Let’s give some homeless / shelter cats some love today!

The point of National Cat Day is to draw attention to the hundreds of homeless and shelter kitties (including ferals) all over the country – it’s a great time to consider adopting a shelter cat from your local shelter, or do something to help the feral cats that roam in your area.

I was a feral cat – and so was Sushi in the beginning. Both of us had been born to a feral mom in someone’s back yard. But I was lucky- because the humans that lived at the yard I was born in, just happened to love cats, and she felt sorry for my pregnant mama who was suffering through the cold, wet, Oregon winters and she did everything she could to give my mama some relief. My mama wouldn’t let the human get close to her, but she knew she would be provided food and fresh water, and a box with a blanket to try and help her stay warm.

When we kittens were born, Mama hid us (from the other neighbors) under the big bush at my human’s back yard, making sure the other neighbors wouldn’t see us, but she let my human know where we were – and would allow her to come relatively close so she could see us nursing under the bush. She instinctively knew that human would watch after us and keep us safe when she wasn’t there.

Now, there are even more homeless cats because of wildfires, hurricanes, other natural disasters, and people who find themselves and their pets homeless because of evictions or foreclosures due to the pandemic.

National Cat Day is a wonderful time to adopt a shelter or homeless cat. Especially with the wet, cold winters being just around the corner now.

If you can’t adopt a homeless or shelter cat, there are still lots of ways you can help them! Here are a few:

• donate blankets, food, or toys to animal shelters or volunteer to spend some cuddle time with cats at your local animal shelter
• keep a can or two of cat food or a blanket, toy, or bag of treats, or flea treatment in your car to donate to a homeless person you may come across with a cat so you will be ready to help- and please don’t judge them. So many are homeless now because of things out of their control.
• Donate cat food / treats / toys and flea treatments to food pantries – Or, to neighbors you know of who have cats and are struggling.
• Don’t forget you can also donate these things to church food pantries that are established to help their congregants.

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Meanwhile, Check out these beautiful formerly feral kitties that were adopted!

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People celebrate National Cat day in a variety of ways:

1.) Spend some time playing with your cat- or, provide him or her some exciting new toys, a new cat tree, or some wall shelves for climbing.

2.) Leave a treat trail around your house to provide an unexpected “hunting” experience (and exercise) for your indoor only cat.

3.) Surprise your cat with some home-made tasty cat treats.

There are many recipes like This one on Pinterest:

Have a pawsome National Cat Day- but more importantly, please do what you can to make sure any feral or abandoned cats around you do.

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