Shelter sponsors ‘Cat-a-Palooza’

Laughs and shouts can be heard while kids and parents look at varieties of cats and kittens, this month’s focus at the Bloomington Animal Shelter.

This June the shelter is participating in Adopt-a-Cat Month.

The nationally recognized program is an initiative by the American Humane Association to promote shelter adoption as well as increase awareness about the number of shelter cats that need homes.

Each spring and summer, from March through September, local shelters are flooded with hundreds of newborn kittens and nursing mothers due to cats’ breeding seasons.
Bloomington Animal Care and Control has celebrated the program each June for more than five years.

This month’s theme is “Cat-a-Palooza: Peace, Love and Catnip,” which is based on summer music festivals, a theme that Director Laurie Ringquist hopes will draw people’s attention and keep them interested.

Ringquist has worked at the shelter for 10 years and has been there each time they celebrated Adopt-a-Cat Month and believes it has a lot to offer.

“(The program is very beneficial) absolutely, it increases adoptions and that’s our goal, so it works very well,” Ringquist said.

Bloomington’s shelter has a history of success during Adopt-a-Cat Month; adoptions almost doubled last June, and since the beginning of this month the shelter has already had 18 adoptions.

With around 55 cats and kittens currently available, the shelter has many that vary in age, colors, and hair length, and some are declawed already.

Specials on adoptions include cats one year or older for $15, one kitten for $45, or two for $75. The fees cover vaccinations, spaying or neutering, micro chipping, and testing for leukemia and FIV.

With no numeric adoption goal in mind, Ringquist said that she just strives to ensure that every cat adopted finds a stable home.

“There’s a criteria for adopting,” Ringquist said. “We don’t want to give them the impression we’re just handing out kittens without screening for suitable homes, and we don’t want to just push them out the door.”

Information and tips about whether you should adopt a cat can be found on the America Humane Association’s website, www.americanhumane.org.

The shelter is open every day for customers to come visit the adoptable cats and kittens.

— Dan Szwiec