SACRAMENTO, Calif. — As the weather heats up, you may notice more furry tails and muddy paw prints around your front or backyard.
Kitten season happens every year during the warm months, beginning in March and lasting until around October. Animal shelters are overwhelmed with cats and kittens found throughout this time and ask people for support during this season.
If you find a lost or stray kitten in your neighborhood, here are some tips on what to do with the little fur ball.
What to do if you find a stray kitten
Believe it or not, the best practice when you find a stray kitten is to leave it where you found it. Most of the time, the mother cat is nearby and will return to her kittens. The best practice is to allow the mother cat to care for the kittens in their outdoor home.
Bringing kittens and mother cats to the local animal shelter
Most shelters cannot accommodate the overwhelming amount of kittens and cats during this time. The best thing to do for the shelters and the cats is to leave them outdoors. A shelter can be dangerous for kittens because their immune systems haven’t fully developed and can stress out the mother cat and impact her health, as well.
It is recommended to bring in stray cats when they are old enough to be spayed or neutered, then return them to their outdoor home. Counties offer spay and neutering programs to help reduce the animal population with little or no cost to the person who found the animal.
Selling kittens online
Facebook guidelines state that the website prohibits the sales of live animals or pets. Please be responsible and call your local animal shelter first to learn more about taking care of a pet and how to properly find it a good home before heading to social media.
Posting on social media about a pet up for adoption can also put the animals in harm's way. You may think it's going to a loving home, but it could be a target of bunchers — people who look for free pet ads online to obtain animals for lab testing or other harmful acts.
Fostering kittens
Keep in mind that fostering kittens or cats is more than purrs and cuddle sessions. A foster parent is expected to feed, bath, socialize, monitor medical and behavioral issues, and take pets to the vet, emergency services or adoption events. Additionally, foster parents should prepare to keep the kittens or cats anywhere from a month to a year.
If interested in becoming a foster parent, there are local animal programs to help you get started. Check out the list below:
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