Welcome to kitten season, when animal shelters need all the help they can get

By LEANNE ITALIE AP Lifestyles Writer NEW YORK AP Strawberry Blueberry JoJo and Mazzy were about weeks old when animal rescuers coaxed them out of long metal pipes in the parking lot of a storage unit company Meatball was a single kitten living in a cold garage with a group of semi-feral adult cats Spaghetti Macaroni and Rigatoni meanwhile were just weeks old when the good folks of LIC Feral Feeders a cat rescue in Queens took them in and bottle-fed them until they were strong enough to survive Consider these cuties the face of kitten season Kitten season typically landing during warmer months is the time of year when preponderance cats give birth That produces a surge of kittens often fragile neonates Shelters get overwhelmed especially when it comes to the -hour care and feeding of extremely young kittens That as a effect triggers a need for more foster homes because several of the or so shelters in the U S don t have the time or tools for around-the-clock care declared Hannah Shaw an animal welfare advocate known as the Kitten Lady with more than a million followers on Instagram We see about million kittens entering shelters every year And the greater part of them will come into shelters during May and June she revealed Shelters need all hands on deck to help out through fostering Meatball the kitten plays on Wednesday June at the Associated Press bureau in New York AP Photo Mary Conlon Rigatoni the kitten appears on Wednesday June at the Associated Press bureau in New York AP Photo Mary Conlon Mallika Sen holds Macaroni the kitten on Wednesday June at the Associated Press bureau in New York AP Photo Mary Conlon Hannah Shaw kitten rescuer and advocate founder of Kitten Lady speaks on Wednesday June at the Associated Press bureau in New York AP Photo Mary Conlon Show Caption of Meatball the kitten plays on Wednesday June at the Associated Press bureau in New York AP Photo Mary Conlon Expand Familiarity with fostering animals is high Shaw explained The act of doing it is a different story There s a false perception she revealed that the expense of fostering animals falls on the people who step up to do it These days countless shelters and rescues cover the food supplies and clinical costs of fostering A lot of people don t foster because they think it s going to be this huge cost but fostering really only costs you time and love she revealed Lisa Restine a Hill s Pet Nutrition veterinarian announced people looking to adopt kittens should take pairs since cats often bond early in life And how a multitude of cats is too a large number of cats per household Related Articles Tips for planning a wedding at a time of new tariffs Tradition and change intertwine to create beauty at a century-old arboretum How to ensure injury-free fun on the playground Garden gear blooms with stylish details Photos Best and worst looks from the Met Gala This is nothing serious or therapeutic but my general rule of thumb is the number of adults in the house like a -to- ratio because you can carry one cat in each hand so if there are two adults you can have four cats and still be sane she mentioned Square footage to avoid territory disputes is a good rule of thumb when planning for cats Restine mentioned Two cats per square feet then square feet more for each addition should help she disclosed Littermates like Macaroni and Rigatoni are much more likely to bond Restine reported Kittens not biologically related but raised together often bond as well like Meatball and Spaghetti But adopters hoping to bond an adult cat with a new kitten arrival may be disappointed Once they re over that - or -month mark it s hard to get that true bonding Restine revealed Typically kittens stay in their foster homes from a insufficient weeks to a sparse months While statistics are not kept on the number of kitten fosters that fail when foster families decided to keep their charges specific shelters assessment rates as high as That s a win despite use of the word fail advocates note Shaw sees another barrier holding people back from fostering the notion that it requires special training or skills That s why she has dedicated her life to educating the residents offering videos books and research on how it works at her site kittenlady org Companies are coming on board too Hill s a pet food company runs the Hill s Food Shelter Love plan It has provided more than million in food help to over animal shelters that sponsorship fostering in North America About a quarter of a million kittens unfortunately don t survive in our shelters every year Shaw reported The shelter s going to be there to mentor and assistance you So I think a lot of the fear that people have about fostering they might find that authentically it is something you totally can do It s just scary because you haven t done it yet