Indianapolis wrote trap-neuter-return into city law, but its city shelter no longer takes in healthy outdoor cats. The City-County Code sets up a community cat program built on trap-neuter-return, while Indianapolis Animal Care Services now tells residents that "healthy community cats should not be brought to the shelter" and sends people to two low-cost clinics and a TNR nonprofit instead. That gap is covered in detail below.
The city shelter also moved into a new building in May 2026, and the metro's two open cat cafés, in Fountain Square and Fishers, work in very different ways.
This guide covers the Indianapolis area, which for us means about 40 miles around downtown: Marion County plus Hamilton, Boone, Hendricks, Johnson, Morgan, Hancock, Shelby and Madison counties. 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 | Nine Lives Cafe & Cat Lounge (Fountain Square) |
| Visit a cat café with young kids | Smitten Kitten (Fishers), or Nine Lives in the morning, when the lounge is open to all ages |
| Adopt with no appointment | IACS (walk-up adoptions), IndyHumane or the Humane Society for Hamilton County |
| Adopt a senior or special-needs cat | Serenity, Cats Haven, or the Humane Society for Hamilton County |
| Volunteer or foster | IACS, IndyHumane or the Humane Society for Hamilton County, or a foster-based rescue such as ARPO or Robin's Nest |
| Found a healthy stray in Indianapolis | Don't take it to IACS; FACE, the IndyHumane Downtown Clinic and Indy Neighborhood Cats handle TNR |
Cat cafés
As of fall 2026 the metro has two open cat cafés. Nearly all their cats are adoptable, but the two cafés find them in opposite ways.
Nine Lives Cafe & Cat Lounge, Fountain Square
Nine Lives, at 1315 Shelby St in Fountain Square, opened in January 2017 and calls itself the first cat café in Indy. Its adoptable cats are fostered through the café's own nonprofit, the IndyAdopts! Foundation, which the café's current owners founded in 2021, and they come from several rescues and shelters. A few named resident cats live there and aren't up for adoption.
The lounges have a rule worth knowing if you're bringing kids. Entry is tiered by age through the day: all ages in the morning, 13 and older in the afternoon, and 18 and older in the evening. The café explains that its cats "power down" after early afternoon. The café side is separate from the cat lounges and sells consignment art by local artists.
Smitten Kitten Cat Cafe, Fishers
About 13 miles northeast of downtown, Smitten Kitten opened in January 2023 at 7852 E 96th St. It was billed by Current in Fishers, WISH-TV and the Indianapolis Business Journal as Hamilton County's first cat café. It's a small business, not a rescue.
At first all its cats came from the Humane Society for Hamilton County, until, as the owner told Current, the café ran the shelter out of cats about six weeks after opening. Since then Smitten Kitten has rotated among shelters and rescues from around the region, taking up to about 24 cats from one group for roughly three months at a time. Every lounge cat is adoptable. The shelter or rescue whose cats are in the lounge processes the adoption and keeps the whole fee. By its own count it has passed 1,000 adoptions since opening (as of 2026). It doesn't take surrendered or stray cats.
Kids are welcome, with one adult for every three children under 12. The café also runs events with the cats, such as yoga and painting.
Closed: Pawz Pet Cafe in Carmel closed on July 27, 2026, to renovate and rebrand. A successor in the same space, Paws & Purrs Cat Café, had not opened as of October 2026.
Not cat cafés: The Groovy Cafe in Geist (formerly The Groovy Cat Cafe) is a 1970s-themed coffee shop, and Black House Café on Shelby Street is a horror-themed coffee shop. Neither has cats.
Where to adopt
Indianapolis Animal Care Services
IACS is the city's municipal shelter, and it has been an independent city agency since January 1, 2025. On May 11, 2026, it moved from Harding Street to a new shelter at 5001 E Raymond St, more than double the size of the old one, so ignore any Harding Street address you find online.
Adoption is walk-up every day, with no appointment, first come first served. IACS doesn't place holds on animals, and you'll need a photo ID. Strays and surrenders come in by appointment only. IACS also adopts out barn and working cats.
The big shelters in and near the city
- IndyHumane, northwest side. The Humane Society of Indianapolis, on Michigan Road, has been "helping central Indiana's pets in need since 1905," in its own words. It's a limited-admission shelter: it directs strays to IACS and takes transfers from IACS as space allows. Walk in during adoption hours to meet cats and apply; there are no holds or waitlist. Its separate Downtown Clinic on Holmes Avenue is a low-cost spay/neuter clinic, with no adoptions.
- Humane Society for Hamilton County, Fishers. Founded in 1984, it's open-admission and is the contracted animal-control shelter for Hamilton County and its towns, so Carmel, Fishers and Noblesville have no separate city shelter. It places FeLV-positive and hospice animals. Its building on Hague Road, opened in 2021, has indoor catios linked to four cat roaming rooms. By its own count it took in 3,896 animals in 2025 and placed 97%. Visit during adoption hours to meet the animals; everyone in the household, dogs included, has to meet the pet at the shelter first.
In the suburbs
- North: the Humane Society for Boone County in Whitestown is almost entirely volunteer-run and adopts by appointment only. Many of its animals live in foster homes.
- South: the Johnson County Animal Shelter in Franklin is government-run and all-admittance, and describes itself as the only shelter in Johnson County. Its adoption rules say no cat adopted there may ever be declawed. Also in Franklin, the Humane Society of Johnson County adopts by appointment: apply online, then meet. Farther south, the Morgan County Humane Society is in Martinsville.
- West: the Hendricks County Animal Shelter in Danville has its own adoption model. If a cat isn't already spayed or neutered, you pre-pay that surgery and its vaccines at a vet of your choice, and you place a one-business-day hold in person. It holds Sunday meet-and-greets by appointment.
- East, Hancock County: Greenfield-Hancock Animal Management is the joint city and county animal agency, and its building, completed in 2023, has separate cat adoption rooms. The Hancock County Humane Society is no-kill, all-volunteer and adopts by appointment. P.A.W.S. Hancock is foster-based, with a small on-site cattery, Paw Print Alley, that opened in 2024 and holds about 10 cats. All three are in Greenfield.
- East, Shelby County: the Shelbyville/Shelby County Animal Shelter, a city shelter that serves the county.
- Northeast, Anderson: the Animal Protection League, a nonprofit, has run the City of Anderson's shelter under a partnership since April 2011, as an open-admission shelter. The Madison County Humane Society, founded in 1973, is private and takes no tax money.
Adopting at pet stores
Several rescues keep cats in pet stores. Paws on My Heart has an adoption room at a Carmel Petco, where some of its cats live full-time. Robin's Nest of Indy runs store habitats at Petco and PetSmart stores on the north side, Cuddle Me Cat Rescue holds adoption hours at a Petco on the south side, and Animal Outreach of Shelby County has adoption centers in pet stores in Shelbyville and Franklin. Store locations change, so check each group's site for current locations.
Rescues worth knowing
Many of these rescues are foster-based, with no building: their cats live in volunteers' homes until they're adopted. They're grouped by what they take on.
Seniors and special needs
- Cats Haven, near north side. A mostly cage-free sanctuary on College Avenue, primarily for special-needs and elderly cats. It takes cats from other shelters and rescues, not from the public. Some of its cats are adoptable, but most live out their lives there. It has taken in cats with cerebellar hypoplasia. Founded more than 30 years ago, it was incorporated in 2001.
- Serenity – Senior Living Pet Sanctuary. Founded in 2021 to keep older dogs and cats from living out their years in a shelter. Its Seniors Helping Seniors program lets residents of assisted-living, long-term-care and memory-care communities foster or adopt a senior pet, or get scheduled visits from one. Its cat profiles include cats whose owners died or moved into long-term care.
Kittens and pregnant cats
- Robin's Nest of Indy. Focuses on unwanted and stray pregnant cats and their litters, giving mother cats prenatal care. It started with one person caring for a neighbor's found kittens and has no facility. During peak kitten season, its Kitty Express program takes kittens from animal-control facilities and gets them into store adoption, "within 72 hours in most cases."
- Cuddle Me Cat Rescue, south side. Founded in 2021 by three rescuers, it's foster-based and takes owner surrenders, community finds and cats from shelter partners. Its founder describes its focus as pregnant cats, kittens and abandoned cats, and its foster tracks include bottle babies and mothers with newborns. By its own count it had more than 380 adoptions in 2026 by early October.
- Biscuit Factory Animal Rescue, Greenfield. Cat-only and foster-based since 2021, with no physical location. Its mission runs from orphaned newborns to adults.
Community cats and TNR
- Indy Neighborhood Cats. A trap-neuter-return nonprofit for Indianapolis's unowned community cats, founded in 2019 and focused on Marion County. It runs the city's winter-shelter program for outdoor cats, raises money for cat food at the FIDO pet food pantry and helps staff it, and places working cats in barns, warehouses and businesses. Caretakers can request TNR or medical help through a form on its site.
- Animal Outreach of Shelby County, Shelbyville. All-volunteer and focused mainly on spay/neuter and TNR for stray and feral cats. It has no shelter, only foster homes, and friendly cats that can't go back outdoors are adopted out through its pet-store adoption centers.
- Johnson County Community Cats, Franklin. Began in 2013 as a TNR program and is now a cat-only, all-volunteer nonprofit with its own facility. It opened its own low-cost spay/neuter clinic in January 2024, and also runs adoptions and a food pantry. It raises money to treat cats with FIP and says it has cured several.
- Community Cats of Hamilton County, Fishers. Started in 2014 and a nonprofit since 2019. Its volunteers trap, neuter and return feral cats, with surgeries at a Noblesville clinic, and feed some colonies.
Purebreds
- Circle City Kitties, southeast side. A small foster-based rescue "with a focus on purebreds around Indiana."
Other models
- ARPO (Alliance for Responsible Pet Ownership). Founded in 1998, it's funded by donations and run entirely by volunteers, with no shelter: every animal lives in a foster home. It rescues cats and dogs. It also adopts out IndyVet's retired feline blood donors.
- Pepper's Pals Cat Rescue, Broad Ripple. Rescued its first cats in September 2023 and is named for the founder's childhood cat. Working from a private home and foster homes, it pulls ill, injured and traumatized cats and cats on shelter euthanasia lists.
- Paws on My Heart, Carmel. All-volunteer since 2018, with no shelter of its own. It tests every cat for FeLV and FIV, has a no-declaw policy, and keeps cats in its Petco adoption room in Carmel.
Volunteering and fostering
Most of the groups above have cat-specific roles, and most start with an application and an orientation. Requirements change, so check each group's volunteer page.
- IACS has a "Caring for Cats" role and typically asks for 8 hours a month. Volunteers can start at 9: ages 9 to 15 come with a parent or guardian who also signs up, and 16- and 17-year-olds need a parent's signature. It also offers one-time group volunteering.
- IndyHumane typically takes shelter volunteers from 16 with a six-month commitment. Its Parent & Me program lets kids 8 and up volunteer with an adult partner.
- The Humane Society for Hamilton County takes volunteers from 16. Its cat program, including cattery assistance, typically asks for at least 4 hours a month.
- Cats Haven lists cleaning (its "top daily priority"), yard work, grooming and socializing.
- Indy Neighborhood Cats needs help with trapping, clinic transport, winter shelters (building them is open to ages 14 and up) and food delivery.
- ARPO volunteers can work as "Kitty Assistants" at Nine Lives, staff events or drive transport.
- Animal Outreach of Shelby County posts shifts such as wellness clinics and winter-shelter builds on a volunteer calendar.
- Robin's Nest needs no experience and gives training for roles such as store-habitat upkeep and transport. Cuddle Me volunteers clean and play with cats at its Petco.
Fostering: IndyHumane and the Humane Society for Hamilton County both foster kittens, bottle babies, mothers with litters and cats with upper respiratory infections, and supply what you need; IndyHumane also runs short holiday stays. ARPO fosters keep animals four to eight weeks on average. Robin's Nest and Cuddle Me foster pregnant cats and newborns; Cuddle Me says a half bath is enough room for a mother and her litter. Animal Outreach of Shelby County pays its fosters' vet bills. IACS fosters must be 18 or older, though it says its greatest need is homes for large-breed dogs.
Found a cat?
In Indianapolis
The most important thing to know: IACS doesn't take healthy stray or community cats. It serves owned pets and cats that are sick, injured or need immediate assessment, and a cat brought in is treated as surrendered, with no guarantee it will be returned outside. For healthy outdoor cats, IACS refers people to FACE, the IndyHumane Downtown Clinic and Indy Neighborhood Cats.
- Seriously injured or suffering: IACS asks to be contacted about these cats, but all stray intake is by appointment, requested by email (indycares@indy.gov). There are no walk-ins. To report a sick, injured or unfriendly stray, contact the Mayor's Action Center at 317-327-4622 or file a request through Request Indy online. IACS's main number is 317-327-1397.
- Friendly and maybe lost: IACS suggests posting the cat on Petco Love Lost, Nextdoor, Facebook and Indy Lost Pet Alert, and getting a free microchip scan at a vet. If you can't hold onto a found animal, IACS asks that you not pick it up. IndyHumane rarely takes strays and can't during the legal holding period. In Speedway, call Speedway Animal Control instead.
- A litter of kittens: the mother is often nearby. IACS asks you not to move kittens under 4 weeks old unless they're in immediate danger, and to watch from a distance. If they're truly abandoned, consider caring for them or request an IACS appointment. FACE can't take kittens.
Community cats and the law
The City-County Code sets up a community cat program "to encourage the stabilization of the free-roaming cat population" by "utilizing a trap, neuter, and return methodology." Under it, anyone may humanely trap a free-roaming cat to have it evaluated, sterilized, ear-tipped and vaccinated against rabies, then returned. The code also makes it unlawful to give food, water or shelter to a free-roaming cat for more than 60 days unless you follow the program's rules, and it says a caretaker isn't considered the cat's owner.
Three groups do the TNR work the city shelter doesn't:
- FACE Low-Cost Animal Clinic, on Massachusetts Avenue, offers a community-cat package: spay/neuter, rabies and FVRCP vaccines, a mandatory ear tip, flea treatment and pain medication, booked by phone or text only. It isn't a shelter. FACE was founded in 1999, and more than a decade ago it took over the work of IndyFeral, the city's longtime TNR group.
- The IndyHumane Downtown Clinic does community-cat surgery for the public, booked online.
- Indy Neighborhood Cats takes TNR and medical-assistance requests from caretakers, and supplies winter shelters and straw.
Cats that can't go back outdoors can become working cats through IACS's barn and working-cat adoptions or Indy Neighborhood Cats' working-cat placements.
In the suburbs
Stray handling varies by county, and in Hamilton County by town.
- Hamilton County (Carmel, Fishers, Noblesville, Westfield): call your town's police department, which handles stray pickup. The Humane Society for Hamilton County houses strays but doesn't pick them up; file a Found Report with it. For TNR, try Community Cats of Hamilton County.
- Johnson County (including Greenwood and Franklin): Johnson County Animal Control, 317-738-6092, handles strays countywide, and the Johnson County Animal Shelter takes strays from the whole county. The shelter adopted shelter-neuter-return for community cats in 2013, according to Alley Cat Allies, and places barn cats. Johnson County Community Cats does TNR (its waitlist is long), and Cuddle Me Cat Rescue launched a TNR team, Happy C.A.T., in spring 2025.
- Hendricks County (Plainfield, Avon, Brownsburg, Danville): the Hendricks County Animal Shelter, 317-745-9250; after hours, county dispatch at 317-839-8700. The Hendricks County Humane Society focuses on spay/neuter rather than adoption: it runs cat spay/neuter transport days, open to community cats, and a pet food pantry for county residents. In 2026 the county proposed an ordinance with rules for feral cat colonies; check the county's site for its status.
- Boone County (Zionsville, Lebanon, Whitestown): the Boone County Sheriff's Animal Control Division handles stray, loose, orphaned and distressed animals. The Humane Society for Boone County can't accept feral cats and takes strays only as capacity allows.
- Hancock County: Greenfield-Hancock Animal Management serves the whole county.
- Shelby County: the Shelbyville/Shelby County Animal Shelter. For TNR, Animal Outreach of Shelby County lends traps for free and covers TNR surgeries when funds allow, for cats at Shelby County addresses only. Traps are lent for TNR only, never for removing or relocating cats.
- Madison County: in the City of Anderson, animal control is the Anderson Police Department's job and the shelter is the Animal Protection League. Elsewhere in the county, each township handles its own animal control.
- Morgan County: contact the Morgan County Humane Society in Martinsville.
Low-cost spay and neuter
- FACE (Indianapolis): its Spay It Forward fund needs no proof of income, and it has Spanish-speaking staff.
- The IndyHumane Downtown Clinic (Indianapolis), booked online.
- Low Cost Spay Neuter Clinic (Brownsburg and Noblesville) treats domestic and feral cats, requires appointments for feral and outdoor cats, and runs transport from Marion, Hancock, Shelby, Johnson, Morgan, Madison and Boone counties.
- Johnson County Community Cats runs its own low-cost clinic in Franklin.
- Pet Friendly Services of Indiana's SNAP program gives income-qualified certificates for reduced-cost surgery at participating vets, including community-cat certificates that include an ear tip.
- Indy CARES, run by IACS, helps Marion County residents at risk of surrendering a pet with food, supplies, low-cost vet referrals and spay/neuter resources.
Annual cat events
- Indy Cat Club CFA all-breed cat show, every late October. A long-running club show, held in recent years at the Hendricks County Fairgrounds in Danville. It has included rescue adoptions. See the Cat Fanciers' Association event page.
- PurrCon, a cat convention held at the Indiana Convention Center as part of PopCon Indy, so you need PopCon admission to get in. It debuted in 2025 and returned in 2026.
- CatVideoFest at Kan-Kan Cinema in Windsor Park, every summer. It's a local screening of a national touring compilation of cat videos, and in 2024 and 2026 part of the ticket proceeds went to FACE Low-Cost Animal Clinic.
For what's happening this month, see cat events on MeowScout.
FAQ
Is there a cat café in Indianapolis?
Yes, two in the metro: Nine Lives Cafe & Cat Lounge in Fountain Square and Smitten Kitten Cat Cafe in Fishers. The Groovy Cafe (formerly The Groovy Cat Cafe) and Black House Café are coffee shops with no cats.
Can you adopt from a cat café in Indianapolis?
Yes. Smitten Kitten's cats are adopted through the shelter or rescue that brought them, and Nine Lives' through its nonprofit, IndyAdopts!, apart from a few resident cats.
What should I do if I find a stray cat in Indianapolis?
If it's healthy, don't take it to IACS; contact FACE, the IndyHumane Downtown Clinic or Indy Neighborhood Cats about TNR. If it's seriously injured or suffering, request an IACS intake appointment by email or contact the Mayor's Action Center. Leave young kittens where they are, because their mother is often nearby.
Is it illegal to feed stray cats in Indianapolis?
The City-County Code makes it unlawful to give food, water or shelter to a free-roaming cat for more than 60 days unless you follow the city's community cat program, which is built on trap-neuter-return.
Where can I get a cat spayed or neutered for less in Indianapolis?
FACE Low-Cost Animal Clinic, the IndyHumane Downtown Clinic and the Low Cost Spay Neuter Clinic in Brownsburg and Noblesville. Pet Friendly Services of Indiana's SNAP program offers income-qualified certificates.
Is the Pawz cat café in Carmel still open?
No. Pawz Pet Cafe closed on July 27, 2026, to renovate and rebrand, and its successor, Paws & Purrs Cat Café, had not opened as of October 2026.