We had a cry for help in the Cat Blogosphere this week that only underscores how important Adopt A Shelter Cat Month is. A couple had six beautiful, indoor-only Siamese cats. But then the husband died and the wife was unable to live alone. Her son and daughter-in-law moved in, but the daughter-in-law was allergic so all the cats were unceremoniously dumped at a high-kill shelter. Things were not looking good for them — Siamese Rescue was called, but they didn’t have a foster available in Kentucky, where the cats were located. Fortunately, the Black and Orange Cat Foundation posted about them in their blog, and once the Cat Blogosphere found out, many of us sounded the alarm. While word was getting out, the two girl kitties were adopted, leaving four males with just days to live. Fortunately, help was found and arrangements were made to pull the four remaining kitties early this week and place three of them in a foster. The fourth cat, Bubba, shown below? He’s already found a home in Illinois with Nico and JayJay.
Unfortunately, the only exceptional part of this story is that these cats were rescued. Everything else — the fact that these were breed cats, that they were adults who were living a comfortable life one moment and on death row the next, that nobody tried very hard to find them homes before dumping them at the shelter — are all too horribly common. And if word does not get out about them or an adopter does not step up, cats die. This is why Adopt A Shelter Cat Month is so important — we need to raise awareness so that more lives can be saved.
For Adopt A Shelter Cat Month, many shelters are offering discounts for adoptions, or two-cats-for-one-fee deals. Anything to encourage humans to adopt a kitty. Many of you say you would like to help. You can, even if you are maxed out and can’t adopt another cat — you can spread the word about shelter cats needing homes. You can help promote shelter cat adoption in your community. If you’ve got a blog, write a post. I really do believe that there is a human for every kitty in a shelter, which means there are humans out there needlessly going catless! Help them out, and save a cat’s life.
Don’t forget — my June Shelter Cat Contest is still running! If you are an adopted shelter cat, tell your story and you might win a PAWtographed copy of my first book! Click here to find out all the details, and enter!
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I’m so glad they were saved! Thanks for spreading the word. Having a pet is such blessing, they love you unconditionally. When we first got our cat it was offered to us because the person was moving and couldn’t keep him. We said no because we couldn’t afford it. No one else wanted him so the owner was going to take him to a shelter so we decided to take him in. We knew the person so my kids loved him already. He is the only pet my kids have ever had. Now, he is the baby of the house!
Wow I had to skip over parts of this because I was so choked up. All these puppy/kitty mill places, when there are so many animals in cages that need homes…. 🙁 I hope at least one person reads this wonderful post and adopts!
Thank you for the wonderful story, Sparkle – and I love that people are paying attention!
I’m so glad they are OK. Thanks so much for spreading these important words. My husband and I donate regularly to our non-kill shelter. I know it’s not enough. I need to think bout using my blog to spread the news as well!
All cats deserve a good home. I wish all cats and dogs had someone to love them.
Such a sad story that I hope has a happy ending.
They sent those darlings to a KILLING CENTER?!?!!???!?!
:'( :'( NOOO!!!!
I’m glad they were rescued. OMG. That stuff breaks my heart. Because Livvy was a half-breed, she was threatened with being sent to a shelter, but a very kind lady took the kittens into her home, and sold them. I got only one. I wish I’d gotten more!!!
This is a wonderful post Sparkle and we know how impawtant it is to get the word out about adopting shelter kitties. We wish we could give every kitty a furever home but since we can’t personally, it’s important to get the word out to everyone that can. We also think it’s important to get the word out about spay and neutering to avoid all those homeless kitties out there. With all of us kitties with blogs, we can spread the word a lot so thanks for starting the awareness movement!
Absolutely! Though I am dog, I adore cats (live with three) and fully support Adopt-A-Shelter Cat Month. My three feline siblings (and myself) are all rescue animals. Two of housemates were rescued from the street and one from a shelter. We live in Chicago where by some estimates there are 100 homeless cats per city block. Many of these cats are feral, but many others are abandoned, lost friendly cats, trying against all odds, to survive.
So, by all means, please adopt from shelters! But also please keep an eye out for kitties in need outside as well! One of my former feline sisters (she passed away last year) was an abandoned siamese that my mom rescued on a bitterly cold Chicago night 18 years ago.
I will try to encourage my one of my sisters to enter your Adopt-A-Shelter Cat contest – all have quite remarkable stories.
Your pal, Pip
We give HIGH praise to you to shout out the awareness of Shelter Cat Month. Mo will post about it on her Facebook page and we too, will post about it on the CB. We aren’t shelter cats but they ALL deserve a chance!!!
I am so, so glad that you posted this story & information!! It is the sad truth of the lives of some cats – too many cats, I’m afraid. There are really a lot of people out there who consider their cats (& other animals as well) disposable – if it becomes inconvenient to care for the animal, they feel the best solution is to push it off on others at a shelter or worse, dump their unwanted animal somewhere outside (I’ve heard people rationalize that since it’s an animal, it will adapt). But imagine if you were taken from your home one night & dropped off in a strange place without your friends or family & without understanding why. Horror, right? That’s what each and every animal goes through when their caregiver gets rid of them!!! Some never recover! When I first heard of this horrible situation, I sent an email to the CB so fast, I forgot to mention my name!! Didn’t matter – the info was posted very quickly & I was SO moved that so many bloggers helped spread the word – this is the power we have as bloggers – we are located all over the world & spreading awareness of a situation takes such little effort & has such a tremendous effect- a blogger reads the news & shares it with his/her family – they share the info with their coworkers, who share it with their family & friends & so on… You never know who the info will reach – & for such a good cause, to save a life!!
Sorry for the long post – I’ll get off of my soapbox now… 🙂
Cory (Nico & JayJay)
ps. I found out I was allergic to my cats, too & sought out a medication to take so that I could keep them!
Great post…We continue to purr and pray for all shelter cats.
Great post today! Our Mom was rescued by Pacific Siamese Rescue and her situation was very similar to those Meezers. Her human had to go live in a nursing home, so Mom ended up in the shelter (pregnant!) ! We feel very fortunate to be alive and loving life in our forever home.
Thing are terrible in Las Vegas, due to the mortgage meltdown. Mommy & Daddy have been feeding some new strays and are going to make sure they get TNR’ed. We live on the edge of the desert and horrible people dump their pets for the coyotes to eat, or worse.
Excellent post, Sparkle! I is motifated to make Mom post dis impawtant message.
I’ve 2 shelter kitties and one kitty who was rescued from a shelter then I got to take him home…no special stories – 2 kitties no one wanted but me and one kitty I adopted because there were some people looking at him and I didn’t like them! They didn’t look like cat people…
That is really horrible. And so confusing and traumatic for the cats – as you said, all normal one day and terror the next. They deserve so much better than that.
** for the record, I suffer from allergies too. I would NOT give up my cats because of that. There are good prescription meds that make life normal again.
Thank you, Sparkle! This is a great post!
P.S. We’re so glad that the meezer boys were adopted, but we know there are so many other kitties out there who need homes. We adopted Dobby because the person who had him was going to have to take him to the pound as a last option. Fortunately, the person was really trying to find him a good home, so that’s how we heard about him.
Good post, Sparkle! We gotta get the word out about shelter cats! When someone tells our mom they wanna adopt a cat, she always tells them to go to the shelter…those are the kitties that need really furever homes!! ‘Specially those at the high-kill shelters!!
I am a shelter cat. I wish for good homes for ALL kitties.
Wonderful post about a very important issue, Sparkle! Thanks for helping get the word out about shelter cats!
Sparkle, thank you for spreading the word. Every kitty deserves to have a loving Forever home.
That is a wonderful post Sparkle. We sure are glad all those cats found homes are at least are out of the shelter. That is so scary those high kill shelters. Like I always say, I wish we could take some more kitties but our inn is full at the moment.
Have a great week.
Such a sad story, but at least it had a happy ending. We actually got our woofies, Cubby and Clifford, because their owner was sending them to the pound. 🙁
Sniffie and the Florida Furkids