Scratch This: Claw-dy with a chance of whiskers
The Long Beach animal community prepares for kitten season.
We interrupt this column for a weather report. A cloudburst of small cats will flood streets and in alleys, underneath houses and within shrubbery. Then, they’ll to die in the wild, get scooped up by well-meaning humans (don’t do that, please), or grow up outdoors to rain cats and cats.
Kitten season has about begun. If you’re unfamiliar with the metaphor, it’s the time of the year when temperatures warm up, cats get frisky, and millions of kittens are born to unaltered mothers (yes, and fathers, too — it takes two to tangle). It normally happens around late March through October — in warmer climates like SoCal, it begins earlier and ends later.
Kitten season sounds adorable until you find out that great numbers of newborn cats are brought to shelters and there isn’t enough staff or volunteers to bottle-feed them. So, they’re euthanized. Newborn kittens are more frequently put to sleep than any type of pet — according to one source, 57% of euthanized animals are unweaned kittens. That’s a dreadful statistic. Happily, though, a growing practice is, for lack of a better metaphor, almost literally unseeding the storm clouds.
Trap-Neuter-Return, or TNR, is an effort in which volunteers with a passion for bringing down the population of kittens born in the wild humanely trap them, bring them to a veterinary clinic for spay/neuter and vaccinations, and release them to their original location. TNR takes planning and preparation — it involves assessment of the colony, making veterinary appointments in advance of trapping, trap setting and baiting and waiting and waiting, digging the adrenaline rush when the first cat springs a trap, toting the lucky beneficiaries to their vet appointments, holding them overnight, and bringing them back. After they’re released, the cats can continue to be cats and the sun peeks through the clouds, at least for them.
TNR is supported by veterinarians and vet techs willing to conduct spay/neuter procedures en masse and by people who may not trap but contribute space for the cats to heal, transport to or from the veterinary office, or funds to pay for traps and icky, stinky canned fish and roast chicken to lure the cats into the trap. Scratch This! has covered TNR extensively, and you’ll probably be reading more about it, thanks to a grassroots effort known as the Long Beach TNR and Community Cats coalition. A Long Beach resident’s excellent idea and the ongoing support of the effort by Long Beach Animal Care Services and the TNR community are making a difference in the outdoor cat population.
“The animal rescue world has known for a long time that the answer to the pet overpopulation is a combination of animal education and access to affordable spay and neuter,” said Dr. Melanie Wagner, LBACS’ bureau manager. “TNR is essential for both of these. Strong TNR services not only provide access to spay and neuter but also provide the community with the knowledge, training and resources to help in their ‘own backyard’ so that we as a community can tackle the problem together.”
Some trappers, including in Long Beach, practice targeted TNR, which is trapping in specific areas that produce the most kittens, based on shelter kitten-intake data. Monitoring these areas through data will show whether the number of births continually decreases there.
In this context, Wagner cited a research compendium that cat advocacy organization Alley Cat Allies assembled to show positive outcomes from TNR in the United States and overseas. Closer to home, about 30 years ago, Seal Beach resident Helen Sanders practically singlehandedly reduced the number of unaltered cats living in jetties by the beach from 60 or 70 to eight over the years. This was before TNR became a widespread practice.
Sanders died about 20 years ago, but she lives on in spirit in the namesake Helen Sanders CatPAWS rescue organization. Less than two years ago, CatPAWS launched its spay/neuter mobile clinic, focusing exclusively on unaltered stray cats. As of this writing, the clinic has fixed over 1,700 community cats.
Last month, a fix fest took place in the LBACS parking lot, a concerted effort of LBACS, CatPAWS and Community Animal Medicine Project. The clinics fixed 52 cats between them. On March 29, The Little Lion Foundation will host its grand opening to its new Community Cat Project, also serving only trappers who bring stray cats to their free clinic (check link for info). They’ve been operating since October and at this writing have passed the 500 spay/neuter mark.
Take the total number of those fixed cats — 2,239 — and estimate half of them as female. Say that each produces three litters of five each year and continues having kittens until reaching 5 years old — the estimated lifespan of an outdoor cat. Then, consider that each of those kittens grows up and repeats the cycle, either by impregnating or getting pregnant. My head spins from the math, but you get the idea that those clinics prevented hundreds of thousands of community kittens from being born.
Long Beach is lucky.
Wagner said that there’s a lot of catching up to do because of the lack of spay/neuter accessibility during the COVID pandemic period. The impact, she said, won’t be felt immediately. However, the enthusiasm and resource sharing brought about by the Coalition, our shelter, area rescues and people who want to help out are bearing out the idea that TNR is helping to mitigate the flood of kittens during kitten season and all year.
“It is important to invest in large scale TNR programming to reduce the number of kittens who are coming into shelters or suffering on the streets,” Wagner said. “Quite honestly, it is the most humane way out of our kitten crisis.”
To be part of the TNR effort, contact community cat coordinator Lindsie Merrick at Lindsie.Merrick@longbeach.gov.
Please also notify Officer Merrick if you find a pregnant or nursing mother and its location. Do not contact the shelter if you find a litter of newborns with no mother present unless the kittens look sick or feel cold and you’ve waited for two or three hours at a distance to see if Mom returns.
To help bottle-feed newborn kittens, contact cat foster coordinator Carol Reyes at Carol.Reyes@longbeach.gov. Helen Sanders CatPAWS creates DIY kitten kits that are given free to people wanting to help the already overwhelmed kitten foster program.
YOURS DROOLY
One more thing you can do to help ease the flood of kittens into our shelter is to adopt an adult cat. Kitten season may not be cute in theory, but once the little balls of fur grow ears and start running around, they’re dang adorable and potential adopters will choose them over the grownups. Remember, adult cats want to go home, too.
Access this link for adoptable cats, and email PetAdopt@longbeach.gov for adoptions or petfoster@longbeach.gov to foster. Come down to Long Beach Animal Care Services to meet them. Shelter hours are Wednesday through Friday, 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m. at 7700 E. Spring St. at the entrance to El Dorado Park (no parking fee for shelter visitors).
Drew (ID#A490633) is a sweet, mellow 12-year-old with a beautiful sleek black coat, a little white star on his chest, and a couple of white whiskers among the black ones. May we mention his expressive gold eyes? Drew’s owner could no longer afford to keep him, so he left his old friend at the shelter. Drew wants nothing more than to have his place in the sun.
He’s perfect for someone who wants a companion who is a fellow couch potato. He’s affectionate and would love nothing more than to help you binge-watch a favorite series. He’s all by himself now and could use some forever company.
May we introduce you to Sunset (ID#A737248)? This little boy is an 8-month-old orange tabby who came to our shelter as a stray in February. Sweet Sunset has a real challenge ahead of him because he has fractures in his left femur and pelvis. Since we don't know his history, he's now on "bed rest" to see if his fractures will heal. Prognosis is guarded for fracture healing without surgery. We’re looking for a rescue or an adopter to help Sunset see many sunrises.
Rosebud (ID#A736332) is only a year and a half old, and she already needs a hospice home. She had cancer surgery for mammary tumors, which were found to be cancerous. The cancer has metastasized. Rosebud should spend her remaining time in a loving home and not in a shelter kennel.
Even with the loving care given her by the shelter medical staff and volunteers, it’s not a home. The staff hopes someone will come along who’ll give this lovely calico girl a few beautiful months. If you can foster Rosebud, please let the cat foster coordinator know.
TAIL-WAGGIN' AND NOSE-BOOPIN' EVENTS
Low-cost vaccine clinic
Community Animal Medicine Project, succinctly called CAMP, will roll its mobile clinic to Signal Hill City Hall to give your pets what they need to stay healthy. No appointments are necessary. Visit this link for vaccine and treatment prices as well as when the CAMP clinic will be in your neighborhood. Dogs must be leashed or in carriers; cats must be in carriers.
The CAMP low-cost clinic will take place Saturday, March 15, 9 a.m.–1 p.m. at Signal Hill City Hall, 2175 Cherry Ave., Signal Hill
Kitten Shower fundraiser
Kitten season brings showers of kittens. TippedEars rescue is planning a shower for some of these kittens in the form of a fundraiser that will provide an umbrella for the organization as they deal with the downpour. Enjoy games, prizes and, naturally, the kittens. Presents for the kitties are welcome but not necessary.
TippedEars’ kitten shower takes place Friday, March 21, 5:30 p.m.–8:30 p.m. at Cool Cat Collective, 2741 E. 4th St., C, Long Beach
Helen Sanders CatPAWS 12th annual bowling fundraiser
Knock down some pins for the purrers at CatPAWS! This family-fun event includes two hours of bowling, shoes included; appetizer or pizza, with soft drink; and an opportunity drawing with great prizes. If you don’t want to bowl, you can sit on the fence in bowling pin posture like a veritable cat and cheer on your friends!
Proceeds will help feed, house, spay/neuter and vaccinate, and give any medical treatment needed to our adoptable cats. They will also help fund CatPAWS’ mobile spay/neuter clinic, which makes great progress in lowering the number of kittens born to the streets, who grow into unwanted, homeless cats.
The Helen Sanders CatPAWS bowling fundraiser takes place Saturday, March 29, 3 p.m.–6 p.m. at Westminster Lanes, 6471 Westminster Blvd., Westminster. Tickets available here, $45 general admission, $25 food only
Need a low-cost veterinarian, information about trapping community cats, places to volunteer, rescues and shelters to adopt from — anything pet related? Follow this link for resources. Please add your own ideas in the Comments section.
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