Kittens! Kittens! Kittens! Kittens! Kittens! Kittens!

Kirby's mom here-KITTENS HAVE INVADED KIRBY'S BLOG!! No, not really but they have invaded Harbor Humane Society, where I'm a volunteer. Yesterday I volunteered with my niece Emily at the shelter. Our job: to socialize little baby kittens, in other words just love on them! The shelter staff said it was important for these little guys to learn that being handled by people is okay. Emily is a huge cat lover and I have been wanting to learn more about Harbor and all the aspects of the shelter so we volunteered to help with cats yesterday. We had a wonderful time and completely enjoyed cuddling with these little cuties, including the ones that weren't too happy to be held "hiss...hiss!"

However, Emily and I realized that these were the lucky ones. Harbor Humane Society is a kill shelter. Please know that they take euthanizing animals very seriously and go above and beyond seeking alternate ways to help an animal before deciding to euthanize and no animal that comes in has a timeline. But let's face it, it is a reality in today's world and you can't deny that this happens everyday. In the special room that is set up for these guys (2mos and younger) there were 11-12 litters of kittens. Two had moms with them and the rest were just the kittens ranging from 2-6 per litter! Emily and I spent three hours there and loved on at least 18 little ones. We didn't bother the litters with the moms because we were unsure of how the mom would react. One litter that was with the mom looked like they were born just days ago, probably at the shelter.

Harbor gets in litters every day, especially now! Spring is huge for shelters and litters. Harbor relies on foster homes, rescues and the space they have available to take in these litters everyday. They search out every possible place to house a momma cat and her kittens so that they don't have to euthanzie. The saddest thing in the world is to put down a healthy animal, due to lack of space....but it does happen.

In 2009, Harbor took in 981 kittens under 6 months of age. Of these, 405 were euthanized. This could have been due to sickness, but it could also be due to the fact that Harbor had no foster homes or space for the kittens to go to and therefore had no way to properly care for them. It's a sad fact, but it's reality. Harbor is the only animal shelter in our county, therefore every single litter comes there!! Do you have a shelter near you? Right now is prime kitten/puppy litter time!! You would be amazed at what you can do to help a shelter right now. Everything from newspapers, blankets, kitten/puppy formula, food and toys is what they need! I know at Harbor, they rely entirely on private donations. Shelters also need fosters. I have never fostered a litter of kittens, I have no idea of what is involved so I can't tell you much about that. But can you go in to a shelter and love on some little ones, and show them how loving people can truly be? A few hours a week or a month mean a lot to shelters that are truly struggling right now. At most shelters, the staff doesn't have time to snuggle and love the animals, they depend on volunteers to do this. Now, I can tell you that this is TRULY rewarding for both you and the animal!! I have been asked how can I volunteer at a kill shelter? I answer it's BECAUSE it's a kill shelter that I volunteer. Volunteers can help an animal become more adoptable just by spending time with it.

One more thing you can do is to support low cost spay and neuter programs in your communityand strongly encourage any family and friends you have to have their animals spayed and neutered!!

Loving Kirby and kittens,

Kirby's mom

PS: these pics are not pictures of the kittens at Harbor, they are ones I found online.