For 12 months, rescues, shelters and people who have rabbits in their homes have dealt with the growing threat to the creatures in their care.
Foster-to-adopt is sort of like avoiding someone claim-jumping a kitten that you’ve decided would be solid gold in your life. You apply to foster a kitten of whom you’ve become enamored and take care of its food, room, board and medical, all except for spay/neuter, which the shelter handles. Then, you have first dibs on the kitty.
Friends of Long Beach Animals (FOLBA), Long Beach’s most venerable animal-welfare organization, was happy to receive a whole lotta love on Tuesday, April 27, when Timmons Subaru presented them with a check for $37,447.40.
Since opening its new brick-and-mortar clinic in February, Fix Long Beach has spayed and neutered at least 500 cats, not just for their human housemates wanting to take advantage of the comparatively lower costs of procedures and vaccinations but for rescuers and TNR (trap/neuter [and spay]/release) efforts as well.
With numbers of incoming kittens as they still are and with the breeding proclivities of unaltered cats, though, shelters and rescuers need some rescue themselves.
So far this year, about 70 DIY kits have gone not only to Long Beach Animal Care Services but also to Orange County Animal Care in Tustin, SEACCA in Downey and several of the Los Angeles County Animal Care locations.
In the space of a few years, Long Beach Animal Care Services has managed to do a heck of a job of sharply lowering the number of pets subject to euthanasia and greatly raising the number of live releases to original owners, rescues and people like you and me who take them home for as long as forever lasts.
When warmer weather arrives, unaltered cats have an extended spring break in the Miami sense and give birth to countless litters that can shame the most prolific of rabbits. Here in California, the season begins in late February and extends through October.
“Kids are naturally attracted to animals—they can’t talk, but they can communicate, and this program shows them how. It’s more than just reading a book.”
Before The Scratching Post addresses kitten season with a weekly barrage of kittens, cats, rescue efforts, woes, tips and ear tipping, we’re giving a last panting gasp to our canine friends.
