While they’ve been adopted at a quicker rate than dogs, there is still a surplus of cats in Arizona’s shelters, which are euthanized at twice the rate of dogs in Maricopa County, according to the Arizona Animal Welfare League.
The group recently received a $40,000 grant to support its cat adoption program at the PetSmart on Baseline Road in Phoenix.
Kimberly Vermillion with the organization said the money will support the program by funding “vaccinations, spay and neuter for the cats, to get them ready for adoption.”
“So it's great,” she added, “[because] on average at our shelter, we rescue around 2,000 cats a year.”
It’s especially helpful for planning around what’s called kitten season, Vermillion said, which can run anywhere from March to October if the weather is warm enough.
“We see around 1,200 kittens come through our care here at AAWL during those summer months,” said Vermillion, who encouraged anyone not in a position to adopt to support their local shelters in other ways, like with monetary donations or even support on social media platforms.
As the state’s oldest no-kill shelter, Vermillion said they’ll also keep up with programs like one that checks in on newly-adopted cats and their owners to help prevent owner surrender.
“We follow up with our adopters for up to a year or more after adoption to check in on how our cats and dogs are doing in their home, how they're settling in, if there's any questions or concerns,” she said, “to hopefully prevent them from having to come back to the shelter if it didn’t work out. And we’ve seen a decrease in returns from that.”
Vermillion said that decrease amounted to 11% less returns across dogs and cats. For surrender requests, she added, they’re still constantly booked out as far as ten weeks.
