OnlyCats
The rescue community's operating system. Built for foster parents, rescue organizations, and independent rescuers — so fewer cats fall through the cracks.
The Problem
~3.2 million cats enter U.S. shelters every year. Roughly 530,000 are euthanized — not because nobody cares, but because the rescue system runs on Facebook DMs, spreadsheets, and group chats.
Foster parents track health records in notebooks and communicate via scattered text threads. Rescue org leaders manage dozens of cats across volunteers using spreadsheets and Facebook groups. Independent rescuers spend as much time copy-pasting across ten groups as they do caring for cats. Transporters find requests buried in comment threads. Donors don't know which cats need funding.
The infrastructure of cat rescue is held together by duct tape and burnout.
The Solution
OnlyCats is a purpose-built platform that brings cat health tracking, foster coordination, org management, and fundraising into one place. It's designed for the people doing the work — foster parents caring for cats in their living rooms, org leaders juggling dozens of animals and volunteers, and the rescuers pulling cats from overcrowded shelters.
Coordinate
Help requests, regional feeds, and social posting replace fragmented Facebook workflows.
Track
Cat profiles with health records, care schedules, and timeline updates give every cat a complete history.
Connect
Regional pages, gamification, and org profiles bring the right people together at the right time.
Who We Serve
Six distinct personas in the rescue ecosystem, each with specific pain points.
Foster Parents
Pain: Track health records in notebooks, communicate updates through scattered Facebook posts and texts, get no recognition for exhausting, life-saving work.
OnlyCats: Cat profiles with health tracking (weight, vaccines, meds), meowments timeline for updates, automated care schedules, and gamification that recognizes every milestone.
Rescue Org Leaders
Pain: Manage dozens of cats across a network of fosters and volunteers using spreadsheets, Facebook groups, and endless text threads. Struggle to fundraise and report outcomes.
OnlyCats: Org dashboard with cat roster and foster tracking, Stripe Connect for direct-to-cat donations, AI-generated social posts, and automated reporting for grants and board meetings.
Independent Rescuers
Pain: Coordinate pulls, fosters, and transports across Facebook DMs, spreadsheets, and group chats. No centralized view of who needs help or has open space.
OnlyCats: Regional help feeds, one-click social posting with AI captions, shelter data import, and org profiles with contact info and hours.
Transporters
Pain: Find transport requests buried in Facebook groups. No way to see what's needed near them.
OnlyCats: Regional pages showing cats that need transport, with pickup/dropoff details and urgency flags.
Donors
Pain: Want to help but don't know which cats need funding. Hesitant to donate to unknown small rescues.
OnlyCats: Transparent per-cat donation pages, progress updates, verified org badges, direct Stripe payments.
Cat Parents & Supporters
Pain: Want to help but don't foster. Sharing posts feels ineffective. No way to follow a cat's journey.
OnlyCats: Shareable cat profiles, social sharing with impact tracking, meowment updates to follow cats you care about.
What's Built
OnlyCats is not a concept — it's a working product in beta. Here's what's live today.
Cat Profiles
- •Full profiles with breed, age, personality traits, special needs, and status tracking
- •Health records: weight chart with growth curve, vaccines, medications, procedures
- •Automatic care schedule (kitten, catch-up for strays, adult wellness)
- •Meowments timeline — photo/video updates that build a cat's story
- •Help requests with 5 types: foster transfer, transport, medical fund, supplies, rescue placement
- •Urgency flags and shareable help pages optimized for social media
Organizations
- •8 org types: shelter, rescue, cafe, sanctuary, TNR, clinic, vet, hospital
- •Google Places integration — hours, reviews, map, and directions
- •Social feed embeds (Facebook, TikTok) on org profiles
- •Stripe Connect for direct donations with configurable platform fees
- •Org application and admin review workflow
- •Info pages for intake, adoption, foster, and volunteer policies
Community & Regions
- •Regional pages for 200+ US metro areas
- •Help needed feed showing cats that need fosters, transports, funding
- •Member directory showing rescuers, fosters, and transporters nearby
- •Verified org listings per region
Gamification
- •6 levels: Newcomer to Legend (0–15,000 points)
- •20 badges across 6 categories with 4 rarity tiers
- •Points for fostering, transporting, rescuing, donating, sharing, posting
- •Foster outcome bonuses (adopted +75 pts, transferred +50 pts)
- •Global leaderboard
Social Automation
- •AI-generated Facebook captions using Claude (tailored by post type and platform)
- •Region-matched channel routing — posts go to the right local group/page
- •Support for Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter adapters
- •Posting schedules per channel and post type
Platform
- •Stripe Connect destination charges with per-org fee overrides
- •Shelter data import from SEAACA, Petfinder, RescueGroups
- •Email notifications via Resend with per-type opt-in preferences
- •Foster guide with personalized org recommendations
- •Admin tools for org management, social channels, and imported animals
Roadmap
- ✓Open beta in Los Angeles
- ✓Onboard first rescues, fosters, and orgs
- ✓Community feedback surveys
- ✓Iterate on core flows based on real usage
- ○Expand to Orange County, San Diego, Bay Area
- ○Mobile-optimized experience (PWA)
- ○Automated shelter intake alerts — notify fosters when at-risk cats are listed
- ○Foster matching algorithm — connect cats with the right foster based on experience and capacity
- ○Transport relay coordination — chain multiple drivers for long-distance moves
- ○Nationwide expansion with metro-by-metro rollout
- ○Native mobile app (iOS + Android)
- ○Vet partnership network — discounted care for rescue cats
- ○Adoption application flow integrated into cat profiles
- ○Automated social posting on schedule (not just on-demand)
- ○API for shelter management systems to sync data
How We Fit In
We're not trying to replace the tools people already use. Petfinder gets cats adopted. Facebook connects communities. Shelterluv runs shelters. These tools are valuable — and rescuers shouldn't have to choose between them. OnlyCats integrates with the platforms you already rely on so everything works better together.
Petfinder
Adoption listings
We sync adoptable cats to Petfinder so listings reach more adopters — no double entry.
Adopt-a-Pet
Adoption listings
Same as Petfinder — OnlyCats can push listings so your cats show up where adopters are already looking.
Shelterluv
Shelter management
We import shelter intake data so rescuers know which cats need pulling — without leaving OnlyCats.
RescueGroups
Data syndication
We pull animal data from RescueGroups to auto-populate cat profiles and avoid manual re-entry.
Facebook Groups
Community coordination
OnlyCats posts directly to your Facebook groups and pages with AI-generated captions — keeping your community engaged with less copy-pasting.
Visual storytelling
Share meowments and help requests to Instagram with platform-optimized captions and hashtags.
Stripe
Payments
Direct donations flow through Stripe Connect — donors give to specific cats, funds go straight to the org.
What OnlyCats Adds
The rescue ecosystem has great tools for specific jobs. What's missing is the connective tissue — a place that ties health tracking, coordination, fundraising, and community together and integrates with everything else.
The layer between rescue and adoption
Petfinder and Adopt-a-Pet list cats ready for adoption. OnlyCats handles everything before that — finding fosters, coordinating transports, funding vet bills — then pushes listings to those platforms when the cat is ready.
Built for fosters and small orgs, not institutions
Shelter management tools charge $200+/mo and are built for staffed facilities. OnlyCats is free and designed for the foster with 3 cats in their spare bedroom and the rescue run entirely by volunteers.
Works with your existing workflow
Already coordinate on Facebook? OnlyCats posts to your groups automatically. Use Shelterluv? We import intake data. Use Petfinder? We push adoptable listings. We meet you where you are.
Community-first, not transactional
Gamification, badges, levels, and public profiles recognize the people doing the work. Fostering is exhausting and invisible — OnlyCats makes it visible and valued.
Where We Are
LA
Beta market
Live
Product status
200+
Metro areas mapped
20
Badges designed
OnlyCats is in open beta in Los Angeles. The platform is fully functional with cat profiles, health tracking, org pages, donations, social posting, and gamification all live. We're onboarding our first rescues and fosters and collecting feedback to refine the experience before expanding to more metros.
The Vision
Every year, hundreds of thousands of cats are euthanized in shelters — not because nobody cares, but because the people who care can't coordinate fast enough. A foster home exists for that cat. A transporter would drive. A donor would cover the vet bill. They just can't find each other in time.
OnlyCats exists to close that gap. To make rescue coordination as easy as posting a photo. To give every foster cat a profile that tells their story. To recognize the people doing this work and connect them with the community that supports them.
We're not building an adoption marketplace. We're building the operating system for the people who save cats' lives.
Want to learn more?
We'd love to hear from you — whether you rescue cats, foster, donate, or just want to help.