June is Adopt-a-Shelter-Cat Month |

June is Adopt-a-Shelter-Cat Month

Our baby boy, Gavin. Trapped at 3 months old, May 2008

Yes, indeed! This is Adopt-a-Shelter-Cat month and homeless kittehs the world over are asking for your help in spreading the word.

This time of year shelters and rescue groups are inundated with cats and kittens, both domesticated and feral, desperately in need of homes. In spite of all the educational efforts urging spaying and neutering over the past couple decades, cat over-population continues to be a monumental problem. An estimated 3-4 million cats and kittens are euthanized every year in the U.S. alone, by shelters overwhelmed by their numbers. Countless more homeless ferals–cats and kittens lost or abandoned and left to fend for themselves–will suffer premature deaths due to lack of food and veterinary care, predation and other causes.

So if you’ve been feeling a tad lonely lately or are in need of a loyal and lovable foot warmer, visit your local shelter or rescue group or hop onto Petfinder.com to make a shelter cat (or two or three) a permanent addition to your family. If you’re a commitment-phobe, you can still help by fostering. Even if you can’t adopt or foster, there are many ways you can help. Petfinder offers a list of easy ways you can make a difference in a shelter cat’s life. For those of you already proudly owned by a cat or two, be sure to spay and neuter them so that you don’t add to the already burgeoning cat over-population.

If you are local to the San Francisco South Bay, there are many shelters and rescue groups just waiting for you to stop by. Here are just a few:

Shelters

Humane Society Silicon Valley (Milpitas)
City of San Jose Animal Care & Services (San Jose)
Silicon Valley Animal Control Authority (Santa Clara)

Rescue groups

Town Cats of Morgan Hill
13th Street Cat Rescue (San Jose)
Safe Haven for Cats (Redwood City)
Itty Bitty Orphan Kitty Rescue (San Jose)
All Creatures Great and Small Animal Rescue (Hollister)
Nike Animal Rescue Foundation (San Jose)
Pets in Need (Redwood City)
Nine Lives Foundation (Redwood City)
Project Purr (Santa Cruz)

Over the past several years, Ananda and I have helped to find homes for a number of fabulous felines — kittens we found or trapped during a number of successful TNRs (Trap, Neuter, Release) efforts here in the South Bay. Here are a few of them: