![\"Kitty](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Kitty_Hall.jpg\")
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Photos courtesy of Animal Care Services unless otherwise indicated.<\/i><\/p>\n
Hopefully, term limits are up in the best way possible for over 40 cats from Long Beach Animal Care Services (ACS)\u00a0<\/a>and Pet Food Express\u2019s Cat Adoption Center<\/a>, which pulls cats that may be on their final days at ACS. On Friday, August 11, from 11:00AM to 3:00PM, cats and kittens will storm Long Beach City Hall to demand forever homes and then will swat a fuzz ball, lick themselves everywhere, and look irresistible. And the public is invited to support their cause and paws.<\/p>\n The third annual Kitty Hall event is one of the pet projects of Mayor Robert Garcia. Cats in the shelter are the silent majority (except at mealtimes) left behind on the shelter side of the P. D. Pitchford Companion Animal Village when spcaLA<\/a>\u00a0picks out cats for their own adoption area. And the empty kennels they leave behind fill up awfully fast from both owner dumps and strays and the great number of kittens born during kitten season.<\/p>\n Garcia so moved to inaugurate a Kitty Hall in July 2015\u00a0<\/a>after he was so moved by a similar event in Seattle. Both the first event and the one taking place last year were unqualified successes.<\/p>\n Mayor Robert Garcia celebrates the newly found family of a kitten at Kitty Hall 2016.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cAt the first one, we had nine or 10 cats,\u201d ACS Manager Ted \u201cCat\u201d Stevens said. \u201cWe ran out of them, and we had to bring more. And we adopted all those out. The next year, we said, OK, we\u2019ll be prepared this time, so we brought out 30. They all went, too.\u201d The final adoption, Catsy Cline, went home from the shelter the following day. Her new best friend wound up volunteering at the Cat Adoption Center.<\/p>\n As with the previous years, Kitty Hall will take up the entire City Hall lobby. An exercise pen will be used as a play area and a meet-and-greet, Pet Food Express will have a booth and will provide goodie bags, and VIP Pet Clinic, which is located in the store, will donate carriers to adopters. Mayor Garcia, members of his staff, and interns will take photos, and it\u2019s rumored that the mayor and fianc\u00e9 Matt Mendez<\/a> will be looking for a brother or sister for their cat, Tommy, who was adopted from ACS a few years ago. Last year, a couple of city employees adopted cats who were permitted to go upstairs to their offices that day. Tim Patton, Garcia\u2019s senior administrative deputy, took home a great pumpkin of a cat named Buttercup, who\u2019s blossoming in the Patton household.<\/p>\n Kitty Hall will take over the City Hall lobby on Friday.<\/em><\/p>\n The x-pen makes Kitty Hall kitten and kid friendly.<\/em><\/p>\n Besides hoping to break last year\u2019s record with a greater number of cats, there will be some enhancements to this year\u2019s event. The mobile Adoption Waggin\u2019<\/a> will be there, and the adoption process will be streamlined in an assembly-line fashion facilitated by volunteers.<\/p>\n Kitty Hall candidates’ ardent supporters: ACS volunteers and staff.<\/em><\/p>\n Adoption fees will be $20 per cat, and a second cat may be added with no additional fee if there\u2019s room in the home and heart (they make great company for people and each other, if both cats agree). Furthermore, the special adoption rates will continue throughout the weekend for anyone who wants a cat but is unable to attend the event. All cats will have been spayed or neutered before the event; adoption requirements will remain the same in every case.<\/p>\n Most significantly, the entire country and parts of the world will be able to see what shelters and communities can do through partnering. ShelterMe, <\/i>a PBS series that celebrates shelter pets with positive and uplifting stories, will be filming the entire scope of Kitty Hall: cats working with volunteers at the shelter, transport to the event, lobbying for love at City Hall, and follow-up interviews with a few of the new families at their homes. Backstories of some of the cats will also be filmed.<\/p>\n Breezy has undergone an impressive transformation. Currently fostered through the Pet Food Express Cat Adoption Center, she was frightened and completely shut down when she entered the shelter. Thanks to the humans who saw her potential, Breezy is now secure enough to hold audiences for her foster\u2019s dogs and other cat. Photo courtesy of Julie Somers.<\/i><\/p>\n \u201cThe animals are as much participants in our stories as the humans are,\u201d said Steve Latham, an award-winning filmmaker and producer and director of ShelterMe<\/i><\/a>, sponsored by the Petco Foundation. \u201cThis makes us very different from [other animal stories on televised media]. I see stories on the news, and animals are always the objects<\/i>. People are always trying to do something nice for them. But we really try to speak with <\/i>the animals. They can\u2019t tell their story, so we try to interpret for them.\u201d<\/p>\n ShelterMe <\/i>illustrates the strong bond that can be forged between community and shelter when the one that so many of us have with animals serves as an accelerant. The series\u2019 current episode is hosted by living icon Jane Goodall, who follows a high school cross-country team that couples exercising their own bodies with those of dogs; demonstrates a pet-literacy program similar to the one at ACS in which children and adults read books to pets, helping to socialize them; and features an organization that trains shelter dogs to protect endangered wildlife\u2014elephants and rhinoceroses\u2014in Africa. A preview can be seen here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Other episodes feature high-profile animal advocates introducing the work done through shelter-and-community partnership\u2014pairing at-risk youth with homeless pets, showing pet owners how their doggies can have safe play dates with strangers and others, training shelter dogs for search-and-rescue, and of course, reasons for the need for adoption. All shows highlight why the pets wind up in shelters in the first place: strays, owner surrenders, abuse, getting lost, and so on. The \u201ccelebrity touch\u201d may draw a viewer in, but the spotlight is clearly focused on the animal and the shelter. All episodes can be viewed here<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"Mayor](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Mayor_new_family.jpg\")
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<\/p>\nCoast-to-Coast PBS Broad-cats<\/h1>\n
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![\"Lady](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Lady_and_cats.jpg\")
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