SARASOTA (SNN TV) – Give an extra hug to a furry feline friend– it’s Global Cat Day!
Sunday is an international movement aimed at bringing awareness to humane and non-lethal programs for cats. Cats and kittens face euthanization at a much higher rate than any other shelter animal. But programs geared at capturing and neutering can help control populations and make it possible for stray cats to live full and healthy lives.
To honor Global Cat Day, and help save cats and kittens, find a program to support near you or visit a shelter to adopt a new feline family member.
Here are some of the cats my better half and I have rescued. We have five in total, all are rescues, with the four shown being ones we rescued ourselves — Arpeggio, Maestro, Iris, and Ichabod. They’re beautiful kitties, incredibly sweet, with lives lived longer and healthier than on the streets.
There’s an abundance of shelters and rescues in the area, and Manatee County in particular is a no-kill county. If there are many strays where you live and you’re worried that they’re reproducing at alarming rates, search for rescues online and see if any have a trap-and-release program. If you have a cage trap, you can put food in it to trap a stray animal. You can then bring the animal to get spayed or neutered so they can be released back in the wild without any fear of the animal population exploding.
We’ve done that both to cats we’ve released back into the wild and to cats we eventually adopted. Either way, you help control the pet population and limit the number of strays. That leads to fewer rescues being overwhelmed by rescue animals, which would otherwise force them to turn away animal drop-offs.
Happy Global Cat Day!
