Max cat-pacity: Lincoln County Humane Society overflowing with cats

You'll find more than nine lives at the St. Catharines animal shelter these days.

According to Lincoln County Humane Society executive director Kevin Strooband, they've seen an unprecedented number of kittens this November.

Typically, in November, we have a significant downturn and the shelter gets close to empty over Christmas," he said. This November is unprecedented. So many cats, every cage full, more cats coming in, and I don't know what's happened."

Mike France, the shelter's director of operations, said they have 78 cages that can hold one adult cat each, plus their surgery recovery rooms, socialization rooms, rehab areas and colony locations. Strooband said they can typically hold around 150 cats.

Right now, he said they're full.

I don't know whether it's just the weather that has impacted what we're experiencing now, but we are well over capacity," he said, adding that they have multiple kittens in one cage and have ordered more cages.

We had a lot of calls during the pandemic to say, are you seeing more cats come in?' Because we had a lot go out at the beginning, and they thought, people going back to work, are they going to return animals?'" Strooband added. That didn't really happen. and that's not what's happening here."

With no clear reason why there are so many kittens, how do we prevent overpopulation in the future?

France said spaying and neutering your cats is the way to go.

Everyone should be spaying or neutering any animal they have because that's really what stops this huge flow that we've been experiencing now," he said. So the good news is that everybody here now will go out with their shots, will go out with a microchip, will go out spayed or neutered depending on the gender, and we will look to mitigate these things as we go forward. But as animals are left unfixed, it (creates) more and more challenges within the community and then the Humane Society as well."

What will they do with all their cats now? Find them 'furever' homes, of course!

French said while people may gravitate toward the kittens because they are so cute, it's important to remember that there is a cat that is perfect for every situation.

He told a story of a senior woman living in a retirement home who came in and adopted an eight-year-old cat.

She's a senior, and she was very happy that she was able to save a senior that was perfect for her and her environment," he said, adding that the cat lived an additional 10 years. Kitties are certainly a lot more adaptable, so if you did have children, it's a great way to introduce them to the responsibilities of animal care ... but I think if there's a perfect cat for everyone, depending on their lifestyle and their scenario."

Anyone looking to adopt a cat or kitten can visit the Lincoln County Humane Society at 160 Fourth Ave. in St. Catharines or fill out an application online.

A lot of people say you're saving a life', adopt, don't shop' and all of those cliches that we've come up because they are true," Strooband said. We are not going to euthanize for space. That is not an option. We will find them homes, it's just that if you're thinking of adopting, do your research and if you're going to take the plunge, come see us."

With the holidays coming up, Strooband added that anyone looking to donate to the shelter is encouraged to do so because he said they're always in need of four things: towels, liquid laundry soap, dry cat kibble and cat litter.