Fly with a cat
Already booked to the mainland? A volunteer flight escort turns an empty seat allowance into a transfer. We handle the carrier, the paperwork and both airport hand-offs.
Off-Island Transfer Program
Hawaiʻi Island has more cats than adopters. So we fly them to the adopters.
Spay and neuter work reduces the next generation of kittens. It does nothing for the cats already here, waiting. Our transfer program moves healthy, vetted cats who are unlikely to be placed locally to mainland partners who have the adopter traffic we don't — and every one of them leaves the island already spayed or neutered, vaccinated and cleared to fly.
—cats placed off-island in 2026
—mainland placement partner
San Diegowhere they land
How it works
Four steps from a Hawaiʻi Island cat to a mainland adopter.
Nothing about a transfer is improvised. Each cat clears the same medical and paperwork sequence before a seat is booked, because an animal turned away at check-in is an animal with nowhere to go that night.
1
Assessment
We confirm the cat is healthy, social enough for a café or shelter setting, and genuinely unlikely to be placed here on-island.
2
Vetting & paperwork
Spay or neuter, vaccinations, and a health certificate issued inside the airline's validity window — the step that decides the flight date.
3
The flight
Our Animal Flight & Transport volunteers handle carriers, records and the airport hand-off, often flying with the cats themselves.
4
Placement
The receiving partner takes over intake, socialisation and adoption, and screens every adopter on the mainland side.
Placement partner
Whiskers & Wine Cafe, San Diego
Whiskers & Wine Cafe is an adoption café in San Diego and the partner behind every transfer on this page. Instead of sitting in a kennel waiting for someone to ask about them, our cats live in a room that the public walks into all day — which turns out to be the single biggest difference between a cat who waits months and a cat who goes home in a week.
The partnership works because each side does the part it is set up to do. We handle the island end: identifying the cats, the surgeries, the vaccines, the health certificates and getting them onto the plane. Whiskers & Wine handles the mainland end: intake, daily care, meeting visitors, and screening adopters. No cat travels until there is a confirmed space waiting on the other side.
Adding the café's own website or Instagram here would give readers somewhere to go next — send the link and it goes in.
WhereSan Diego, California — a metro area with far more cat adopters than Hawaiʻi Island has cats to place.
Why a caféCats are visible, handled daily and meet potential adopters in a relaxed setting rather than through kennel bars.
What we sendHealthy, spayed or neutered, vaccinated cats with a current health certificate and their full medical record.
What they doIntake, care, adoption matching and follow-up — including every conversation with the adopting family.
Why off-island
Transfer is not giving up on local adoption. It's arithmetic.
Every cat placed on the mainland frees a foster space, a clinic slot and a volunteer's week for the next cat here. The program is judged by what happens to the animals who stay, as much as the ones who fly.
The adopter gap
Hawaiʻi Island's human population is small, and a large share of households already have as many animals as they can care for. Local demand runs out long before the supply of cats does.
Time is the risk
A cat waiting indefinitely for a local adopter is a cat occupying a foster home that a sick or newborn animal needs. Moving an adoptable cat quickly protects the animals behind them.
Only some cats fly
Transfer suits healthy, social, adoptable cats. Community cats stay in their colonies with TNR support, and animals with ongoing medical needs stay in our care here.
The album
Kitties who found homes off-island.
Each tile is a cat who flew out of Hawaiʻi Island and was adopted on the mainland. Tiles marked “photo coming soon” are cats already placed whose picture hasn't come back from the café yet.
Every cat here was fully vetted before travel. Spayed or neutered, vaccinated, and issued a health certificate. Our volunteers managed the carriers, records and airport hand-off.
Join the transport team →
Sample content — the albums below are examples showing how this page works. Add real photos through the photo manager; this notice disappears once a real album is published.
Loading transfer album…
Photo policy. This page shows animals only. We don't publish adopter names, addresses or any identifying details about the families who adopt through our partners. If you adopted one of these cats and would like a photo removed, email alohae@alohaanimals.org.
Get involved
Three ways to move a cat off this island.
Sponsor the vet work
The cost of a transfer is mostly medical: surgery, vaccines and the health certificate that the airline requires. Donations cover that work directly.
Ask about a cat you know
If you are caring for a healthy, social cat you cannot place locally, tell us about them. Transfer is one option we can assess alongside local adoption and colony support.
Common questions
Isn't it better for a cat to stay in Hawaiʻi?
Only if a home here actually exists. When it doesn't, the realistic alternatives are an indefinite wait in foster care or a return to the street. A screened adopter in San Diego is a better outcome than either, and it releases the foster space for the next animal.
Is flying hard on the cats?
It is a long day, which is why only healthy, social cats are considered and why a volunteer travels with them wherever possible. They fly in an airline-approved carrier with a current health certificate, and the receiving partner meets them on arrival.
Can I ask you to transfer a cat I found?
You can ask, and we will assess it honestly. Transfer is right for healthy, adoptable, social cats. Free-roaming community cats are usually better served by trap-neuter-return and colony support, which we also help with.
What happens if a cat isn't adopted on the mainland?
The receiving partner keeps and cares for the cat until they are adopted. No cat is sent anywhere that will not commit to that, which is why we work with a small number of partners rather than as many as possible.
