Lifetime Care Program
Ensure your pets are in good hands — no matter what. Work with Cats in the City to establish a Power of Attorney for Pet Care.
Plan Ahead So Your Cat Is Never Left Without Protection, Advocacy, or Care
Cats in the City already steps in for cats whose guardians unexpectedly become unable to care for them, including after hospitalization, incapacitation, or death. The Lifetime Care Program allows us to prepare for that possibility in advance.
If something happens to you, your cat may need immediate safety, temporary care, medical coordination, and a long-term plan. This program creates structure before a crisis, so your cat is not left in uncertainty and your wishes are easier to carry forward.
Why This Program Matters
Most guardians assume they will always be there for their cat. But illness, accidents, and sudden life changes do happen. Without a clear plan, cats may be left alone in the home, passed into uncertain arrangements, or surrendered in a moment of confusion.
The Cats in the City Lifetime Care Program is designed to reduce that uncertainty. We document your cat’s needs in advance, maintain updated records, identify funding structure, and create a direct path for response if the program is ever activated.
- your cat’s care history and preferences are documented ahead of time
- family members, attorneys, and emergency contacts know who to call
- your wishes guide next steps whenever possible
- your cat has a structured path to safety, stabilization, and long-term care
What the Program Includes
Documented Care Profile
We maintain a profile that may include medical history, feeding routines, medications, behavior notes, veterinary providers, comfort preferences, emergency contacts, and long-term placement guidance.
Emergency Activation Planning
The program establishes a practical response structure in advance so that if something happens, there is already direction, contact information, and a prepared care framework.
Long-Term Care Coordination
We help members think through who should care for the cat if possible, how funds will be accessed, what instructions should guide placement, and how Cats in the City may step in if needed.
How Enrollment Works
Enrollment is designed to be thoughtful, practical, and easy to maintain over time. We help you create a real-world protection plan, not just a file that sits in a drawer.
Planning Consultation
We begin with a conversation about your cat, your emergency contacts, your preferred future caregiver if you have one, and the level of support you want Cats in the City to provide.
Complete the Enrollment Packet
You complete the Lifetime Care Program Agreement, Durable Pet Care Power of Attorney, and Pet Care Planning Worksheet so your cat’s care history, routines, and instructions are clearly documented.
Establish Funding Structure
We help you identify whether your plan will be pre-funded or cash-funded and encourage coordination with your attorney regarding a pet trust, will provision, dedicated account, or other care funding method.
Create the Cat Guardian Legacy File
Your enrollment materials, veterinary information, care instructions, emergency contacts, and funding references are organized into a structured file so they can be located quickly if the program is ever activated.
Receive Emergency Materials
Members may receive a wallet emergency card and home pet alert sticker so medical personnel, family members, or first responders know that a cat may be present and that Cats in the City should be contacted.
Keep the Plan Current
Your annual membership supports ongoing readiness. We recommend updating your cat’s medical changes, caregiver preferences, emergency contacts, and funding information as life evolves.
Documents and Emergency Materials
The Lifetime Care Program is supported by a set of coordinated documents and emergency tools that help authority, information, and funding move in the right direction when timing matters most.
Lifetime Care Program Agreement
This agreement outlines the structure of the program, the role of Cats in the City, the membership terms, and the framework for emergency activation and care coordination.
Durable Pet Care Power of Attorney
This document allows Cats in the City to act during your lifetime if you are hospitalized, incapacitated, institutionalized, or otherwise unable to care for your cat yourself.
Pet Care Planning Worksheet
This worksheet documents your cat’s routines, personality, medications, veterinary providers, feeding preferences, handling needs, placement preferences, and other practical care details.
Estate Planning Guide
This guide helps you and your attorney coordinate pet trust language, will provisions, caregiver designation, and post-death care funding so authority and money continue in the right legal lane.
Wallet Emergency Card
The wallet card alerts others that you are part of the Cats in the City Lifetime Care Program and that your cat may need immediate care if you cannot return home.
Home Pet Alert Sticker
The window sticker or home alert sticker helps emergency responders recognize that pets may be inside and that Cats in the City should be contacted if an emergency prevents you from returning home.
Emergency Identification Materials
Members may keep a wallet card on their person and place a pet alert sticker in the home. Together, these materials help others recognize that a cat may need immediate attention if the guardian is injured, hospitalized, or otherwise unable to return home.
These tools are simple, but they can make a significant difference in how quickly the care plan is recognized and activated.
Setting Aside Funds for Care
Planning for your cat’s future also means planning for the financial resources required to carry out that care.
The Cats in the City Lifetime Care Program supports both pre-funded and cash-funded arrangements, and we encourage members to choose the structure that best fits their legal, financial, and family situation.
There are several ways to set aside funds for a cat’s future care, and each option can work well when paired with clear documentation, designated contacts, and accessible instructions.
Pet Trust
A pet trust allows you to legally allocate funds specifically for your cat’s care. An attorney can help establish this as part of your estate planning and structure it in a way that clearly defines how funds should be managed and used.
This is often the most secure option because it allows you to:
- reserve funds specifically for your cat
- designate oversight through a trustee
- provide legally documented care instructions
- reduce confusion during estate administration
For many guardians, this is the strongest way to ensure that both care and funding remain aligned with their wishes.
Care Allocation in Your Will
Some guardians choose to set aside funds for their cat’s care through their will. This can be an appropriate option when paired with clear written instructions and designated contacts who understand how the care plan should be carried out.
These funds can be directed toward:
- boarding and transitional care
- veterinary treatment
- food and supplies
- behavioral support
- long-term placement if needed
Dedicated Care Account
Some guardians prefer to create a dedicated financial account that can be accessed by a designated caregiver, trustee, or estate representative if the program is activated.
This approach can provide flexibility while still setting aside resources specifically for the cat’s care.
When using this model, it is important to ensure that the purpose of the funds is clearly documented, that the correct person has authority to access them, and that care instructions are easy to locate and understand.
Pre-Funded and Cash-Funded Care
Pre-Funded Care means that funds have been set aside in advance through a trust, account, or estate allocation and are available if the program is activated. This provides the highest level of clarity and long-term security.
Cash-Funded Care means that Cats in the City is designated as the coordinating caregiver, while expenses are paid at the time services are needed, often through an estate, executor, trustee, or family member.
Cats in the City can help members think through how to connect funding, decision-makers, and instructions so future care is easier to carry out when timing matters most.
Lifetime Care Program Wallet Card
Members may carry a wallet card identifying them as participants in the Cats in the City Lifetime Care Program.
If a member is injured, hospitalized, or otherwise unable to return home, the card alerts emergency contacts, medical personnel, or family members that a cat may be alone and that Cats in the City should be contacted.
This adds an important layer of protection by helping activate the care plan quickly and making the program easier to recognize in a real-world emergency.
Lifetime Care Program Fees
To maintain the program and ensure readiness if care is ever needed, enrollment includes a one-time registration fee and an annual membership fee.
One-Time Registration
- program enrollment
- creation of your cat’s care profile
- documentation of veterinary and behavioral history
- emergency activation planning
Annual Membership
- maintaining updated care records
- program administration
- emergency response readiness
- staff coordination and planning
Keeping membership active helps ensure that Cats in the City remains prepared to respond if your cat ever needs us.
If the Program Is Activated
If a Cats in the City Lifetime Care Program member becomes incapacitated or passes away, activation typically begins when a designated contact, family member, attorney, medical professional, or other responsible party notifies Cats in the City.
Once notified, our team initiates the care plan established during enrollment so your cat is not left without direction, support, or advocacy.
What Happens If You Become Unable to Care for Your Cat
Immediate Safety
Our first priority is ensuring your cat’s immediate safety. Depending on the situation, Cats in the City may coordinate access to the home, arrange transportation, or stabilize the cat in place until transport can occur.
Stabilization and Intake
Your cat is brought into the Cats in the City care system through feline-focused boarding, foster support, or veterinary evaluation if needed. Because we already maintain a care profile, transition stress can often be reduced.
Implementation of Your Care Plan
During enrollment, you document your wishes for your cat’s future. This may include a preferred caregiver, placement preferences, medical guidance, and relevant behavioral considerations. Cats in the City follows these instructions to the fullest extent possible.
Long-Term Placement
Depending on the situation, long-term care may involve placement with a designated caregiver, adoption through our rescue network, or another supported arrangement. Every placement is evaluated for safety, compatibility, and stability.
Ongoing Advocacy
Our responsibility does not end with placement. Cats in the City continues to advocate for the cat throughout the transition, including veterinary coordination, support for the new caregiver, and monitoring during adjustment.
Clarity in a Difficult Moment
One of the greatest benefits of the program is clarity. Family members, attorneys, and emergency contacts know who to call, what has already been planned, and how your cat’s care should move forward.
Example Scenario
If a guardian becomes hospitalized or passes away, a designated contact notifies Cats in the City. Our team secures the cat’s immediate safety, arranges transportation if needed, provides boarding or foster care, coordinates veterinary care, and implements the long-term plan established during enrollment.
This helps ensure that the cat is never left without care or advocacy.
A Plan Means Your Cat Is Never Alone
One of the hardest realities in animal care is what happens when guardians unexpectedly disappear from a pet’s life. The Cats in the City Lifetime Care Program exists to help ensure that this does not result in confusion, abandonment, or preventable shelter surrender.
A Known Advocate
Your cat is not left in limbo. There is already a prepared organization with records, instructions, and a response structure.
A Clear Care Plan
Your wishes are documented in advance so important decisions are not made blindly in a crisis.
A Safe Place to Go
Whether care begins with boarding, foster support, or medical coordination, your cat has a structured and supported next step.
The Environment Your Cat May Enter if Care Is Needed
Cats in the City provides feline-focused care environments designed to support stability, observation, enrichment, and gentle transition during stressful moments.
Begin Your Cat’s Lifetime Care Plan
Planning ahead protects your cat, reduces uncertainty for loved ones, and creates a clear path forward if something unexpected happens.
CARING FOR YOUR PETS WHEN YOU’RE NO LONGER ABLE
POWER OF ATTORNEY FOR PET CARE
Finding someone you trust to care for your animals while you’re gone for vacation is hard enough. What about when you’re gone for good?
Many people write wills to ensure their (human) family members and property are cared for properly after their death or if they become ill or incapacitated. Yet only 9 percent of those wills include a clear care plan for any animals left behind.
With the lifespan of pets so short, many pet owners expect to outlive their furry friends. But tragedy can strike anyone.
If you’ve ever lost someone close to you, you understand how chaotic life can become in the aftermath: There’s a funeral to plan, family to comfort and possessions to distribute. Unfortunately, pets can be overlooked in the confusion that accompanies death or unexpected illness.
According to the Humane Society of the United States, pets are often found in an owner’s home several days after a death or emergency strikes. Without their owner or access to food or water, the pets are found scared and famished.
You can take action now to ensure your pets are cared for immediately and according to your wishes.
Plan for Permanent Care
Pets will need immediate attention, so establishing an emergency caregiver and carrying an alert card are good first steps. However, permanent and formal arrangements should still be made. The best way to ensure your pet is cared for according to your wishes in the long term is to put your terms on paper.
Cats in the City helps pet owners document their wishes in a will, trust or other legal document with the assistance of an attorney.
DESIGNATE EMERGENCY CAREGIVERS
Designate Cats in the City to serve as emergency caregivers and provide them as much information as possible about your pets. Provide a key to your home and detailed feeding and care instructions. Make sure they have access to the most up-to-date copy of veterinarian records and contact information.
CARRY AN ALERT CARD
Carry a card in your wallet that indicates you are a pet owner and where your pets are located. Include the contact information for your emergency caregivers.
POST NOTICES ON DOORS & WINDOWS
Post information about your pets in a noticeable location on a door or window. This will let firefighters or other emergency responders know that there are pets in the home. The notice should also include information about your emergency caregivers.
Nancy's Story
Experience as Tireless Advocates for Animals.
Cats in the City has already advocated for several animals after their owners have passed, including three purebred ragdoll cats belonging to a sweet woman named Nancy.
On June 12, 2020, Dan and Shawn received a handwritten note from Nancy:
“You have been so very good to me, and at a time when I truly needed it. I feel so very lucky to have found people who take — and will take — such good care of my most cherished members of my family! With that in mind, enclosed is the information so that in the event of my permanent demise, my cats will be cared for as they deserve to be!”
The card listed specific instructions for each of the three boys: They must be kept together, they are fed a 250 calorie per day diet, and Pebbles is addicted to Friskies lil’ soups and should be treated to one a day (although she would prefer a keg of the stuff if it were available).
Nancy drew a smiley face next to the line where she mentioned her permanent demise, and noted that she was laughing about it as it seemed ridiculous. However, Nancy passed away not long after she wrote the note on September 5, 2020.
Because of Nancy’s forethought and planning — she had met with a lawyer and set up an account with money to provide for the care of the cats with Cats in the City until a permanent home was found — her wishes were kept. Cats in the City found a new forever home for the boys, where they could stay together and enjoy all the lil’ soups their bellies desire.
Although Nancy’s wishes for her cats were clear in her note, the fiduciary carrying out her estate still considered separating the cats to save money. Dan and Shawn advocated tirelessly, as they had promised, and refused to compromise on a situation they knew Nancy would not have wanted for her cats.
Nancy’s three boys are now in good hands, but the experience inspired Cats in the City to help more owners establish a plan for their own animals.
Cats in the City: Character to do what's right
“Our whole philosophy is based on caring for other peoples’ pets like we would want our own pets to be cared for. Our life experience and our training puts us in the unique position to carry out the end-of-life wishes of pet owners. The systems in place — the fiduciaries and the courts — sometimes care more about money than about the dead’s wishes. We take this very seriously and have the character to fight for what’s right for the pets”
– Shawn Lioy-Ryan, Co-Founder, Cats in the City
Cats in the City was founded over a decade ago by animal lovers Shawn and Daniel Lioy-Ryan, a social worker and neuroscientist with backgrounds in animal behavior.
They created Cats in the City based on the vision of what they would want for their own animals: The comfort of a home setting instead of the confinement of a crate or kennel.
With years of experience in cat training for animal-assisted therapy in hospice settings, animal behavior, and professional grooming, several Cats In The City customers have come to trust Shawn and Daniel to care for their animals in the event of their death.
This is an honor that Shawn and Daniel have trained their entire careers for and are ready to help more pet owners establish their Powers of Attorney for Pet Care.
Are you ready to ensure your pets are in good hands? Contact Cats in the City at 503-214-2003 to get started.
Contact
Caring for Cats in the Portland Metro Area
We measure our love of cats by how much we are loved by them.
Have questions or need to arrange care for your feline friend? We’re here to help! Reach out to us for any inquiries or to schedule our services.
For more immediate assistance, feel free to call us. We look forward to hearing from you and providing the best care for your cat!
CONTACT INFO