Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Here Kitty Kitty

Its no secret that the numbers of homeless dogs positively pale by comparison to the number of homeless kitties. Tonight on Petfinder, there are well over four cats listed for every dog ... and in truth the numbers of kitties would be much higher if everyone listed all their kitties. But, I don't want to wander afield here, so the rant about not using the free service that adopters know about can wait for another day.
Until that day when it is no longer socially acceptable to treat cats like second kittizens, it is literally a matter of life and death to be more aggressive with cat adoptions. Happily, cats by their size and nature are particularly suited to mobile and off site adoptions.
Granted they can't go out for a walk, but a nicely decorated dog crate can really help to showcase any kitty of any age.
It would be lovely if there was a mobile adoption van that could be shared. There is an enterprising group in Seattle, Washington, www.whiskercity.com, that initially converted an old school bus into a mobile adoption van that held 22 crates. They post a schedule online of the times and locations where the bus will be.
Cat only adoption events have proven to be very successful. Even a dog lover like me can understand that cat only events would be much more peaceful and quiet ... ergo potential adopters would be much more likely to take the time to really meet the kitties. One enterprising group even did up pictures of their shyer cats as t-shirt transfers for the volunteers to wear to help promote them.
Kitty Meet and Greets are the kind of event that would be well received on a Sunday afternoon. After all, the ideal adopter has some sort of income which means of course for most of them that they are working throughout the week.
Community Halls, fire halls and school gyms would all make great venues. With the downturn in the economy, most shopping malls also have empty space that could be donated for an afternoon for the kitties, particularly if they are reminded that the kitties would attract visitors to the mall.
And of course, there are all kinds of pet friendly businesses, such as feed stores, where it might be possible to bring in a few kitties in crates on a Saturday morning to help greet the visitors.
These events could do double duty as a fundraiser by raffling off cat friendly items or baskets, which in turn could attract more visitors.
Sure, it would be nice to have the big fancy mobile adoption van. But while we are waiting to get to that day, there are ever so many other, more affordable ways to get the kitties out where people can meet them right now.
What time is it? Its time to stop using the excuse that nobody can afford mobile and offsite adoptions and understand that the kitties can't afford to wait.

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