A cat in every color

After receiving 100 cats and kittens in one week, the Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service offered a $25 discount on cat adoptions for three days last weekend in an effort to ease overcrowding. During those three days the shelter adopted out 27 cats and sent 33 more to other shelters as far away as Sandpoint and the West Side of the state – but then received 50 more new arrivals.

“We can’t get ahead of the game,” said SCRAPS Director Nancy Hill.

The shelter handles many more cats than dogs these days. It used to see a surge in kittens coming in the door every spring during breeding season, but that has changed. “It seems like it’s year-round now,” Hill said. “People are not spaying and neutering their cats like they do for dogs.”

Often people don’t notice that their indoor/outdoor cats are missing for a day or two. If a cat with identification ends up at the shelter, it is held for five days for the owners to claim. “If they do not have identification, they are immediately up for adoption,” she said. By the time the owner realizes a cat is missing, it could already be adopted, sent to another shelter or euthanized if there is no room for it.

Owners can’t rely on a cat’s collar. Many of them are designed to break away under pressure and a cat could easily show up at a shelter without it. “The best things that cat owners can do is microchip their cat,” Hill said. “A cat can’t lose a microchip.”

The “redemption rate” of owners claiming their lost pets is 35 percent for dogs and only 3 percent for cats, Hill said. “People tend to look for their dogs quicker,” she said.

Right now the shelter has pretty much anything a cat lover could want. Calico. Tabby. Jet black. Black with white socks. Long hair. Short hair. They seem friendly, approaching the bars for a scratch behind the ears or coming forward for a petting when the cage door is opened. It’s obvious that they have been someone’s pet. “We have all ages, shapes, sizes and colors,” Hill said. “There’s no want for selection, that’s for sure.”

Hill said the shelter will offer adoption discounts when it can, but the normal price of $62.70 for cats and $82.04 for dogs just barely covers the costs of spaying or neutering, vaccinations, a vet exam, a license and a microchip.

But no matter how many sales they have, Hill knows it won’t fix the problem of too many cats. “We can’t adopt ourselves out of the problem,” she said. “Spaying, neutering and microchipping is the key.”

In 2009 the shelter took in 2,301 dogs, 531 puppies, 2,096 cats and 1,980 kittens. The shelter keeps track of its “live release” rate, meaning the animals that were returned to their owners, adopted or passed on to other shelters for adoption. In 2009 the rate was a lowly 42.8 percent for cats, with higher rates of 50.2 for kittens, 79.4 percent for dogs and 90.6 percent for puppies.

Those numbers include between 600 to 700 feral cats that had to be put down. “We’re not in a position to deal with feral cats,” she said. “We have to euthanize them.” Hill said the shelter’s live release rate has been increasing in recent years and is actually high when compared to national percentages. “We’re moving in the right direction.”

It is clear that people are more likely to adopt dogs and kittens rather than adult cats. “As a society, we’re not treating cats the same as dogs,” she said. “There are not enough homes for them all.”

People with soft laps and a patch of sun for stretching out are encouraged to stop by the shelter at 2521 N. Flora Road to see if a cat there would be a purr-fect companion.