Tis The Season... Kitten & Puppy That Is!

In Louisiana, we love our seasons. We have the classic spring, summer, winter, and fall, but we also have additional seasons like Mardi Gras, festival, and crawfish. What you may not realize is that there is another season, little known outside of the animal welfare world: kitten and puppy season.

Imagine a season of soft, cuddly, baby animals, each with their little yips and meows. While puppies and kittens are absolutely adorable and a litter of each sounds like literal heaven, it’s a rough season for animal shelters. Each spring animal shelters across the country see a sharp uptick in the number of litters of puppies and kittens that arrive at their doors.

In northern climates, this season may be limited to late spring and summer. Here in the Deep South, the season can stretch from very early spring, or even late winter if it is warm enough to the end of fall. The Louisiana SPCA took in 973 kittens and 186 puppies in 2020 and all needed food, shelter, medical care and someone to provide those things.

Why does this extra kitten and puppy season happen? Warmer temperatures, combined with a large population of intact (not spayed or neutered) male and female stray animals, lead to an increase in breeding activity, and thus an increase in the number of litters being born. It is true that puppies and kittens are born year-round; however, during the spring, summer and often well into the fall, open-admission shelters are pushed beyond their limit.

Just like humans, if a family does not have a home, it is much more difficult for them to survive. Some of these litters are orphaned or abandoned. Sometimes, a kitten is found alone or injured. Litters of puppies may be rescued from unsafe situations. Other times, nursing mother cats are brought in with their kittens. In the best scenario, the animals are healthy and old enough to be spayed or neutered and put up for adoption.

However, most of these puppies and kittens will require extended stays in the shelter, either because they are too young to be placed for adoption, or because they are ill or injured. Some litters brought in without their mothers will be too young to eat on their own and will require bottle feeding and more intensive care. It is a labor of love to care for and raise the young animals, sometimes only days or hours old, but it can be very stressful once resources such as space, staff, food, medications and time become stretched thin, and animals continue to enter the shelter.

If you find a litter of kittens that are not in immediate danger and are warm, watch to make sure the litter is truly orphaned. You may have discovered the nest while the mother was hunting for food or in the process of moving the babies. You will need to watch from a distance so that the mother is not too nervous to return and keep in mind that she may be gone for several hours.

If the litter is truly orphaned, bringing the litter to a shelter or caring for them yourself will give them their best chance at survival. If you decide to raise the litter yourself, your veterinarian or the team at the Louisiana SPCA can help you learn how best to feed and care for them.

If you would like to help shelters during kitten season, items such as kitten and puppy meal replacer formula, bottles, wet and dry kitten and puppy food, kitty litter and heating pads are always in short supply and make excellent donations. We recommend asking if the organization you are interested in helping has a wish list of items to ensure they are getting the items they need most.

But the good news is this: it does not have to be this way. Communities can do their part to improve kitten and puppy season. So much of the heartbreak of kitten season is preventable by spaying or neutering animals. It is the first step in overcoming pet overpopulation. When even a single cat is spayed or neutered, we are preventing the suffering of thousands of animals. Over a six-year period, an unaltered female dog, her mate, and their offspring can be responsible for the birth of 67,000 puppies. Over the same six-year period, one unaltered female cat, her mate, and their subsequent offspring can produce more than 66,000 kittens.

Another important way you can help animal shelters and the pet population with kitten and puppy season is fostering. Fostering is one of the most rewarding experiences because not only do you get to set that animal up for success for the rest of their life, but once that animal is ready to make their adoption debut you get to help them find their forever family (even if sometimes it turns out to be your own). By fostering kittens and puppies, you are saving a life, you feel good, your shelter or rescue group helps more animals, and your foster pet is happy, healthy, and well-socialized. Talk about win-win-win!

Fostering increases an animal’s chance of getting adopted. Foster families are usually the first to find out about the pet’s personality. You may even be the first to teach your foster pet basic house manners, making them more appealing to potential adopters. Your own pets will also learn more social skills. The more animals your pets encounter, the better they are at dealing with stress and getting used to strangers. Your pet might even find a playmate in your foster pet.

You probably already have the space for one more. A spare bedroom, office, or screen porch is the perfect place for a foster pet. Even a bathroom is enough room for a kitten or puppy, and it is much larger than a kennel in a shelter.

Fostering keeps animals out of shelters. As wonderful as animal shelters are, they can be quite stressful. And there is nothing like the love and warmth of a family! When you foster an animal, a space for another homeless animal in need at the shelter is opened.

If you are interested in fostering an animal, contact your area shelter or rescue group for more information. To foster for the Louisiana SPCA, there is an online application at www.louisianaspca.org/foster. There are also many other rescue groups in the area, and most will need help during this time. Help give the kittens and puppies in our community a break this season by talking to your local shelter about how you can help.