Adopt A Cat Month - Part 1

June is Adopt A Cat Month, and this will be the first post about that subject we will share.  Adoption is a subject near and dear to our hearts, so we couldn't let June go by without sharing our thoughts and important information.  Adopt a Cat Month is brought to you in June by the American Humane Association. On their website they say "each spring during “kitten season,” thousands of newborn kittens join the millions of cats already in shelters across the country. That means your local shelter has tons of cute, cuddly newborns, in addition to all the mellow, older cats and everything in between". We join the AHA in bringing this to the public's attention.  Let's get cats out of shelters and into forever homes!

As you all know Lexy and I were adopted from a shelter.  Lexy came from the Hudson Valley Human Society and I came from Animal Care and Control of New York City. This is my shelter photo, which many of you have seen before.

Me in the shelter. 

I wrote in my book "Well, here I am in the shelter, where they gave me an animal ID number and named me Lola. My name isn’t Lola, but they don’t understand what I’m meowing when I’m trying to tell them my real name. The lady who named me is nice to me, so I’ll let her call me Lola. I’m warm and I have a bowl of food, but I don’t like this cage. I don’t like this place. I want my home". It was a scary time and I'd like to save every cat in the world from this.


There is a big difference between the shelters that Lexy and I came from, so I'd like to talk about the different types of shelters out there.

Municipal/Tax Payer Funded Shelters:
These  are part of a city or county's animal control division.  This is where I came from.  Animal Control Officers or the police may be responsible for bringing in abandoned or stray animals found on the street. People also surrender their pets here for various reasons (which we'll discuss in another post.) These shelters are funded through the budgets of their localities with taxpayer dollars, and due to the low funds available and the high volume of animals that come through, many animals are euthanized.  This is what the pet community refers to as a "kill shelter".  Cat (and other animals) too often find themselves on the euthanization list, or "Death Row".  There is a Facebook Page, Pets on Death Row - Urgent , that is dedicated to getting cats on "the list" pulled by rescues in order to save their lives. (Note: although NY AC&C is designated as the only 501(c)(3) non profit in NYC with the unique responsibility never turning away any homeless, abandoned, injured or sick animal in need, including cats, dogs, rabbits, small mammals reptiles, birds, farm animals and wildlife, they receive funding from a contract with NYC.)

Human Societies/Rescue Organizations/Animal Sanctuaries:
I put all of these in one category because they are usually independently run and  rely on charitable contributions and fund raising. Lexy came from one of these. The Hudson Valley Humane Society (HVHS) is a not for profit, tax exempt 501(c)(3) organization.  These types of shelters are "no kill" shelters. That means the animals they save are never euthanized just because there is no room for them. HVHS  "believes that no healthy, adoptable animal should be put to sleep".   Many small rescues are one person operations and rely on the kindness of fosters because they don't have enough space to house the animals they rescue. If a cat is not lucky enough to get a foster home placement, they most likely will have to live in a cage until they are adopted (like Lexy did). There are cage-free sanctuaries, like Tabby's Place, but in our area there are very few.

On our Facebook Page  people have told us that we inspired them to adopt a cat from a shelter.  One woman even named her cat Lola, after me! What an honor! We're hoping our posts will be share and other people will be inspired to save a cat from a shelter.

Lola
Tomorrow... things to consider before adopting a cat.

Sources: American Humane Association, Doctors Foster and Smith Peteducation.com, Dogshealth.com, Hudson Valley Humane Society.