June boom in kittens fills up Calgary Humane Society shelter

The Calgary Humane Society needs to findforever homes for a few good cats.

Make that quite a few cats.

That's because June produceda perfect cat storm over Calgary, resulting ina surplus of felines needing new homes at the Calgary animal shelter, said spokesperson SagePullenMcIntoshin a Tuesday interview with The Homestretch.

"It is something we will see at this time of year. We typically enter into what we call 'kitten season' in early spring, when catswho are not fixedgo outsideand get pregnant and return home and that's when their owners will bring in kittens, or cats. So we will see quite a few [needing new homes]," said Pullen McIntosh.

"Plus, during the month of June, we will see an increasein surrender. That's usually a busy moving month for people. Sometimes they're relocating for business, or moving to a new community, and they're not able to take their pet with them."

"So we will see an increase in that. And this year, we've just seen a bit of a perfect storm, withthose twothings coming together. We've seen more cats and kittens than usual."

June boom produces a bumper crop

And while the annual June boom in felinesis somewhat foreseeable, the boom is even bigger this year, said PullenMcIntosh, who is theHumane Society's communications and community relations manager.

"It definitely is," she said. "We always prepare for thesetypes of situations to happen. But we also know you can never control exactly how many animals are going to come in or exactly how many you will see of cats andkittens."

The Humane Society has announced an emergency adoption event. It launched last week, and, until July15, people can choose their own adoption fee in order to take a cat home.

"There is a cost they do have to pay something but they do have that flexibility," said PullenMcIntosh. "That includes first set of shots, that includes everything that they need to get up and running. And we have cats and kittens everything from eightweeks old to older cats."

For Calgary pet lovers wondering about the logistics of adding a new family member, Pullen McIntosh says the trick is to incorporate the newcomer gradually.

"If you're careful andyou do it the right way, it can be very successful," she said.

"We do something called scent swapping. You'll give them a blanket or a shirt or something that has their scent on andthen they pass that to the other cats, so they have the opportunity to get used to each other.

"It is a very gradual process, but it can work very well."

Pinning down a figure difficult

As far as numbers go, PullenMcIntosh said there is such regular turnover that it's difficult to pin down a figure, but added that since July 5, when the emergency adoption event started, 62 cats have been adopted.

That comes after a similar announcement from the City of Calgary's animal shelter, where they have reduced the adoption fee for cats to $80 through July 15.

• Cat adoption fees halved as Calgary shelter overflows with felines

"People in Calgaryare certainly listening," Pullen McIntosh said. "They're coming down to our shelter. It's been very busy, which is fantastic, and we're finding a lot of forever homes for our animals."

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With files from The Homestretch.