This is more of a pointless rant. We adopted out newest cat a just before the covid shutdown here in NJ (late feb 2020). At that time, like every time Ive adopted a cat there were at 500-1000, between the shelters in just my county. Prove you own your home, are employed, have a regular vet, have had a car before and you go home with a cat/kitten that day..The number of kittens coming in were so high that any kitten not adopted fast transfers to a kill shelter, they worked hard to get the cats out of there ASAP and there was always a new cat in that cage the next day.
Fast forward a year later, there are maybe 15 cats between all these shelters are by appointment (understandable) but after the application approval for a specific cat . The smaller rescues have twice as many cats but it's a ludicrously weeks long process, with lots of weird criteria including home visits, references to speak to.vets youve been to, medical records of other pets, etc. In either case there must be dozens of applications per animal.
My "references" were called, my employer was called (in a company of 20,000 people, HR dept that would take the call doesn't know me, can't release any info if they did. We went through the hoops and didn't even get a call back.which is for the best. A picture online is no way to essentially pick out a new member of the family.
I want to play with a bunch of kitten and adopt one I feel a connection to. Then take the cat home.
So Question is, where are all these cats this year. Animal control isn't shut down, are they going straight to a kill shelter or is the demand so high that shelters cant keep up with the adoption rate.?
I wouldnt presume to know, but the vast majority of the cats I did see at a shelter(website), are surrenders from former owner.
Fast forward a year later, there are maybe 15 cats between all these shelters are by appointment (understandable) but after the application approval for a specific cat . The smaller rescues have twice as many cats but it's a ludicrously weeks long process, with lots of weird criteria including home visits, references to speak to.vets youve been to, medical records of other pets, etc. In either case there must be dozens of applications per animal.
My "references" were called, my employer was called (in a company of 20,000 people, HR dept that would take the call doesn't know me, can't release any info if they did. We went through the hoops and didn't even get a call back.which is for the best. A picture online is no way to essentially pick out a new member of the family.
I want to play with a bunch of kitten and adopt one I feel a connection to. Then take the cat home.
So Question is, where are all these cats this year. Animal control isn't shut down, are they going straight to a kill shelter or is the demand so high that shelters cant keep up with the adoption rate.?
I wouldnt presume to know, but the vast majority of the cats I did see at a shelter(website), are surrenders from former owner.