Published Friday, July 06, 2012

Saturday at the Shelter: Buy one, get one free kittens

By SARAH FAY CAMPBELL

sarah@newnan.com

Kittens continue to fill up the Coweta County Animal Shelter, and Saturday the Newnan-Coweta Humane Society is hosting a buy one, get one free kitten event at the shelter.

The event will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the shelter, located at 91 Selt Road off Hospital Road near Evans Middle School in Newnan.

If you’re not in the market for a kitten and are looking for a more mature feline companion, NCHS is also paying $20 toward the adoption fee for adult cats. A few select animals can be adopted for free.

New cat and kitten parents will receive a gift bag with items that include litter pans, food, toys, and cat food dishes, while supplies last. There also will be a few freebies for those who adopt dogs.

Both programs are made possible through the generosity of an anonymous donor, said Linda Earhart, cat foster coordinator for the Newnan-Coweta Humane Society.

In addition to the discounts on kitten and cat adoptions, NCHS volunteers will be on hand to offer advice to potential adopters on the best pets for their families.

A similar event was held last month and was very successful.

“Last time was wonderful. It was amazing,” Earhart said. By June 11, they “had adopted out 30 cats and three dogs,” she said.

“We’re really excited” about Saturday’s adoption event “because it worked so well last time,” she said. And people appeared to appreciate the tips on choosing the right animal from NCHS volunteers.

“Last time there were a lot of people that asked us about that,” Earhart said. “I was really pleased with the questions people had.”

The humane society plans to have the special adoption event each month. “We will be doing the same thing, for as long as we have this money,” she said.

All animals adopted at the Coweta County Animal Shelter are spayed or neutered before they leave the shelter, unless the kittens or puppies aren’t old enough for the surgery. Animals also are examined by a veterinarian and are vaccinated, dewormed, and microchipped.

It’s the height of kitten season at the shelter, and young kittens vastly outnumber adult cats, though there are a few adult cats available for adoption. “There weren’t many for a while, but they are starting to see them again,” Earhart said.

“We want to get the kitties out of animal control as soon as we can,” she said. “If they aren’t pulled, then we end up fostering them and then try to find homes for them,” she said. But it is much easier, and more cost-effective, for animals to be adopted directly from the shelter.

“It’s better for everybody and healthier for the animals, if we can get them out as fast as we can,” she said. “Cats, especially, get so stressed” in the shelter, she said. “We just want to find them their forever homes as soon as possible.”

The kittens at the shelter are “cute, at a wonderful age, and they’re playful,” she said.

Getting two kittens at a time is a good thing for the animals. “Kittens are playful, and if they have someone to play with they are usually much better off that way,” she said. “They entertain each other. They need that interaction,” she said. “So we’re just excited about it and this wonderful person who helps us out with all of this.”

There have been quite a few un-weaned kittens brought to the shelter without their mothers. And that is something Earhart would like to avoid, if at all possible. “The babies keep coming in like crazy,” Earhart said. “I’m not sure what is happening.”

Shelter personnel will bottle feed the kittens if they have to, but they usually try to get one of the humane societies to take them, she said.

If Cowetans find kittens, “if there is a mother around and if they are safe enough, just leave them alone until they are about six weeks old,” Earhart said. “It is so hard on them if you don’t take the mother.

“If they take the mother and the kittens to animal control, that is OK, but if they take just the kittens, it is very hard to keep them alive,” she said.

Just because the kittens’ mother doesn’t seem to be around doesn’t mean they have been abandoned. If the kittens appear well fed and not in distress, “wait for a while, watch to see” if the mother shows up, Earhart said. Of course, sometimes things do happen to the mother and the kittens can be in distress.

“You should always give them time and watch for the mother to come back, because that is always best,” she said.

If you’re worried about the kittens but not sure the mother has abandoned them, you can feed the babies goat milk, which is available at all grocery stores, with a syringe. The goat milk should be diluted half and half with water. “It is something that is simple,” Earhart said. “If you’ve got any kind of syringe, it is just an easy way to keep them going,” she said.

The Newnan-Coweta Humane Society offers a “guest pet” foster program for those who find animals and are willing to foster them. “We will help them to try to get them spayed and neutered, and they can bring them up to PetSmart on Sundays and show them and get them adopted,” Earhart said.

For more information about the Newnan-Coweta Humane Society, visit www.nchsrescue.org or call 770-253-4694.

For more information about the Coweta County Animal Shelter, call 770- 254-3735.

Adoption fees vary but they are typically $70 for cats, or $45 if the cat has already been spayed or neutered before arriving at the shelter. Dog adoption fees are $126.