Roice-Hurst Humane Society: It's Kitten Season

Originally published in the Spring 2020 issue of SPOKE+BLOSSOM.

Photos by Jenna Kretschman

With the warmer weather and longer days of springtime comes kitten season — the time between March and November when thousands of kittens are born on the streets, in bushes and under porches all over the Grand Valley. Roice-Hurst Humane Society and their network of foster families are gearing up for this year’s barrage of tiny felines.

This time of year, unsterilized community cats, which are stray or feral cats that live in outdoor colonies and have not been spayed or neutered, begin their breeding season. One female cat can have up to three litters of kittens per year, each with an average of five kittens per litter, and those kittens can begin reproducing when they reach about 4 months of age. At that rate, community cat populations can skyrocket without intervention.

According to the Humane Society of the United States, up to 80 percent of all kittens born each year are born outdoors to community cats. Kittens born outdoors face grim threats of disease, harsh conditions and orphaning. Sadly, they often don’t survive without the help of humans.

But, when it rains cats and kittens, dozens of local foster families are waiting to catch them. Kittens found outside are brought in droves to animal shelters, like Roice-Hurst Humane Society, and many are too young, sick or under- socialized to be placed up for adoption. These kittens are placed into the care of loving foster homes for a month or two until they become larger, healthier and friendlier, so they can find their forever families.

Sue Tuffin, a foster volunteer at Roice- Hurst Humane Society, began fostering kittens many years ago when she discovered litters of orphaned newborn kittens while trapping and neutering community cats. Every few hours for the first several weeks of life, orphaned newborn kittens must be bottle-fed, stimulated to urinate and defecate, kept warm and clean and closely monitored. Since her first litter of foster kittens, Tuffin has opened her heart and home to 227 foster animals, specializing in bottle-fed kittens and special-needs cases.

“I knew there was a tremendous need for fostering abandoned animals, and I just felt that it was something that I could offer up and be able to help the little critters,” Tuffin says.

One of Tuffin’s most memorable foster kittens was Emmie, a blind kitten with a fluffy, dilute, tortoiseshell coat. In June of 2019, Emmie was found outdoors and brought into Roice-Hurst Humane Society at 4 weeks old with a scrawny frame, intestinal parasites and a gruesome upper respiratory infection that damaged her eyeballs beyond repair.

“I went to the shelter with my litter of other fosters for their shots, and, while I was there, the story came up of this little blind kitten. She was very tiny and fragile and stressed. I had just recently lost a blind cat who had been with me for 23 years, so I said, ‘I think I can help this little blind kitty gain some confidence and learn how to navigate in her world. Let me take her home.’ So, she came home with me,” Tuffin says.

After several months in foster care, Emmie flourished into a healthy, vivacious kitten with a massive personality and ear tufts to match. When her damaged eyes had to be surgically removed, the vet tech who assisted with the surgery fell in love with Emmie and decided to adopt her.

“She got a wonderful home. She was just an exceptionally sweet kitten and a beautiful cat,” says Tuffin.

Unfortunately, there are more kittens that require foster care than there are foster homes, and kitten season is an overwhelming strain for every shelter in the valley. In 2019, Roice-Hurst Humane Society placed 414 animals into foster homes, 354 of which were cats and kittens. Orphaned kittens are not the only animals that require foster care. Nursing or pregnant cats and their babies, under-socialized kittens, weaned kittens, older cats and even dogs and puppies are all cared for by foster volunteers. Foster volunteers range from retirees to working people to college students; a wide range of time commitments and fostering opportunities exist.

Roice-Hurst Humane Society provides foster volunteers with all the required supplies and veterinary care needed to save kittens, including food, litter, formula, blankets, bottles and more. Saving lives is at no cost to volunteers — all they need is a dedicated space at home (such as a spare bedroom or bathroom), some extra time and plenty of love to give to animals in need.

“You do know you make a difference, because a lot of these little guys absolutely would not have a chance at life. And who doesn’t love unconditional love? You become their mom. They know your voice; they look for you; they follow you. It’s a wonderful experience,” says Tuffin.

While fostering makes a tremendous difference in the lives of Mesa County’s tiniest felines, the best way to save kittens is to prevent community cat pregnancies in the first place. Roice-Hurst Humane Society launched the Grand Valley Cat Project in August 2019, which combats cat overpopulation by providing barrier-free access to spay/neuter surgeries and trap-neuter- return (TNR) practices. The project focuses its efforts in the 81501 ZIP code for now but plans to expand to other ZIP codes in the future.

“We are trapping, neutering, vaccinating and ear-tipping community cats and then returning them to their outdoor homes, so they can no longer reproduce. With this project, we are also providing spay/neuter surgeries to owned cats in the 81501 area,” says Mila Revelle, outreach and field coordinator for the Grand Valley Cat Project.

Ear-tipping is a simple procedure to remove the tip of the cat’s left ear, performed under anesthesia during a spay or neuter surgery. This is how trappers identify whether or not a cat has already been through a TNR program.

“There is a huge need for this TNR program. Our kitten seasons are pretty brutal. The kittens take a lot of our foster home availability; they take a lot of our supplies, a lot of the shelter staff’s time. It’s a really draining time of the year,” Revelle says.

In its first five months of operations in 2019, the project was able to sterilize 373 cats. Revelle encourages anyone who is feeding outdoor cats to make sure the cats are spayed or neutered, and, if they aren’t able to do that, then ask for help from a local TNR organization like the Cat Project or Grand Valley Pets Alive.