Coweta Animal Shelter's adoption assistance set for Saturday
By SARAH FAY CAMPBELLsarah@newnan.com
The Coweta County Animal Shelter will be getting more capacity with the opening of its new intake facility in late June or early July.
But, in the meantime, the shelter is overloaded with cats — mostly young ones.
Humane Society volunteers will also be on site Saturday to help potential adopters choose the pet that is best suited for them.
The regular adoption fee for cats is $70.
If an animal has already been spayed or neutered before it arrives at the shelter, the fee is $45.
“There are so many cats and kittens out there right now,” said Linda Earhart, who is cat foster coordinator for the Newnan-Coweta Humane Society. The humane society as well as several other rescue groups work to “pull” animals from the shelter right before they are to be euthanized. Then they put them in foster homes and work to get them adopted.
Because there are so many kittens at the shelter right now, NCHS decided to try the adoption assistance day.
“It just made sense that, if we can move a few more down there, then we don’t have to take them into foster care,” Earhart said. “And there’s a lot of cute ones, too.”
There were also two adult cats at the shelter — as of Tuesday — that are free for good homes.
“What they will do, when the cats have been there for quite a while — they will actually offer some for free,” Earhart said. “They are spayedâ ¦ and everything, given the vaccinations,” she said.
There are dogs and puppies available for adoption also.
NCHS volunteers have been around some of the animals long enough to be familiar with their personalities. They can talk to potential adopters to find out about their home situation, their personalities, and what they are looking for in a pet.
“So many times, people are looking at just this fluffy little kitten,” Earhart said. “You want to go more by what is going to fit into your family,” she said. “If you have really small kids, it is probably not in the best interest of your family to take on a really small kitten,” Earhart said.
And if you already have a female cat in your household and want to get another cat, Earhart recommends a male. “
Male cats get along with everybody,” she said. But females don’t.
“We’re not going to stop somebody if they insist” on choosing a particular animal, of course, she said. “We suggest.”
There’s been an influx of kittens in the past several weeks. “When I talked to them on Friday, there were over 100 cats,” Earhart said. “Two weeks ago, there were 48 cats that came in” in one week, she said.
“I’m just hoping people will come Saturday, talk to us, see the kittens and cats and find one that they can make a part of their family,” she said.
“That would be wonderful.”
Construction is nearing completion on the animal shelter’s new intake facility, which is being built with the help of a $125,000 grant from the Holland M. Ware Charitable Foundation.
The intake facility will include 32 canine cages and runs, and a new cat room with “cat condos.”
But the expansion is about much more than just increasing capacity.
Another primary purpose is cutting down on the spread of disease. There will be a covered area in the back where animals are brought into the shelter. Animals that were recently brought in will be held in that area until they can be examined by a vet, said Patricia Palmer, Coweta’s public affairs director.
For more information about Saturday’s cat adoption, you can e-mail nchs_rescue@numail.org, visit nchsrescue.org, or call 770-253-4694.
For more information about the Coweta County Animal Shelter, you can contact the shelter at 770-254-3728.
The shelter is located at 91 Selt Road, off H
ospital Road, between O.P. Evans Middle School and the former campus of Piedmont Newnan Hospital.
Viewing hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday.
Adoptions end at 4:30 p.m.
