Tomorrow, January 2nd, is Happy Mew Year. Not only is this an opportunity to celebrate another year and entertain hopes for a wonderful new year with our amazing cats, but it’s a time to give cats that are in need a fresh start.
I just did some research for my current Klepto Cat
Mystery and discovered that at least one source says there are as many as 100 million stray cats in America. I can’t understand how that’s possible. I remember when the push to save stray and feral cats came into being. There was a huge spay/neuter campaign, and I worried that cats would become extinct. It seems that some 60 years later, there are more homeless cats than ever—or do we just have a better handle on the numbers than we did before?
This Mew year, consider adopting a homeless cat, join a cat rescue group, or donate money or needed goods to local rescue organizations and shelters.
We had a successful spay-neuter coalition here in Portland, but it suffered during the pandemic, and unfortunately the cats went on having kittens at their usual rate. Between the ASAP instigation in 2006 and the COVID lockdown in 2020, Portland and surrounding areas involved in the alliance had eliminated the cat overpopulation and needed to reach out to other communities for adoptable cats and kittens. I don’t know if that will ever get back to that rate of success again though. I hope so.
Proof that we can’t get our guard down even for a world emergency–the world of cats is in an emergency state too. For the sake of the cat population I hope you do get back to that high rate of success.
Patricia