The end of Kitten Season

This weekend brings the close to kitten season...which means the Kitten Nursery is closed for the season.  It is bittersweet to me.  While the work was very hard for me and there were times (like the wild kittens that fell out of the kennel) I wondered what the heck I was doing there, overall, I loved it.  How often do  you get to interact with tiny baby kittens?  At any given time, there were about 200 kittens in the nursery during the peak season!  That is lots of little babies crying for food!

I saw tiny day old kittens, very sick kittens I was sure were not going to make it, and litters of rambunctous kittens that were anxious to eat and grow and get adopted.  I learned more about kitten care and how to make a kitten poop or eat than I ever wanted to learn.  It seemed like diarreah was a common occurance in the kitten nursery.  I learned pumpkin can help with that. I also learned how loving and caring the Best Friends group is.  I am touched by how much time and care they provided to each and every kitten.

I really wanted to foster a kennel of kittens after my house came off the market but I missed the training so I wasn't eligible.  Probably a good thing because I am positive I would not have been able to turn those kittens back in.  There were some kittens that were minor stars of the nursery.  Usually they were so damn cute, you couldn't help but love them.  I got to see them grow up and go to foster and then out to adoption.  Because the organization is a "No Kill" facility, all pets are saved whenever possible.

The kitten nursery had over 1400 kittens come through with a 86% survival rate.  That is amazing considering every one of these kittens would have not made it in a shelter because of the time and care they required.  Of the ones that didn't survive, it is because they were just too sick when they came in.  At least they had a chance and had people fighting for their survival!   Over Thanksgiving, the adoption center had a sponsor pay for all adoptions so it was a free adoption weekend.  Every single kitten eligible for adoption was adopted on Friday.

The kitten nursery will open again in March.  I know I will be in line to get back on the schedule.  It was one of the most rewarding things I did in 2015!