Kitten Season… A Time When We Hope for Low Ratings…
When it comes to the new summer or fall season of television, I’m all over it with anticipation. With kitten season, not so much. And don’t get me wrong, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE kittens. They are literally one of my all-time favorite things in the entire world and if I could have a house full of them, I would. But kitten season is far more than the sweet images that pop into our heads of darling, fluffy balls of playful fun. For shelters, kitten season is the period when births peak and it can be the very worst time of the year.
According to PetSmart Charities program manager, Bryan Kortis, kitten season happens twice each year – once in the spring and once in the fall, with the more intense kitten season happening in the spring where there will be an estimated 20 million kittens born.
Much as they melt our hearts, there simply are not enough forever homes for them and they overwhelm shelters because resources quickly become maxed, forcing tough decisions to be made. Not to mention, caring for kittens is not an easy job. Neonate kittens — those who are about 2 to 3 weeks old — must be bottle-fed every few hours and shelters must place them with someone who is trained to care for neonates. If they don’t find those adopters or foster placements fast, the kittens are often euthanized. And even if they are adopted, it’s at a price – usually at the expense of the older, less adoptable cats, such as seniors, cats with disabilities, or black cats that are often euthanized to make room for the more adoptable kittens.
I know you’ve all heard this before and I know I’m preaching to the kitten loving choir. But the message really hit home for me this year that kitten season is not just a topic to blog about. It’s real. In the past week, I have reached out to several of my friends in regards to book reviews for Purr Prints of the Heart. Three of them replied back in general conversation that they were busier than usual because they were fostering litters of kittens they had either found, or a shelter had contacted them to help with. And I know if they are helping out, that is only scratching the surface and I can’t begin to image how many of my other friends and colleagues are doing the same.
Photo courtesy of Bernadette Kazmarski of The Creative Cat who found this litter of 5 kittens a few days ago and is now fostering them.
Truly the only way to combat this epidemic is to continue our crusade to spread the news on the importance of spay/neuter to the mainstream public. Whether it is the message that kittens need to be fixed at a younger age, or the message that we must embrace aggressive Trap-Neuter-Return-Manage (TNRM) programs in our communities to help minimize the influx of kittens during kitten season.
As I said from the beginning, I love a great new season, but when it comes to kitten season, that is one season I prefer get canceled due to low ratings…
Have a great Wednesday all and to help spread the news about kitten season, please feel free to share the graphic I provided at the beginning of this post or share this FANTASTIC video “There are Kittens Everywhere – Get Ready for Kitten Season” created by my extremely talented friend, Alana Grelyak of Cat CATastrophes.
To read more about Bernadette and the litter of kittens she rescued, please click here.
To read the review that Bernadette provided for Purr Prints of the Heart, please click here. If you are anything like me, you will find the review to be so eloquent and heartfelt that it will move you to tears…
A good reminder, thank you. The film was funny, yet you got the message. My black cat Boo Boo was our kitty daddy for strays, he’d teach the little ones. It got his attention when they were all meowing, it was cute.
Charm’s wee kittehz R priceless….we iz veree happee they all waz rescued
…coz they sure did give de rescue peepulz a time of it !!! N crepes’ kitten season
video….. total lee ….total lee….total lee….ROCKS…. ♥♥♥
Great reminder ! To teach, it’s repeat, repeat, and repeat again : spay and neuter ! Purrs
Excellent post! I wish everyone would get their pets fixed.
So many … need homes.
Cute as they are and how much I love them, we’d far rather have our bathroom back! I typically foster geriatric cats, cats with injuries or illnesses in need of care, special needs cats and provide hospice care. I have specific skills after decades of rescue and fostering that others can’t provide and I’m always happy to help a kitty recover, or gently walk the path to the bridge. The fact that I have a litter of kittens in my bathroom means there are more kittens the foster homes in my rescue are doubled and tripled up with litters of kittens–and it’s only early May. And it also means that one of the special needs cats I typically foster may not be able to be fostered. Never let a chance go by without telling someone about spaying and neutering and get to know the low-cost options in your area so you can be ready to tell someone who needs the information.
It’s such an important message to get spay and neuter done early, and to keep the kitten avalanche in check. Today was the first of several grant-subsidized free spay-neuter clinics here for the financially disadvantaged in hope to make a dent in the year-round kitten season in this part of Florida. Getting out the word is hard, but so worth it so that we can get a little closer to having enough homes.
We love kittens…but we don’t like kitten season…only because there are so many looking for homes that just aren;t there. Spay/neuter…we’d shout it from the mountain tops if we could.