Find a stray cat? That might be the cat distribution system at work

In August, a small orange kitten showed up outside Matt Ramsey’s work. “I have no idea what to do,” Ramsey, 35, posted on X, along with a video of the kitten attempting to climb up his legs.
He picked up toys, food, treats, water bowls and made a vet appointment. He named her Dandruff, because she loves to sit on his shoulders.
According to many of the thousands of replies to and reposts of Ramsey’s original video, Dandruff’s appearance was not merely a happy coincidence. It was the result of a chaotic, unseen and possibly mystical force known as the cat distribution system (CDS).
The CDS is fairly straightforward: when the time is right, the universe presents you with a cat. This is according to @hermes.the.cynic, a TikTok user who coined the term in a 2022 video.
“The universe will give you a cat sometimes,” he says in the TikTok. When a cat appears in your life, he explains, it means “you’ve been entrusted [with it] by the universe. It deemed you a good person, and said: ‘Here’s a kitten for you.’”
Since then, the term has become a popular meme. Users across social media platforms have shared stories about cats that wandered into their homes and hearts unannounced, or their delight at finally being deemed worthy of the CDS. “The cat program thing has chosen me!” one TikTok user gushes in a video that shows a small gray kitten sitting next to her car.
Ramsey had seen videos of the concept before, but says he hadn’t paid much attention. “I was always more of a dog person,” he said.
The idea of the CDS speaks to the different way people view cats and dogs, says Kate Meghji, chief operating officer at the Humane Rescue Alliance in Washington DC. She points to jokes about “all the hoops people jump through to find a perfect dog, and then a cat just falls from the ceiling”.
Meghji thinks the concept is “adorable”, but she and other shelter experts have concerns about it.
“If you find a stray cat and it’s not injured and it appears healthy, you really probably should leave it where you found it,” she says. “I never want someone to steal someone else’s cat.”
If you want to adopt a cat in need of a home, you can always go to a shelter. According to the ASPCA, approximately 3.2 million cats enter US animal shelters every year.
It’s hard to say exactly how many stray cats and dogs there are in the US, says Lindsay Hamrick, director of shelter outreach and engagement at the Humane Society of the United States. But the best estimate for cats is that there’s “probably tens of millions” living outdoors, she says.
There are a number of reasons cats may live outdoors, Hamrick explains. There are owned cats that live outside part or all of the time, cat colonies that people care for and lost indoor cats.
“Because of the complexity of why that cat may be outside, we want folks to pause” before taking a cat in or bringing them to a shelter, she says. “That cat may be loved by someone who’s caring for a whole group of cats, or who has lost that individual pet.”
If you do see a cat wandering around outside, Hamrick says to note whether the tip of one of its ears is missing. If it has, that means that cat has probably been spayed, neutered, vaccinated, and is probably being cared for by someone in the community.
If no ear tip is missing, check community message boards and ask your neighbors if anyone has lost a cat.
“As soon as we remove a cat from where it’s been found, the chances of them being reunited with the people who love them drops precipitously,” Hamrick says.
Lost cats are far less likely to be reclaimed by their owners than lost dogs. Of the animals that are brought into shelters, 25% of dogs are returned to their owners compared to 3% of cats, Meghji says.
“People tend to rush to look for their lost dogs, whereas cat people are like, ‘Oh, Fluffy got out,’” Meghji says.
If you come across a cat outside and have established that they are not being cared for by anyone else, experts say to stock up on supplies – a litter box, food, bowls, toys – and make a vet appointment so the cat can get the medical attention they need. If you have other pets at home, Meghji suggests keeping the cat in a confined space, like a bathroom, to begin. This gives the cat and your other pets a chance to smell each other and get used to the idea of another being around without overwhelming them.
Ramsey says his experience with the CDS has been “a wild ride but well worth the experience”.
“I love the little furball,” he says.
Dandruff, for her part, is enjoying wet food, toys, and jumping in and out of the litter box so kitty litter flies everywhere. “It is apparently a blast,” Ramsey tweeted.