ORLANDO, Fla. — March marks the start of kitten season in Central Florida, the place hundreds of kittens are born all around the space and introduced into shelters in want of assist.
What You Need To Know
- Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando in want of extra foster houses throughout kitten season
- Pet Alliance estimates round 2,000 kittens shall be discovered and introduced in
- Pet Alliance will present assitance and assets to fosters
It places a pressure on organizations just like the Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando, which depends on fosters to assist them deal with this inflow.
But this yr, they might use some extra.
Chitra Banjaree is one in all their fosters. She stays busy with an residence filled with energetic kittens.
“They are running around jumping, climbing, doing all the things,” she stated.
She’s in her second yr of medical college on the University of Central Florida and these six faces give her one thing to look ahead to on the finish of an extended day.
“A lot of my time is taken up by studying, which is always fun to do when I get to come home and have little kittens running around,” stated Banjaree.
Banjaree has been fostering for the final eight months as she loves cats.
“But I wasn’t sure if I was ready to adopt a cat and take on that multi-year commitment because adoption is for life, and so I wanted to try it out, see how it goes,” she stated .
Fosters are essential to Pet Alliance’s Cathy Rodgers, who has labored there for eight years. She stated they’re particularly essential now throughout kitten season.
“We really see an upswing in the spring and summer with pregnant cats a lot of times. (They are) community cats which are out there living in neighborhoods around businesses, around things like that. And they are not spayed or neutered, and then they get pregnant and they have kittens, and a litter of kittens can be between four to eight kittens,” stated Rodgers.
She estimates they may see round 2,000 kittens introduced in, which they intention to place in foster houses.
“Overall, it is just a safer area, a place for them to be for their health as well because the shelter can be a very stressful situation which can cause illnesses to arise in cats and things like that so having them in a volunteer home or a foster home allows them to get the best care possible and also get them ready for being in a home long term,” stated Rodgers.
With so many kittens being introduced in on a regular basis, they might actually use extra fosters. According to Pet Alliance, they’ve about 130 registered fosters, however want to have at the very least 150.
“It really helps us to manage the issue of having all these homeless kittens if it wasn’t for the community members and volunteers assisting us. There is no way Pet Alliance would be able to care for all these thousands of kittens just in our shelters and with the staff we have. So we really do rely on those volunteers to help us out and make these cats’ lives as successful as possible,” she stated.
Rodgers defined it doesn’t take a lot to foster, with Pet Alliance masking numerous the prices.
“There is no expectation if a cat did get sick that you would have to take it to a vet and take care of all that. Which allows us to get a wider spectrum of people to foster for us, because they know it is really their time and effort is going to be what they are offering up,” stated Rodgers.
That’s been an enormous help for Banjaree, whereas caring for the kittens till they’re prepared for adoption at eight weeks old.
“They gave me like four brands of kitten food that I have gone through a lot of,” stated Banjaree. “Anything that I have needed I’ve been able to go and ask for and they were able to provide it, which was super helpful.”
And whereas will probably be onerous for Banjaree to half methods with these little guys, she is aware of she’s helped them and her group.
“Once I have spent my time with them, they are going to go to someone else who is going to care for them for the rest of their lives. This is kind of what I do this for,” stated Banjaree.
If you have an interest in fostering, yow will discover extra info right here.
