{"id":67,"date":"2019-05-10T12:05:33","date_gmt":"2019-05-10T19:05:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/?p=999949603"},"modified":"2019-05-10T12:05:33","modified_gmt":"2019-05-10T19:05:33","slug":"roofs-over-their-little-heads-sustenance-laps-to-purr-on-and-access-to-catnip-cats-and-kittens-chitter-out-their-demands-at-the-mayors-kitty-hall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/pets\/roofs-over-their-little-heads-sustenance-laps-to-purr-on-and-access-to-catnip-cats-and-kittens-chitter-out-their-demands-at-the-mayors-kitty-hall","title":{"rendered":"Roofs over their little heads, sustenance, laps to purr on and access to catnip: Cats and kittens chitter out their demands at the mayor’s Kitty Hall"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"eunice-protesting
Graphic by Kate Karp and Dennis Dean<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On May 21, dozens of lobbyists for permanent housing will storm City Hall along with their mentors. The public is urged to come in force to support them and possibly enable their campaign demands.<\/p>\n

OK, storm <\/em>isn\u2019t an accurate word\u2014fog <\/em>would be more appropriate. You know, like \u201clittle cat feet\u201d? Adoptable cats of all sizes and shapes will fill City Hall\u2019s lobby\u2014as lobbyists often will\u2014in the hope of getting good homes that will last them all their nine lives, or however many remain of them.<\/p>\n

Kitty Hall is the largest cat-only adoption event in Long Beach. Three previous events were held, the last one in 2017. Cat rescues and cat people were disappointed when one didn\u2019t take place in 2017; Mayor Robert Garcia said that it was too difficult to make one work with the construction going on.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were in the middle of closing down the library,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cIt\u2019s more accessible now\u2014there are always issues, but we think that things are pretty well managed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parking will be available in the structure adjacent to the current City Hall, on Broadway. Cats from the shelter will arrive in great style in Long Beach Animal Care Services<\/a>\u2019 Adoption Waggin\u2019 and from their satellite adoption center at Pet Food Express<\/a>, and they\u2019ll compete for attention with other furry hopefuls from Helen Sanders CatPAWS<\/a>, spcaLA<\/a> and Long Beach Spay & Neuter.<\/a><\/p>\n

You can play and cuddle with the kittens and cats available for adoption, and staff and volunteers from the rescues will chat about cats in the family and accept adoption applications. You\u2019ll also learn about bottle-feeding neonatal kittens, the rewards of opening your home to a foster, how to trap roaming unaltered cats and get them fixed (and any kittens adopted), and where the volunteer opportunities are.<\/p>\n

\u201cKitten season is upon us<\/a>, and we want to encourage people to adopt and do whatever they can to help,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n

Kitty Hall is one of the initiatives Animal Care Services has undertaken to continue the sharp reduction in euthanasia rates that the shelter has seen over the past 10 years. Others include the Long Beach Little Paws Kitten Nursery, the Community Cats Return to Field Program, <\/a>providing vouchers to the Fix Long Beach free spay\/neuter program,<\/a> and the Pet Food Express Adoption Center. The shelter also has vouchers that take not a huge bite but a cat-size nip out of the cost of a spay\/neuter operation at participating veterinarians. The vouchers are available to the cities served by Animal Care Services: Long Beach, Signal Hill, Cerritos, Seal Beach and Los Alamitos. Every bit has helped nearly 1,100 kittens that entered the shelter in 2018 to find their way to adoption.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are working hard to reduce the euthanasia rate and have seen success through recent partnerships and initiatives,\u201d said Staycee Dains, Animal Care Services bureau manager. \u201cAnd we are committed to placing animals into humane environments and promoting responsible pet ownership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garcia said that the next Kitty Hall will take place, with additional community partnerships, in the new facility, where a new group of cats will replace the ones that get what they ask for this year. He said that he enjoys finding out how some of the Kitty Hall alumni are doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still to this day see pictures on Instagram and Facebook and see that the kittens are doing well,\u201d he said. Doubtless they\u2019re all cats by now.<\/p>\n

\"Blond
Tim Patton, Mayor Garcia’s senior administrative deputy, adopted Buttercup, no delicate flower, at the 2015 Kitty Hall. Photo courtesy of Tim Patton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

The mayor and his husband, Matt Mendez, have a shelter adoptee named Tommy. Will they add to their family?<\/p>\n

\u201cMatt wants to\u2014we\u2019ll see!\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Hold those placards high, little petitioners!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

City Hall is located at 333 W. Ocean Blvd. in Long Beach. You can help the cats\u2019 cause from 2 to 5 p.m. Tuesday, May 21.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At Kitty Hall you can play and cuddle with the kittens and cats available for adoption, and staff and volunteers from the rescues will chat about cats in the family and accept adoption applications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":65599,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[67,51,68],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-67","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pets","tag-cat-adoption","tag-kitty-hall","tag-the-scratching-post","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=67"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=67"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}