The Weyburn Humane Society this morning announced an intake freeze on cats and kittens.

Shelter Manager Colleen Morrice said it's quite a common occurrence to find cats left at the shelter when she arrives at work in the morning. 

"Pretty much every day, and they're leaving them in crates outside the shelter," she noted. "I leave at 8:00 at night, and when I get back here at 8:00 in the morning, I'll find a crate out there with cats in it. So it's not very fun for us, that's for sure."

Morrice said they have a capacity for 24 cats, but they currently have 53 housed in two 8x10 rooms, one of which is for isolation. 

"In this small facility, they all start getting upper respiratory infections, and then we have major vet costs and cleaning and extra staff to help with that. So it becomes a big deal," she explained. "We have three to a cage, some two, and then the upper respiratory usually just happens if one sick cat comes in and it spreads like wildfire throughout our shelter. There is no air exchange or anything like that to take the bad air out, so it just kind of lingers in here and then it puts a strain on the cats."

She said the infection risk is increased by the cats already dealing with high anxiety from being in cages.  

"I'm hoping that a lot of people come in this week and get these cats adopted that are ready to go. I have 32 cats in the one cat room, that are vaccinated, treated for ear mites, dewormed, everything. They're just waiting for their forever home." 

The current cat population at the shelter is in spite of a recent successful adoption event. 

"Lots of our older cats have left. We only have one cat that's been here for about a year. Other than that, all these are newer from June on, so they haven't been long-timers here, but still, it is a long time when you only get a few hours out every day to play," she commented. 

So how can Weyburnites help with this issue? The best way is to visit the shelter between 1:00 and 7:00 p.m. any day of the week.

Another important way to help is to try to rehome the cat yourself, if at all possible. 

"Put it on social media, if you find a cat, and hopefully the owner comes forward. If you can, look after a cat until we do have space for it without bringing it to the shelter because the chances are it might get sick here."

"If it is an older cat, you can get it scanned for a microchip," she suggested. "We can definitely come out to your car and scan it for a microchip, but we would ask that you can house it until we can find an owner."

"We do know that these cats all had homes at one time, so they've got to still be out there," she noted. "I know some people just can't afford to care for their cats right now. If it is a matter of food, we do not have kitten food, and we are always asking for that, but I definitely could give them a little bit of adult cat food to hold them over."

Morrice said if you find a cat that was hit by a vehicle or has been injured somehow, you can definitely call them, as they will take it to the Prairie Animal Health Centre and ensure it gets the care it needs.

As for foster care, the shelter currently does not have the ability to supply litter, food, and vet bills for any more foster animals. This means anyone wanting to foster on their own dime would help out as well, and if someone is in a position to be able to make a donation toward the shelter's bill at PAHC, they would gladly accept the help.

"We do have lots of cats in foster care already, so that's why I did do the intake freeze," she stated. "We have to feed all these cats, get them all fixed, and all that costs a lot of money so I've got to think of our costs and our stability in keeping our costs where we know we can pay for all these items as well."

Donations of kitten food and Temptations treats are always great donations to take down to the shelter. For a complete list, find their Amazon wish list HERE.

"Of course, we want to make these cats as comfortable as possible and we try to give them all the comforts of home."

Morrice added that if she happens to be at the shelter when someone comes down to look at cats for adoption, she can approve the adoption that day.

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