On Wednesday morning, October 7, our officers and staff helped remove 44 cats from an apartment in the city of Sumner. We learned of the situation when the cats’ owner passed away earlier this week; officers from the Sumner Police Department referred the incident to us out of concern for the large number of cats observed in her residence. Her family members accepted our help in removing the cats, and provided valuable assistance in helping to contain the cats to help expedite getting them out of the apartment.
All 44 cats were transported to our shelter in Puyallup, where they received examinations, vaccinations, and emergency housing. They appear to be between the ages of less than 1 month old to 3 years old, and upon intake, they also appear to be in good health and friendly with people. All of the cats will need to be spayed or neutered before we can make them available for adoption from our shelter.
This is not a cruelty or neglect investigation, as the owner is deceased and her family accepted our help while grieving the loss of their loved one. This is, however, another clear example of how quickly that cats can multiply, even within one household, without being spayed or neutered. What started with just two unaltered cats turned into 44 cats in less than three years, creating an emergency situation for our small community animal shelter.
This large intake of cats has placed a significant strain on our shelter’s operations, as the facility was already at capacity for cats prior to this incident. Please help us get through this. You can help in a variety of ways:
- Adopt one of our other cats or kittens that are ready to go home today! Every adoption gives us one more kennel to help these new cats decompress, receive some TLC from our staff and volunteers, and get adoption-ready. Our biggest adoption event of the year is this Saturday, so it is a perfect time to adopt a cat from our shelter.
- Donate bags of non-clumping kitty litter to the shelter! With 44 more cats now in our care, we are going to go through kitty litter very, very quickly. This critical care item is a cheap and easy way for you to help us through this very challenging situation.
- Donate toward spay/neuter services, vaccinations, microchips, and any needed medical care for these cats! Our shelter is dependent on outside veterinary care — including spay/neuter service providers – and donations toward the cost of these services will help to keep the adoption fees as low as possible so these cats can quickly find new homes, while also receiving the very best care in getting ready for their adoption day.
- Please do not bring any cats to the shelter that are not in their own emergency situation! We do not have room for any more cats or kittens until we have successfully completed a significant number of cat adoptions. So we need people to please take a pause on owner surrenders and cat trapping for a few days while we deal with this incident.
- In the future (not right now!), please call us if you or a loved one are in our service area and find yourself in an overwhelming situation involving pets. We can assist when we have space, and appreciate being able to help before a situation becomes even harder for owners and pets.
- Spay and neuter your pets!!!!!!!
