Adopt a Black Cat During Adopt a Cat Month!

Any time is a good time to adopt a cat, but June has officially been Adopt a Cat Month, in part because shelters become overcrowded with unintended kittens and homeless animals every summer. Shelters often have deals for adoption to try to rehome as many animals as possible, so if you were considering adopting a new Best Feline Friend, do it now, and consider adopting two.

Black cats are often left behind in shelters and after years of rescuing I think it's because we like to see colors and patterns like calicoes and stripes, so we tend to move toward those kitties first. I live with five black cats, all a family that I rescued several years ago and though they are the best cats in all the world I could not adopt one of them to anyone else because a few calicoes were more popular. 

So I'm featuring black cats in today's cat adoption post. These cats were all rescued from the streets somewhere in the Pittsburgh area and fostered and cared for by a network of individuals and small rescue organizations. If you are interested in adding a house panther to your home, please consider these fine felines, or visit your shelter to find more. And if you can't adopt but still want to help, I have information at the end for other things you can do.

Stevie

Stevie is a sweet boy who was twice neglected, abused and thrown out in the street to fend for himself. Though he technically had an "owner", rescued cat Stevie found himself in need of emergency care. Luckily for Stevie, a neighbor contacted a rescue group about him because he was just walking the street where he lived hoping to find some scraps to eat. The second time he was rescued he had a big scar on his head and an old flea collar wrapped around his neck that had to be cut off as well as an upper respiratory infection.

Sophia Slick and Beatrice

Another gold-eyed black kitty who is not pictured here is also being fostered with Sophia. Beatrice (her foster calls her B) is almost all black with just a little white spot on her chest and beautiful gold eyes. She is about 5 years old and came into a shelter with a group of six cats. The person who dropped the group off told the shelter that they were not her cats, but that she felt bad for them, brought them into her house and had been feeding them a few weeks, but just couldn't manage it. At first all six were checked and were doing OK and were going to be put up for adoption, but B and her friend Pansy became very scared and could not be handled, and temperament issues, regardless of the reason, is usually a ticket to the next world during kitten season. They were pulled from the shelter and their foster took them in.

She reports that B is doing very well. B loves attention and rubs all over her legs, she can pick her up, but B still will sometimes get defensive if she decides she has had enough petting. Her foster thinks once she can trust someone, she will be a nice girl, but she may need someone to give her space until she they can get B to trust.

But B has been around the rescue's dog and will rub on his legs, so she's okay with dogs too. Once again, if you can't live without a young black female kitty, please let me know and I'll put you in touch with her foster home! And this wonderful foster home happens to be a person I wrote about months ago who's fostered dozens of kittens and cats in the past year alone.

One "Lucky" Kitty!

Lucky has quite the dramatic story! Workers at an apartment complex found newborn kittens—still wet—and were told to "throw them over the hill"! One very special man with a heart of gold refused to kill these babies and asked AATO for help instead. AATO had a nursing mama kitty, Star, in foster care who was feeding her own four kittens and took in the three newborns immediately. Lucky was apparently touch and go for a while, but by eight weeks was the strongest of all the kittens.

On The Creative Cat I have a slideshow of a few photos of finding the newborns—and Lucky was found on a concrete floor, cold and unmoving—who they placed in a plastic bin with straw hoping the mother would come back. But the kittens were beginning to suffer and they couldn't wait any longer so took them home to care for them, where foster mom Star took over.

See a slideshow of photos of Lucky when he was just hours old and first rescued!

You can read more about Lucky on the AATO Facebook page.

Lucky is located in the South Hills, and I am told that AATO has had SEVEN BLACK CATS in foster for up to a year. If you have room in your heart and home for Lucky or one of the other black kitties in foster—or any one of the kitties in their care, please email us for an application at: AnimalsAgainstTheOdds@gmail.com

. . . . . . .

And if all these available black cats—plus my five who are enviably beautiful but not up for adoption—don't convince you that you need at least one black cat, preferably more, then perhaps this painting, John White Alexander, "Black and Red", will convince you that a little black cat really does go with everything! Visit The Pet Museum.

And read about other kittens and adult cats who are looking for homes.

There are so many ways you can help cats who need homes and care. You may not have room to adopt another cat, but can foster a cat or kitten for a few weeks. If not that, you can volunteer at a shelter or with a rescue, or donate. You do this because you love your cat, and by doing so you help all cats. No matter which of these actions you take, you help to save a life, and make life better for all cats.

• Adopt one of the cats I've posted here, or from any shelter or rescue near you, or from Petfinder, to open up a space for another cat to be rescued and fostered.
• Offer to foster cats or kittens for a shelter or rescue near you.
• Volunteer at a shelter or rescue.
• Find a group of volunteers who work with homeless cats and help them with their efforts.
• Donate to a shelter or rescue near you.

If you can foster kittens or adults cats to help prepare them for a forever home, please run to your nearest shelter and find a cat who needs you! Anyone can help with this effort at any level, even if all you do is donate to a shelter or rescue so they can help to pay for the food or medications needed for their foster, or the spay/neuter/veterinary care during a clinic.

Need to know more? Read Fostering for Your Shelter and Fostering Saves Lives

All images in this post are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. 

Originally published on www.TheCreativeCat.net by Bernadette E. Kazmarski