June Is Adopt A Shelter Cat Month: Save A Life Today!
Warmer temperatures aren’t the only thing June brings us! June is “Adopt A Shelter Cat Month,” and we are extremely proud to be a part of this worthy campaign here at Cat Care Solutions.
Why Adopt? Startling Statistics
It’s no secret; I am an avid supporter of the #adoptdontshop campaign. I respect that not everyone feels the way I do.
These statistics below are the main reasons I encourage everyone to visit their local shelters and save a life:
- In the United States alone, Shelter Animals Count, estimates that nearly 6.5 million cats and dogs enter shelters every year.
- Approximately 3.3 million are dogs and 3.2 million are cats
- Out of those 6.5 million precious animals, 1.5 million on average are euthanized for lack of finding their forever family.
- Out of those 1.5 million, 670,000 dogs and 860,000 cats (source) lose their lives every year
- Black or grey cats and senior felines typically have the highest euthanasia rates and the poorest chance of being adopted overall.
Here’s How You Can Get Involved
Great news! Even if you can’t adopt a pet right now, you can still help! There are so many ways we can get involved and make sure every animal has the best chance at love possible.
Here are just a few of those ideas:
Tweet Your Support
At the bottom of this list, you will find a tweet that is ready to go! Send out your message and join the thousands of voices in support of National Adopt A Shelter Cat Month! Your voice counts!
Talk With Your Friends & Family
Encourage them to visit their local shelters instead of purchasing from a breeder. Just because an animal isn’t ‘purebred’ doesn’t mean they aren’t capable of lighting your world up with pure love! Besides, there are many purebred pets available in shelters across the globe.
Donate Your Time and/or Money
Shelters and other pet charities are always in need of something! Give them a call. Find out what items they are in need of (i.e. cat food, litter, etc) and donate it! Or perhaps you can donate some time to help clean the facilities or sit with the lonely kiddos. They’ll never forget you!
Use Your Social Media For Good
Share photos of adoptable pets from your local newspaper, online adoption agencies such as PetFinder or Adopt A Pet. The added publicity for every sweet face you feature could mean a forever, loving home. Even if you have only a few followers, that’s okay! Go for it!
Find A Re-Home Instead
Shelters are unbelievably overcrowded. We all know that. Instead of letting your friends and family surrender their pet to a shelter, try a service like Get Your Pet. It’s a community of pet lovers who help owners find new, loving homes for pets that are no longer a good fit where they are.
Do You Enjoy Photography?
Take photos of local cats and dogs waiting to be adopted in your area. Make flyers using Canva for FREE! You don’t have to be a top-notch professional to do this. Then print out and place those flyers around town, in office buildings or high visibility areas.
Consider Fostering
Being a foster parent of a human or pet is a big responsibility. It’s not for the faint of heart. We get attached and it’s hard to let go. Yet it is incredibly rewarding.
If you have room in your heart and home for a foster cat – contact your local SPCA, Veterinarian’s office or animal care facility for more information.
Covid-19 Tragedy
In 2020, our whole world was flipped upside down. Many people faced loss or challenges like they never imagined possible. As a result, many pets were tragically abandoned.
To learn how you can help, visit “Feed The Hungry Fund” for more information.
Start Your Own Fundraiser
In honor of Adopt A Shelter Cat Month, the ASPCA makes getting involved a lot of fun! Raise $100? Get a special gift from Team ASPCA. During June, participants will also get a “free limited edition Adopt a Shelter Cat Month sticker.” What are you waiting for? 🙂
Shop Where They Give Back
Here are my 2 absolute favorites:
- Shop for Rescues. This amazing organization seeks to end animal suffering, one life at a time. Every purchase you make helps make their goal (and yours!) that much more achievable. A proven charity with proven results.
- Pawzaar. I love this bunch! Everything I’ve gotten from them was absolutely adorable. I’ve given a few as gifts and their gift wrapping is fantastic! Affordable, fast shipping and great customer service. Every single order helps sponsor a shelter pet in need!
June Is Adopt A Shelter Cat Month: Tweet Your Support!
June is National Adopt A Cat Month. There are so many amazing shelter kitties waiting for you, their new family, in their forever home. Will you save a life today? #adoptdontshop #adoptacat #cats
Tweet
Every Effort We Make Matters
No matter how small or insignificant you may think your contribution is – it matters! I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for bringing joy into the life of an innocent cat or dog.
I know our cats will consider this statement to be total blasphemy but we love dogs here too!
Whether your new best friend barks or meows – I hope you will consider saving a life during this “adopt a shelter cat month” awareness campaign and beyond.
When choosing your new cat-kin, don’t overlook the least likely to be adopted. Black, grey and senior cats deserve love too!
Take a look at Teddy’s heartwarming rescue story and support the rescue efforts of Flatbush Cats:
Do you have an adoption story of your own to share with me? Or do you help feed stray cats and dogs in your area? I’d love to hear from you!
Help spread the word. Share this post with your social media family. I genuinely love & appreciate each of you!
All My Love & Healing Purrs,
I had no idea Adopt A Shelter Cat month even existed, so thank you for bringing this to public consciousness. I
t’s shocking to read the facts… 6.5 million cats and dogs end up in shelters in year just in the US, that’s heartbreaking. In some instances it’s for better reasons, ones where the owners are hoping to help their pet or where it’s unavoidable (someone dies, or they have a pet but for some reason can no longer look after it and give it a good life). I do wish more people would fully consider whether they can look after a cat/dog before they get one. Sometimes it really just doesn’t work out, but other times you know there wasn’t enough thought involved initially. Then you have to hope there are people out there in a position to take these shelter animals in to give them a forever home. When that doesn’t happen… it’s awful to think of the ‘what if’, isn’t it? To think of a pet being put down because they can’t be rehired is so, so sad.
I wonder what the situation has been like lately with coronavirus and new owners, hopefully shelters are still accepting new owners to step forward and rehome. The case of more pets being abandoned during the crisis is hard to swallow; I’m not sure of the reasoning and I know all cases will be different, but it’s still tragic.
Your suggestions are fantastic and you’re right, even if you’re not in a position to take in a pet you can still help the cause in another way, even through a simple Tweet or raising the topic with others, starting the conversation.
Well done to cheering your support for shelters and encouraging the conversation, Holly! These cats (and dogs) deserve good lives, they’re creatures just like us that need a home and food and love. xx
You are certainly welcome my friend! I think there are so many worthy causes that go unnoticed far too often. I’m a fan of ‘awareness months’ but also find it sad that the causes tend to slip out of awareness so easily. Know what I mean?
I agree with you – the statistics are very shocking and troubling. Like you said, I know some cases are unavoidable. My hope would be that more would find a re-home situation rather than surrendering to shelters. Yet sometimes the families left behind after a death are in a tough spot. You made a GREAT point. More people need to consider the long-term commitment of adopting a cat, dog or other animal. Their life spans can be fairly long and they are perpetual kids! They rely on us completely for their care.
Love you for caring about these sweet animals, Caz. Your support of them (and me) has meant more than I could ever say! ♥ BIG hugs for you!
I’ve gotten so many kitties and puppies from the shelter. I always go for the ones that are least likely to be adopted. Such great information here.
Have a fabulous day, Holly. Big hug. ♥
That’s one of the reasons I think so highly of you Sandee — your heart. I LOVE that you adopted the least likely to be taken in. God bless you for that. Those precious animals you loved were fortunate and I am grateful to you.
Big hugs headed right back to you my friend. Have a beautiful day! ♥
Thanks for sharing this .🙏
You are welcome!
Wonderful post ,apt for “adopt a shelter cat month” awareness campaign .It is wonderful to know about different ways to help. My kids wanted to help in the shelters and will look at our options here.I will also definitely tweet it and spread the word.Many Thanks Holly , you are so kind.
Aw! Bless your heart! You brightened my day hearing that your kids wanted to help in the animal shelters. I’m grateful to hear mama is doing such a wonderful job raising them! ♥
Your support means more than I can say. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for spreading this message! ♥
Thank you so much for the kind words , appreciate it.Have a wonderful day !
I’ve rescued so many stray cats and dogs from the streets. Some were abandoned by the owner for various reasons. Last hear, a person I knew abandoned two of her cats. The person whom she gave them to decided to give them to someone else. The second person also didn’t want to keep them. I took them in and they are so happy now. The trauma that they went through is evident because one of them is still wary of me. Presently, I have 18 cats and 6 dogs – all rescued.
18 cats and 6 dogs — God bless you! You must be busy all the time with all those four-legged kids running around. Do you have anyone that helps you?
Your story blesses my soul! Those precious cats must have wondered what in the world was going wrong in their lives to be passed around so many times! Oh my. Cats don’t like change as it is and they especially wouldn’t appreciate a situation like that (as you well know!) I am so sorry that they’ve endured this trauma but goodness knows I’m thankful they now have you!
I love hearing from you. I hope you will share your stories and victories with me here. It’s wonderful to hear good news. We need more of that don’t we? Sending lots of love your way and to all those sweet babies. 🙏🏼
Thank you so much Holly. I think that I am the one who’s blessed to have these lovely souls in my life. They bring so much love and joy everyday. What more can anybody ask for?
Thank you for sharing. I didn’t know. Cute kitty.
http://www.rsrue.blogspot.com
Hi Regine! Thank you so much for stopping by Cat Care Solutions. Thank you kindly for the compliment on Dizzy. Although her head is plenty big as it is, ha ha! 😀
Those statistics are crazy! The best cat I’ve ever had was a rescue and he was pure black (Sam). I was his person and he followed me around everywhere. It’s like he new I saved him.
My daughter and I love to volunteer at our local shelter. We clean up the kitten room and then sit down and play with them for an hour or so. It amazes me how many kittens are in that one room! When you sit the food down kittens come flying out of every nook and cranny!
The sad thing is the older cats that rarely get adopted. If I could I’d bring every single one of them home. (Talk about Crazy Cat Lady!)
I’ve shared this post everywhere I can think of to get the word out!
I agree with you – the statistics are absolutely crazy! It makes me so sad to think all of those numbers are actual little faces of innocent animals all over this country. (sigh)
I adore hearing your stories about Sam. He sounded like one of those special kitties you never forget. I’m still so sorry he’s gone. It leaves a big ol’ hole in our hearts when we lose them, doesn’t it? One thing I know for sure – I would bet my life that he knew you saved him. I’d also bet he knew how ridiculously loved & spoiled he was! ♥ I’m thankful to you my friend for giving him such a wonderful life!
There are so many reasons I just love you to pieces. Hearing how you and your daughter go to the shelter really touches my heart! Every one of those kittens (and grown kitties) will be forever blessed because you were there. It means the world to the staff too because they simply can’t be in that many places at once.
You made me laugh about the kittens flying out of nook and crannies and about being a crazy cat lady. 🤣 Too funny! I hear you, Michelle – trust me! It is terribly hard leaving those sweeties behind. All we can do is pray that their forever homes are soon found.
Your support means more than I could ever say. Thank you from the bottom of my heart Michelle for ALL you do! Big hugs and lotsa love heading your way now.