Rescued a cat and foster her for a bit... now she has found a new home and I feel heartbroken
This might be a stupid post, I have never used Reddit before, but I feel like I need to talk about this with people who have gone through the same feeling.
About a week and a half ago I found a cat on the street and took it home. She looked taken care of, was clean and seemingly healthy, and she was cuddly and easy to handle. I assumed she had escaped from a house nearby, so I contacted a local animal shelter and tried to find her owners. After a few days, it was clear that no one was looking for her, so the shelter offered to keep her. I was heartbroken and couldn´t say goodbye to her, so I told them I would keep her until either her owners appeared, or until a new home for her was found.
She is the sweetest cat ever. I love her with all my heart, even though we have only been together for about 10 days. She is calm and sweet and cuddly, and I feel like she enjoys my company. However, I do not feel prepared to take care of an animal. I can´t explain why, but the idea of her depending on my is so anxiety inducing I have been crying non-stop for the past few days. It is also worth mentioning that I just moved into a new apartment and have two roommates I barely know. They seemed somewhat okay with her being here temporarily, but they don´t seem suuuper keen on having a pet. For now I bought a litter box and a little bed for her, as well as a few small toys, but I know she needs a big scratcher and probably some kind of bigger toy she can climb. I feel like it is not my place to buy these things and put them in our already quite small apartment, especially since I just moved here a couple days ago.
Yesterday, feeling very anxious about the whole situation, I spoke to different people about it and an acquaintance said she would like to adopt the cat. I directly told her I was looking for a new home for her, because I couldn’t keep any pets at the moment. I am now feeling so immensely sad and can´t tell if I did the right thing or not. I know she is going to be well taken care of, and I know this might not be the moment for me to share my life with an animal, but I can´t help to think that I am making a mistake...
I don´t know exactly what I am looking for in this post, maybe just some reassurance that this pain is temporary and that she will be alright. How does one deal with having so much love and then letting it go? Am I selfish for feeling like the anxiety of taking care of an animal is a reason enough not to keep her?
Posted Jan 27, 2026, 1:59 PM UTC