Here are 7 issues everybody can do to assist kittens

Well, mates, kitten season is revving up early this yr — identical to my allergy symptoms!

It gained’t be lengthy earlier than SOLAS foster houses are inundated with pregnant mama cats and orphaned bottle infants. We’re going to want all the assistance we will get to deal with everybody and get them the meals, drugs and medical procedures they should lead pleased, wholesome lives as adopted fur-babies.

Here are seven issues everybody can do to assist kittens:

1. Report strays. If there’s a cat or kitten wandering round in your neighborhood, contact animal management by calling 712-328-4656. The ladies who work as animal management officers are a number of the kindest hearted professionals on the town.

Rosie the Riveter has nothing on these women. They can deal with it. Tiny, little flea infested kittens. Pregnant mama cat with an angle. Sickly litter of orphans. None of those are an excessive amount of for Council Bluffs’ animal management officers.

They will fastidiously accumulate the animals and get them to the individuals who have the instruments and information to look after the animals. If you don’t dwell in Council Bluffs, name SOLAS or go away a message for us on Facebook.

SOLAS stands for Support Our Local Animal Shelter, and “native” isn’t restricted to Council Bluffs.

2. Foster. Contact SOLAS — or every other rescue, for that matter — and supply to foster. It’s really easy, because the industrial goes, even a caveman may do it. You can foster one cat/kitten or a whole litter.

Some SOLAS fosters specialize. We have a foster who is very good at serving to skittish, shy cats turn into assured, adoptable cats. Another foster home makes a speciality of bottle feeding orphans. Another foster has a background in veterinary care, so she is terrific with sickly cats/kittens who require specialised consideration.

If you will have a rest room, bed room or a basement that might home a kitten for a number of weeks, we’d like to introduce you to the satisfying expertise of fostering. Oh, and in case you say you possibly can’t probably foster since you couldn’t let the cat/kitten go, please do not forget that the aim is “goodbye” so that you’re prepared for the following kitten who wants you and you may display then choose the person who adopts the kitten you fostered.

Oh, and SOLAS supplies all of the meals, litter and drugs. There isn’t any imposed financial obligation to the foster.

3. Donate. SOLAS is acknowledged by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization. Donations to SOLAS are tax deductible. SOLAS donations may be in-kind, equivalent to provides, and even money if that works higher for you. We make it straightforward. (Keep studying for a listing of all of the methods to assist.)

4. Cover bills. Contact Valley View Vet Clinic to pay for medical bills for SOLAS kittens and cats. Since SOLAS has no brick-and-mortar location with a vet on workers, the fosters are sometimes suggested to take cats/kittens who want medical care to see one of many veterinarians at Valley View.

Mail checks to Valley View Vet Clinic at 15025 Valley View Drive, Council Bluffs, IA 51503. Call them at 712-256-7387.

5. Get your cat neutered/spayed. There are hundreds of kittens born in Pottawattamie County every year who will dwell brief, painful lives as a result of their mom was not spayed by the individuals answerable for her.

A feminine cat can turn into pregnant at 5 months old, so do not wait. A male cat will spray, get into fights and be uncovered to deadly illnesses or infections if he’s not neutered.

Cats must be “altered” once they weigh 3 kilos. There are clinics available to spay and neuter at a lowered worth.

One of them, Animal Spay-Neuter Clinic, is situated 4970 NW Radial Highway in Omaha. Call the clinic at 402-553-3900.

6. Adopt, don’t store. Any animal rescue or shelter has a choice of pets who’re wholesome and loving and able to love you for the remainder of their lives.

7. Attend SOLAS fundraising occasions. Come to our trivia contest and silent public sale on April 18 on the Omaha Firefighters Hall at 6005 Grover St. in Omaha.

Are you prepared to assist make a distinction proper now? Here’s all of the methods to donate to SOLAS:

• Chewy: tinyurl.com/solaslistchewy

• Amazon: tinyurl.com/solaslist

• Paypal: paypal.me/solaspetadoption

• iGive: • Venmo: use QR code on SOLAS’s web site

• Website: solaspetadoption.org

• Mail: SOLAS c/o D. File, 1112 nineteenth Ave., Council Bluffs, IA 51501