Every year kitten season comes around and overwhelms shelters, no matter what else is going on in the world. From March through October, kitten season is in full swing, much like baseball. In many of our Southern states, the impact varies, and they rarely get even a break. Floods, hurricanes, other forces of Nature, and COVID itself will not deter Kitten Season.
In fact, most of the animal lovers out there have realized that the past year has seen scaled back veterinary appointments, and very limited big spay/neuter events. All this means is that fewer female cats were spayed, more kittens are born and shelters and rescues are alarmed that this could be one of the longest and worst Kitten Seasons of all time.
I have a feeling that we will be seeing more of those cute little faces this year and although we love kittens, there is always a limit on what we can handle.
Even though things may look bleak at the moment, there are many ways you can help. The best way to deal with Kitten Season is prevention: Spay and Neuter your cats.
All these babies need extra nutritious kitten food and of course, there is their medical care that needs to be covered. We live by this motto: Fix At Month Four. We try to spay or neuter all our kittens at no more than four months.
If you would like to help by caring for and fostering some of the kittens and cats that will arrive at ARC, please fill out our Foster Contract by clicking, printing and filling out the pdf document at the link above or fill out this Word Fostering Contract and email it to Penny Edwards, ARC Shelter Manager. This will go a long way to help us take care of many of these babies.
Another way to help prevent an abundance of kittens is to help Community Cats get spayed and neutered.
By Penny Edwards, ARC Shelter Manager