Kitten Season 2025 is heating up for the summer
Tuesday, May 20, 2025
Kitten season is heating up and here to stay for the summer!
As of Tuesday, May 20, we have more than 120 kittens in our care, and we're receiving daily calls, messages, emails, and public walk-ins to take more. This is the reality Friends of Strays, along with every other shelter in the state, is currently facing. Unfortunately, we can't say yes unless we have adequate resources for these kittens in need.
As cute as kittens are, underage kittens are delicate and can require intensive care, especially if they are already suffering when they arrive. The youngest require around the clock care. Older kittens can be more independent – if they don't have any health complications. Kittens require so many resources and can strain any shelter – but with the help of foster homes and our staff, we do our best to save as many as we can. Do you want to be a part of that life-saving coalition? Here's how you can help:
- Apply to foster with us, and then commit. We provide all the supplies you need, and any training and guidance along the way. There are many different kinds of kitten fosters needed, from intensive bottle-babies to a momma cat and her kittens, where she does most of the heavy lifting! Fostering opportunities will never be the same, as all kittens' needs will be different. Fostering is a beautiful and rewarding experience. You can help find adopters through your social networks, and if you fall in love, don't worry: you can adopt, too!
- Spay and/or neuter your pets or utilize our MEOW Now program for community cats in your neighborhood. Kittens and puppies in shelters are largely caused by unplanned litters or animals in the community who are unaltered and roam. Those animals reproduce and then add to the overpopulation of community cats and dogs, who often end up in shelters. While Friends of Strays is a no-kill shelter, kittens require foster homes and resources and can be at risk for euthanasia when brought to other shelters because of those factors. So don't litter: spay and neuter your pets!
- Donate. A healthy kitten requires food, water, supplies, and socialization. But many of the cats and dogs who come into our care need so much more, whether they are babies or adults. As a nonprofit, we are entirely dependent on the donations we receive, so if you are able, make a gift so we can have the resources we need to treat kittens for URIs, ringworm, scabies, parasites, and other viruses, illnesses, injuries, amputations, and complications.
- Purchase supplies from our wishlist (or drop items off at the shelter). We have wishlists on Amazon and Chewy where you can purchase vital supplies that can be shipped directly to us, but you can also donate gently used towels, blankets, newspapers, and pet supplies at the shelter. What we cannot use, we will distribute to the community or other animal welfare organizations in the area.
- Want to make a larger gift or become more deeply involved in funding our life-saving work? Review some of the opportunities under the "Support FOS" tab or contact our Development Director, Karen, at karen@friendsofstrays.org or 727-522-6566 ext 114.
