Karma Kat: 'too many kitties,' not enough fosters
Residents of Mt. Pleasant and surrounding communities feed cats at the Karma Cat Cafe on Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026. (CM-Life | Trevor Sparks)
Karma Kat Cafe and Rescue, an animal shelter in Mount Pleasant, has closed its kitten intakes due to a lack of space for new fosters.
"We don't have fosters, we don't have room and there's just too much demand because there are too many kitties being made," Aliya Gorton, a manager with Karma Kat said.
She said the shelter usually receives phone calls about cats in need, or they are brought to the cafe. Summer is kitten season, which brings in more animals but the business has seen a shortage of foster parents.
"On average, our fosters stay during the summer, around the 30 range," She said about how many people foster cats from the shelter.
But, every summer the shelter receives about 150 mothers, kittens and pregnant moms.
Fostering provides people with the chance to bring the kitten home up until they're four pounds. Karma Kat sets up spays/neuters at their clinic twice a month, every month.
Since there's limited space at Karma Kat, cats in need can be brought to the Humane Animal Treatment Society (HATS) or Dalis to the Rescue. Karma Kat also offers courtesy posts for fixed cats, to help with people who are trying to re-home their personal pets.
Dalis to the Rescue is a nonprofit rescue organization located in Alma, with a goal to educate people on the responsibilities that should come before choosing a pet, according to its website.
Journey Haves is a manager at the business, she says the rescue is experiencing similar problems with a lack of fosters.
"Rescue and shelters are, in my opinion, less concerned about finding the fosters... and more concerned about finding the adopters," she said.
Haves said since there's an influx, they've had to place multiple animals together with one foster family.
"I have to get rid of about 50 animals, in order to bring more animals in here," Dalis Hitchcock, owner of Dalis to the Rescue, said about how much space the business has for new animals.
She said one of the main problems with foster parents is they're worried they wouldn't want to give up the animal. So, she said the team tries to talk people into fostering and adopting and providing an animal with a place to stay until they can find a home.
HATS provides shelter for homeless or lost pets, with adoption services to place pets in "forever homes," according to its website.
Karma Kat also works closely with Pet Smart, as the shelter gives some of its more introverted cats to the shop. Gorton said this is a good way to get the introverted kittens noticed.
The shelter promotes heavily on Facebook, offering up people interested in fostering with a link to an application. Throughout the application, the questions refer to how many cats you're interested in and what experience you have with fostering.
Gorton said after receiving an application, she goes through it and makes sure everything checks out. Because, she said some people won't be able to foster even if they want to.
She said a factor that prevent people from fostering are if a rental apartment doesn't allow it.
"We're obviously doing the best we can, the biggest thing that makes it to where we can take on more is having fosters," Gorton said.
