Chicago's cat scene is built around its rescues. In 2025, by the city's own count, more of the cats at Chicago Animal Care and Control went to partner rescues and shelters than were adopted directly from the city shelter. So your next cat may well come from a foster home, a cat-only shelter or a café lounge.
This guide covers the Chicago area, which for us means about 40 miles around the Loop: the city, the suburbs and the corner of Northwest Indiana. It walks through the cat cafés, the places to adopt, the rescues worth knowing, how to volunteer or foster, and what to do if you find a cat. Opening hours, fees and booking details change, so we leave those to the venues' own sites and our listing pages.
At a glance
| If you want to… | Start with |
|---|---|
| Visit a cat café in the city | The Catcade (Lakeview) or Tree House Cat Café (West Ridge) |
| Visit a cat café with young kids | Tree House Cat Café (all ages, with an adult) or The Cat House (Roselle) |
| Adopt with no appointment | The Anti-Cruelty Society (River North) |
| Adopt from the city shelter | Chicago Animal Care and Control (Little Village) |
| Volunteer or foster | PAWS Chicago, Anti-Cruelty or Tree House, or a foster-based rescue |
| Found a stray | Leave a healthy cat where it is; call 311 if it's sick or hurt |
| Help a feral colony | Trap-neuter-return through Tree House, Cats In Action or PAWS Chicago |
Cat cafés
In Chicago, food-safety rules keep animals out of restaurants, which is part of why the city's cafés look so different from one another. At the four cafés below, every lounge cat is up for adoption except one resident cat at the Catcade.
The Catcade, Lakeview
The Catcade calls itself "a non-profit, arcade-themed cat rescue, lounge, and our version of a cat café." Its cats roam free among free-play arcade games and a Nintendo 64 set up for Mario Kart. It isn't a café partnering with a rescue: the Catcade is its own licensed rescue, and it mostly pulls cats from overpopulated, under-resourced county shelters.
It opened on Belmont Avenue in 2017 and in 2024 moved down the street to 624 W Belmont Ave, into a building it bought and renovated. Guests must be 12 or older, and it doesn't do same-day adoptions, so plan on applying first. Visits are booked ahead.
Tree House Cat Café, West Ridge
Tree House Humane Society's café, at 7225 N Western Ave in West Ridge (West Rogers Park), has an unusual rule: every cat in the lounge has feline leukemia virus (FeLV). There are usually one to four at a time, a small number to protect their immune systems, and all of them are adoptable. Tree House describes itself as one of several US shelters with an adoption program for FeLV-positive cats.
According to TimeOut, the City Council passed an ordinance in 2016 so that an animal shelter could run a cat café, and the café opened in May 2019. Anyone can walk in for coffee, but meeting the cats takes a reservation. All ages are welcome in the lounge, and children under 15 need an adult with them. The CTA 49B Western bus stops nearby, and there's an on-site lot. See Tree House Cat Café on MeowScout.
The Cat House, Roselle
The Cat House, at 344 E Irving Park Rd in Roselle, was billed by both the Daily Herald and WGN as the first cat lounge in the Chicago suburbs when it opened in June 2024. It's a small business that acts as the foster space for partner rescues (currently Forever Fortunate Felines, St. Sophia's Forgotten Felines and Love at First Meow Cat Rescue), and the rescues keep all of the adoption fee. There are usually more than a dozen cats in the lounge. It's a short walk from the Roselle Metra station. Socks only, no shoes. Book on The Cat House's site.
The Region Cat Café, Merrillville, Indiana
About 30 miles southeast of the Loop, The Region Cat Café pairs a café with its own kitchen and a separate cat lounge. Every lounge cat is adoptable, and the foster-based rescue Second Chance 4 Pets handles the adoptions. Anyone can eat at the café; reserving the lounge is the only way to guarantee a spot with the cats. See The Region Cat Café on MeowScout.
Rescue-run cat lounges
Two rescues run lounges in their own adoption centers. They aren't cafés, but you can spend time with their cats whether or not you plan to adopt.
- Paws and Claws Cat Rescue, Evanston. Reservation-only visits with free-roaming cats across four rooms, across the street from the CTA Purple Line's Main station. Children under 18 need an adult.
- April's Kittens, Forest Park. A special-needs rescue that opened its building on Roosevelt Road in May 2026, with a cat lounge at the front. Booking ahead is encouraged but not required, and children under 10 aren't allowed.
Closed: Windy Kitty, the café on North Avenue at the Bucktown–Wicker Park line, closed to visitors in March 2020 and has since closed.
Not a cat café: the Hello Kitty Cafe on Michigan Avenue is a Sanrio-themed café with no cats.
Where to adopt
Chicago Animal Care and Control
CACC, at 2741 S Western Ave, is the city's only municipal shelter. It's open for walk-in adoptions every day; adopters need to be 18 or older with a government photo ID. Many of its cats leave through rescue partners instead: in 2025, by the city's own count, 4,948 cats were transferred to partners and 2,302 were adopted directly. Adopting from a partner rescue often means adopting a cat that came through CACC.
PAWS Chicago also has staff on site at CACC through a partnership called 360@CACC.
The big shelters in and near the city
- PAWS Chicago, Lincoln Park. Described by WTTW and the Sun-Times as the city's largest no-kill shelter, and the partner that took the most cats from CACC from May to August 2026. Its cats are in "Kitty City" at the adoption center on Clybourn Avenue. Walk-ins are welcome and appointments are recommended. Adopters must be 21 or older.
- The Anti-Cruelty Society, River North. Founded in 1899, it's an open-admission ("open door") shelter. Adoption is walk-in, with no appointment needed, and there's a one-week Home Trial if you want to be sure. Its Bruckner Rehabilitation & Treatment Center treats cats with upper respiratory infections, and it keeps adoptable cats at several PetSmart stores in and around the city. In 2026 it opened a Pet Resource Center in Roseland.
- Tree House Humane Society, West Ridge. A cat-only shelter founded by volunteers in 1971. It housed cats without cages from 1975, and by its own history it took in FIV-positive cats from 1988, when most were euthanized. Its current shelter, opened in 2017, keeps cats in free-roaming colonies with outdoor catios. Adoption is walk-in, and a counselor uses a short survey to pick up to three cats for you to meet. Adopters must be 18 or older. Tree House doesn't take owner surrenders.
- Harmony House for Cats, on Elston Avenue. A cat-only shelter founded in 1970 as the Animal Protective Association. Its cage-free adoption center opened in 2012 and is LEED Platinum certified. Walk in during adoption hours; adopters must be 18 or older.
- Animal Welfare League, Chicago Ridge. An open-access shelter founded in 1935. Adoptions happen at Chicago Ridge; its South Side site on Wabash Avenue handles intake only.
In the suburbs and Northwest Indiana
- North and northwest: Heartland Animal Shelter in Wheeling, a no-kill shelter a veterinarian opened in 2002, and Orphans of the Storm in Riverwoods, on nine acres with its own cat housing.
- West: Animal Care League in Oak Park (since 1973); Catnap From The Heart in La Grange Park, a cat-only shelter where cats stay as long as it takes; Hinsdale Humane Society, founded in 1953; DuPage County Animal Services in Wheaton; Naperville Area Humane Society and A.D.O.P.T. Pet Shelter in Naperville; and Anderson Humane in South Elgin, which also rehabilitates wildlife.
- South: South Suburban Humane Society in Matteson; PAWS Tinley Park, an independent shelter unrelated to PAWS Chicago; and NAWS in Mokena, where you can meet cats without an appointment.
- Northwest Indiana: Humane Indiana in Munster, which started in 1941 as the Hammond Humane Society.
Adopting at pet stores
Several rescues keep cats in pet stores. The Anti-Cruelty Society has cats living at PetSmart stores in and around the city, Forever Fortunate Felines has cats in PetSmart and Petco stores, and Friends of CACC holds regular cat adoption events at two Chicago Petcos. Check each group's site for current stores.
Rescues worth knowing
Many of these rescues are foster-based, with no building: their cats live in volunteers' homes until they're adopted. These stand out for what they take on.
Medical and special needs
- April's Kittens, Forest Park. Takes critically injured, medically complex and special-needs cats, including cats with cerebellar hypoplasia and a paralyzed cat fitted for a wheelchair. Its founder started out bottle-feeding a found kitten, and orphan bottle babies are still a specialty.
- Paws and Claws Cat Rescue, Evanston. Focuses on FIV-positive cats, black cats and shy cats. It says more than 95% of its cats come from municipal shelters. Founded in 2020 as foster-only, it opened its Evanston adoption center in 2023.
- Precious Pets Almost Home. All-volunteer and fully foster-based since 2006, with a sanctuary program for cats with special medical needs.
- Touched By An Animal / Cats-Are-Purrsons-Too, Bowmanville. Founded in 1984 by a religious sister to help elderly neighbors keep their pets. It runs a free-roaming cat sanctuary and offers a lifetime home if one is needed.
Community cats and colonies
- Cats In Action. A South Side–focused group that runs a free monthly Zoom workshop, "Helping Cats Near You," lends humane traps for free from North and South Side sites, and places feral cats as barn and urban working cats.
- Hyde Park Cats. All-volunteer and foster-based since 2008. It takes friendly cats out of feral colonies with the help of their caretakers. Through its Community Foster Program, the person who found the cat fosters it while Hyde Park Cats lists it for adoption.
- Whiskers & Tails Rescue Foundation. Pairs trap-neuter-return for feral cats with trap-neuter-adopt for friendly ones, and rents traps.
- St. Sophia's Forgotten Felines, Wheaton. Named for St. Sophia of Thrace, "Mother of Orphans." CACC is its largest partner, and it takes in the friendly cats that trap-neuter-return groups catch.
Other models
- Forever Fortunate Felines, Palatine. Founded in 2019 after the founder's cat went missing and her search at CACC showed her the need. It's fully foster-based and all-volunteer, says it rescues more than 1,000 cats a year (as of 2026), and took the second-most cats from CACC from May to August 2026.
- Friends of Chicago Animal Care and Control. Works only for animals in CACC's custody. Its Crisis Care Program pays for emergency treatment for critical cases.
- Specialty Purebred Cat Rescue. Based in Kenosha, Wisconsin, with foster homes across Illinois and nearby states. Since 1999 it has fostered purebred cats whose needs are hard to meet in a shelter, plus some special-needs cats.
Volunteering and fostering
Nearly every shelter and rescue above needs help, and many have cat-specific roles: socializing shy cats, cleaning cat rooms, driving cats to vet appointments, staffing adoption events, and fostering. Most start with an application and an orientation, and many set a minimum age, typically 18. Requirements change, so check each group's volunteer page.
- PAWS Chicago runs a new-volunteer orientation online or in person, with roles at the adoption center and its medical center.
- The Anti-Cruelty Society typically asks on-site volunteers to be 18 or older and come in at least once a month. Its Adoption Ambassadors foster a cat at home and help find it an adopter.
- Tree House has roles in facility care, its trap-neuter-return program and Cats at Work.
- Heartland takes volunteers from 16 with a guardian's waiver, and NAWS from 13.
- The Catcade asks volunteers to be 21 or older, and spots rarely open.
- Paws and Claws pairs new volunteers with a mentor after orientation and training.
Fostering: many of these groups depend on foster homes. Anti-Cruelty's neonatal kitten program trains fosters and supplies bottles, formula, heating pads and scales. Tree House relies on fosters to bottle-feed newborn kittens during kitten season, which in Chicago can run from April to October. Friends of CACC covers food, litter and medical costs for its fosters, and Forever Fortunate Felines pairs new fosters with a mentor.
Found a cat?
In Chicago
If a cat is sick or injured on the street or in a park, call 311.
If it's healthy, CACC asks you to leave it where it is. Taking a healthy cat in lowers its chances of getting home, and the city says cats are more than 13 times more likely to be reunited with their owners if they're left in place. Since 2024 CACC hasn't routinely taken in healthy outdoor cats. If you find a litter of kittens, don't scoop them up: the mother may be out hunting.
To look for an owner, have the cat scanned for a microchip at any vet, police district or shelter, and post it on lost-and-found sites such as Petco Love Lost.
In the suburbs and Indiana
Call your town's police or animal control. Cook County Animal and Rabies Control helps directly only in unincorporated areas. DuPage, Lake (Illinois) and Will counties have their own animal services. In Northwest Indiana, Humane Indiana's advice for healthy outdoor cats is blunt: "Dogs probably need your help, whereas cats probably do not."
Feral colonies and trap-neuter-return
Cook County has allowed managed feral cat colonies since 2007. Caretakers register with an approved sponsor such as Tree House, Cats In Action or PAWS Chicago, and they sterilize, vaccinate, ear-tip and microchip their cats. Registered colonies get some legal protection.
- Tree House has run trap-neuter-return since 2005 and, by its own count, supports more than 1,000 volunteer colony caretakers across the city (as of 2026). It also rents humane traps.
- PAWS Chicago offers free trap-neuter-return, with transport, in several South and Southwest Side ZIP codes.
- Cats In Action teaches its free monthly workshop and lends traps.
- Paws and Claws books neuter appointments for unowned community cats in Cook County, and Feral Fixers covers DuPage.
Some feral cats that can't go back to where they were found get jobs instead. Tree House's Cats at Work program, started in 2011, places them at warehouses and breweries (food-safety law rules out restaurants). Anti-Cruelty and Cats In Action run working-cat programs too, and South Suburban Humane Society places barn cats.
Low-cost spay and neuter
PAWS Chicago's Lurie Clinic in Little Village offers free and low-cost spay and neuter, Anti-Cruelty runs a clinic in the city, Animal Welfare League runs one in Chicago Ridge, and Tree House holds community pop-up clinics with free vaccines and microchips. Cook County Animal and Rabies Control holds seasonal free rabies-vaccine and microchip clinics, and DuPage County offers a no-cost spay/neuter voucher to eligible residents. In the suburbs, look at Animal Care League (Oak Park), Catnap From The Heart (La Grange Park), A.D.O.P.T. (Naperville), South Suburban Humane Society (Matteson), Anderson Humane (South Elgin) and Humane Indiana's clinic (Munster).
Annual cat events
- Lincoln State Cat Club Allbreed Cat Show, late every winter at a western-suburbs fairground. The show has run for more than 60 years.
- PAWS Chicago Holiday Adopt-a-Thon, every December.
- Tree House Cat Walk, a summer fundraiser whose format changes from year to year.
For what's happening this month, see cat events on MeowScout.
FAQ
Can you adopt from a cat café in Chicago?
Yes. The lounge cats at the Catcade, Tree House, The Cat House and The Region Cat Café are adoptable (the Catcade keeps one resident cat). Expect to apply first; the Catcade doesn't do same-day adoptions.
Are there cat cafés in the Chicago suburbs?
Yes: The Cat House in Roselle, plus the rescue-run lounges at Paws and Claws in Evanston and April's Kittens in Forest Park. The Region Cat Café is in Merrillville, Indiana.
How old do you have to be to adopt a cat in Chicago?
It depends on where you adopt. CACC, Tree House and Harmony House require adopters to be 18 or older, and PAWS Chicago 21 or older.
What should I do if I find a stray cat in Chicago?
If it's sick or injured, call 311. If it's healthy, CACC asks you to leave it where it is; it says cats left in place are more than 13 times more likely to get home. Leave kittens alone too, because their mother may be nearby.
Where can I volunteer with cats in Chicago?
PAWS Chicago, The Anti-Cruelty Society, Tree House, Harmony House and most of the rescues above. Many of them also need fosters.
Is Windy Kitty still open?
No. It closed to visitors in March 2020.