MORGAN HILL
– Town Cats needs help dealing with dozens of cats and kittens
it rescued from a Morgan Hill woman who could not care for them
properly.
MORGAN HILL – Town Cats needs help dealing with dozens of cats and kittens it rescued from a Morgan Hill woman who could not care for them properly.
The no-kill animal shelter is in need of volunteers, money for food and veterinary care and donations of litter.
Morgan Hill Police encountered the situation after receiving a complaint in early April.
According to Sgt. Rick Rodriguez, police had given the woman until April 26 to reduce the number of cats in her home. He said the police would have considered allowing an extension because she was cooperating and trying to find homes for her cats.
Rodriguez said the animal control officer initially found more than 100 cats in cages stored throughout the house in the northwest section of town.
“The house was not a pleasant place,” Rodriguez said about the home’s interior.
Rodriguez did not know how the woman’s feline collection started but said he could guess.
“You get one cat, then you get another … ,” he speculated.
A county agency has stepped forward to help with the animals.
The San Martin Animal Shelter had already spayed or neutered 12 of the woman’s cats at no cost to her.
Town Cats is a local non-profit group that cares for felines, providing medical care, spaying or neutering, love and attention. Rosi Mirko, Town Cats director, said each animal costs the shelter between $50 and $60.
When animals are not comfortable around people, they are sent to foster families for socialization. When the cats are healthy and ready to join a family, they are put up for adoption. Fifty-four of the woman’s cats are in foster homes now for socialization.
Town Cats does not euthanize any animal; instead it finds adoptive homes for them. Because of this, and because its facility can hold a maximum 90 cats, a cat must be adopted before another can be taken in.
Mirko said the Santa Clara County Humane Society shelter is overloaded right now and would have to euthanize any cat they received from the home.
Some of the kittens and cats taken from the overloaded home might be ready for adoption by next week, according to Mirko, though none has yet been adopted.
“We like to keep them for at least a week,” she said, to be sure everything is right.
Mirko said some money has been pledged to care for the recent deluge of cats and kittens but no one yet has volunteered to help. She said there are “lots of Siamese” cats as well as cats and kittens of all ages, adding that most of them will make quite good pets.
Town Cats celebrates National Pet Adoption Day this weekend with an adoption fair at Petco in Vineyard Town Center, at the corner of Monterey and Edmundson.
Town Cats is open every day, but anyone interested in adopting an animal should call the shelter at 666-1966 for an appointment. Its Web site at www.towncats.org is complete with names, personalities and pictures of friendly, available felines.
