants to. Say which she is. Keeping her in is the safer choice here anyway: Wheeler Boulevard traffic, freezing rain and freeze-thaw cycles that leave sheet ice underfoot, and warm engine blocks that draw cats underneath parked cars on a January morning. Our indoor versus outdoor guide covers the middle-ground options.
Litter setup and any history of accidents
Tell them how many boxes she had, where they sat, which litter she uses, and whether she has ever stopped using them. If a vet ruled out a medical cause, say so, because it reassures rather than damages. Send a scoop of used litter to seed the new box. That single habit prevents a surprising share of first-week accidents.
FIV and FeLV status
Disclose it in writing and hand over the results. An FIV positive cat is more placeable than owners fear, since they live long ordinary lives indoors and often live safely alongside other cats. FeLV is more restrictive, and the adopter needs the facts before introducing her to a resident cat. If she has never been tested, say untested rather than implying a negative.
Bonded pairs stay together
Cats who groom each other, sleep touching and search the house when separated are bonded, and they go as a pair. Splitting them produces two anxious cats who often stop eating or start soiling, which returns both to the system. Advertise them as a pair from the start. Plenty of adopters want two, because a bonded pair settles faster and keeps each other occupied through a working day.
Age, health and running costs
Dental disease, a thyroid condition, a prescription diet, arthritis in an older cat. Put the ongoing cost in plain numbers so the adopter can budget honestly, and remember most things bought for her carry 15% HST on top. Seniors and cats with a managed condition do get adopted here. Cats whose conditions surface on day four get returned.
Screening Adopters Without Apologising For It
Charge a fee, always
Somewhere between $50 and $200. The exact figure matters less than the fact of it. A fee turns away impulse takers and the people who collect free animals to flip, and it tells anyone reading that this cat is loved rather than surplus. You can waive it quietly for the right applicant. If keeping the money sits badly with you, pass it on to a local rescue after the handover.
Ask the questions that predict outcomes
Who else lives there, human and animal. Own or rent, and if they rent, whether the lease permits cats in writing. Whether they plan to keep her indoors. Which vet they use and whether you may phone for a reference. What happens to the cat if they move next year. Good adopters expect these questions and are reassured to be asked them. Anyone offended has told you something useful for free.
See the home, or see it on video
You are looking for the obvious things: an open balcony four storeys up, a house full of animals nobody mentioned, a story that shifts between messages. A video walkthrough is a fair compromise for somebody driving in from Dieppe, Riverview, Shediac or Salisbury, which is normal and worth encouraging, because the wider region is your real audience rather than the city proper.
Write it down
A one-page agreement signed by both parties keeps everyone honest. Cover the cat's name, age, microchip number and description, the transfer date, the fee and how it was paid, what went with her, the FIV and FeLV disclosure, and a return clause: if it does not work out within 30 days, she comes back at no cost. Add a first-refusal line if you want one, saying that if the new owner ever rehomes her they offer her back to you first. No lawyer needed. A signed text document does the job.
Red Flags and the Free-to-Good-Home Trap
Walk away from any of these, however keen you are to have this finished:
- “I will take any cat you have.” Real adopters are fussy about age, temperament and household fit. Generic interest is a collector or a flipper.
- Anyone who will not show you where the cat will live. A video walkthrough is a reasonable compromise. A flat refusal is not.
- Pressure to hand her over today, especially from someone who found the listing an hour ago.
- Wanting a free mouser with no other questions. Proper working-cat programs exist and are run by rescues with screening behind them. An indoor pet dropped at a barn in a New Brunswick January is a different thing entirely.
- Offering well over your asking fee, particularly for a kitten or a cat that looks purebred.
- Vagueness about who else lives there, or answers that change between messages.
- Refusing a vet reference despite claiming years of cat ownership.
- Any handover pushed to a parking lot after dark, with no address and no follow-up contact.
Free-to-good-home posts on classifieds sites such as Kijiji are the biggest single source of these encounters, and cats are targeted more than dogs because they are small, quiet and easy to move on. That is the entire reason the fee matters. If you post elsewhere alongside your listing, treat every reply with the scrutiny you would apply to handing over a car, and remember you may say no without giving a reason.
Moncton-Specific Practicalities
There is no cat licence to transfer
Moncton licenses dogs only, so nothing changes hands on the civic side when a cat moves house. That catches out people who have owned cats somewhere that does license them. The microchip is the piece that matters. Update the registry to the new owner in the week of the handover and confirm they hold the login, because a chip pointing at your old number helps nobody.
Timing the listing
If you have flexibility, avoid listing an adult cat at the peak of kitten season, when every foster room across the region is full of litters and adopters have endless choice. Late autumn and winter are quieter and a listing carries further. Build slack into handover plans around freezing rain in the forecast too, because the drive in from Salisbury or Shediac is not worth risking on a bad morning.
Who to contact
People for Animal Wellbeing, Greenock Street, through paw-sba.ca, for shelter intake questions and the PAWsitive Fix spay and neuter program. Abandoned Cat Rescue, 1-506-215-0059, for foster-based options across Greater Moncton. Cat Rescue Maritimes for colony and TNR situations. The New Brunswick SPCA Happy Tails Fund at happytails@nbspca.ca if the pressure point is a vet bill rather than the cat.
Wider reading
The American Veterinary Medical Association publishes a practical guide to rehoming a pet responsibly that goes deeper on screening and handover than any single article can. If you are on the other side of this and thinking about taking a cat in, our guide to Moncton cat rescues covers who has cats and what they charge, and the dog version of this guide handles the same process for dogs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where can I rehome my cat in Moncton?+
Is rehoming the same as surrendering?+
Will P.A.W. take my cat?+
Do I need to license a cat in Moncton?+
Should I charge a rehoming fee for a cat?+
Why has my cat started peeing outside the litter box?+
Do I have to tell adopters my cat is FIV positive?+
My two cats are bonded. Do they have to go together?+
How long does rehoming a cat take in Moncton?+
What should I send with the cat?+
What if the money is the problem rather than the cat?+
Is it safe to post my cat on Kijiji?+
Related Moncton Guides
Ready to Start?
Listing your cat takes about ten minutes and costs nothing. You stay in control of who says yes, and she stays home with you until the right family turns up.
List Your Cat Free →New cat? Start with these care guides
Everything a new adopter needs to set up a safe, happy home.