Shelters teeming with 500 cats

The cat population at Sonoma County animal shelters is soaring and local officials are hoping a one-day sale will alleviate the overcrowding.

More than 500 kittens and adult cats are available for adoption in Sonoma County. On Saturday, Nov. 7, shelters countywide will sell cats for $30, below the usual cost of delivering healthy, vaccinated, spayed or neutered and micro-chipped cats, which these will be.

“All the shelters I know are struggling right now (with cats,)” said Angie Bonnert, spokeswoman for the Sonoma Humane Society. “With this big joint effort with all the shelters, we get all the communities participating and hopefully adopting animals. The more we can adopt out on that day, the more room we'll have” for other animals needing help.

The participating shelters are in Petaluma, Rohnert Park, Sonoma, Healdsburg and Santa Rosa. Websites for each shelter offer photos of many of the available cats.

The area's cat population used to spike about twice a year with kitten birthing seasons. But now it seems to be high year-round, officials said, due to the high cat population, low adoption levels, the hurting economy and ongoing attempts by shelters to lower euthanasia rates.

“We're chock-full,” said Bonnert. “We have dog habits occupied by cats and cages in the hallway of the adoption center.”

Officials at the Rohnert Park shelter also reported a lack of space.

“It's pretty full. Every cage is packed,” said Mickey Zeldes, Rohnert Park's shelter director.

As well as facilities full of cats, many kittens are in foster homes, waiting for space to open up at shelters so that they too can be seen for adoption, Zeldes said.

The numbers of cats and kittens available at each site for adoption varies. There are about 50 in Rohnert Park, 100 at the county animal shelter and 160 cats at the Humane Society.

While shunned in the past, cat sales at area shelters are becoming a more frequently used option. Cheaper cost helps move cats faster than the standard prices, officials said. The price of a kitten can normally range up to $155 at the Humane Society.

The requirements for adopting a cat vary somewhat at each shelter. Hopeful cat owners still will need to fill out an application and some shelters require everyone in the family to come meet the cat.

Amy Cooper the new director of Sonoma County's shelter and animal control services, said collaborating with the other shelters makes sense.

“Everybody's pulling together. We share this challenge. We struggle far more with our cat population than our dog population,” she said.

Cooper, who moved to Sonoma County last summer from snow country in Idaho, said with temperatures falling, this is a great time to get a cat or kitten.

“I always think of them as lap warmers,” Cooper said.