Surrender Policy

HART will accept the surrender of any cat into the shelter that we are physically and medically able to assist. If HART is not able to take a cat into the shelter, our volunteers will make suggestions to surrendering owners to try and help them find a way to either maintain their cat(s) in their home or find a suitable, long-term placement for their cat(s). HART does not turn away cats due to their owner's age, ethnicity, or financial circumstances. HART’s environment is open (no cages) and groups of cats live together in each room. Cats who cannot live with other cats will likely fare poorly in this environment and owners are encouraged to seek alternate placement for these cats.​

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Owner Surrenders

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If you find that you need to surrender your cat or cats, please contact our Intake Coordinator by calling (207) 829-4116 or emailing us at intake@hartofme.org.  Please allow up to 5 business days for us to respond. An appointment is required to surrender your cat.  To help expedite this process, please first complete our Surrender Request Form.  We use this information to determine if we are able to accept your cat into our shelter.  If we are able to take your kitty at our shelter, we will provide you with our surrender form and provide further information.  If your kitty is accepted, please contact your vet before your surrender appointment to give HART permission to receive all records and to be able to discuss your cat's health with your vet.  Please review the Surrender Fees section below.

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Stray Cats

Most of our local communities hold contracts with other area shelters to take in stray animals. Please check which shelter covers your town here. If you find a stray cat, please reach out to your town/city's ACO.  You can find your Animal Control Officer (ACO) on this page.  The ACO should be able to assist you in determining what steps to take next and perhaps the appropriate shelter to bring the cat. Exceptions cannot be made for HART volunteers.

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If you find a stray cat in a community not covered by another local shelter, you may contact HART’s Intake Coordinator to see if HART is able to accept the cat - appointments are required to surrender a cat to HART. We do require a surrender fee for stray cats. Please complete any information you can on our Surrender Survey to help us determine if the stray cat can come to our shelter.  

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Surrender Fees

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HART is a private, non-profit shelter and we rely on the generosity of our supporters to be able to continue our work.  Because we don't maintain contracts with any towns, we also rely on surrender fees to help us off-set some of the costs associated with bringing in cats into our shelter.  Below you will see our surrender fees.  If you have questions, please be sure to direct those to our intake coordinator.

• $75 Adults age 5 months up to 10 years old

• $150 Senior cats age 10 to 14 years old

• $200 Senior cats over 15+ years old

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Kitten Surrenders

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If you need to surrender kittens (with or without a mom) or a pregnant cat, please contact our Kitten Team.

Surrendering a Cat Adopted from HART

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As stated in our adoption contract, if you can no longer keep a cat that was adopted from HART, the cat must be returned to HART. Please contact our Intake Coordinator at intake@hartofme.org to start the process. You must schedule an appointment for the surrender. There is no surrender fee charged if you return a cat adopted from HART.

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