The kittens are coming! Are you ready? Depending on where you are, kitten season is here or fast-approaching. It’s a challenging time of the year for young cats and shelters, but the five-part kitten management webinar series from Million Cat Challenge and Royal Canin is here to help you—and the most vulnerable animals in your community—survive and thrive.
From rethinking kitten intake to recruiting foster volunteers and exploring innovative adoption technology, every webinar is packed with tips and tools from experts in animal sheltering and kitten rescue to guide you step-by-step through providing the best kitten care and maximizing your shelter’s resources. Don’t stress—follow these steps!
Step 1: Make a plan.
The best time to plan potential kitten pathways is before that litter of very cute kittens arrives at the shelter. In “Kitten Intake Decisions in Animal Shelters,” KSMP Director Dr. Kate Hurley lays out what kittens really do need from us and identifies the most successful kitten management strategies, and “Kitten Lady” Hannah Shaw explains her CASA method for deciding when to intervene. Reduce decision fatigue and set the stage for positive outcomes with an internal kitten flowchart, so that everyone in your organization is on the same page, and post a community-facing flowchart like Shaw’s on your website. Watch the webinar.
Step 2: Empower your community to support kittens where they are.
The best place for young kittens, unless they are sick or injured, is not the shelter: we know kittens have the best chance of survival with Mama Cat as their caretaker. “Support for Kittens in the Field” outlines innovative ways to convey this message to your community and engage well-meaning finders in caring for kittens outside the shelter. Million Cat Challenge Co-founder Dr. Julie Levy talks with Dr. Heather Kennedy (KC Pet Project), Kristen Hassen-Auerbach (Pima Animal Care Center), and Nick Lippincott (Orange County Animal Services) to find out what field officers, volunteers and fosters are doing to give kittens the best chance of survival. Orange County’s Wait ‘Til 8 Program is a great example of how to divert intake and recruit finders through your organization’s website. Watch the webinar.
Step 3: Build and nurture your foster network.
Kittens who are on a path to adoption are healthiest and happiest in foster homes. For “Foster Greatness” Team Shelter USA’s Dr. Sara Pizano joins Doobert founder Chris Roy, Foster Programs Manager Sarah Aguilar, Community Engagement Coordinator Sarah Cano and others for a rundown of how to recruit, train and onboard volunteers quicker, better and faster. Watch the webinar.
Step 4: Assess kitten care in your shelter.
What about when the right place for a kitten is the shelter—how can you provide the best care to the best outcome? In “Kitten Care in the Shelter,” former shelter and emergency veterinarian and KSMP Online Education Coordinator Dr. Cindi Delany delves into pathway planning, wellness, pediatric spay/neuter, and discusses which shelter protocols are impacting flow-through and length-of-stay, which kittens should stay in the shelter and for how long, what you should consider when modernizing your sterilization protocols, and how technology is advancing our shelters by maximizing our efficiency. Watch the webinar.
Step 5: Move kittens into their forever homes.
This is what makes kitten season sweet—matching kittens with adopters who can’t wait to take them home! “Going Home” is all about how to use technology to make adoptions faster and easier for shelters of all sizes, while making better matches between pets and adopters. Hear from innovators like AdoptaPet.com’s April Harris, Adoptimize creator Jessica Schleder, Adopets founder Artur Sousa, Pensacola Humane’s Darra Flanagan and Aly Martinez, and Oregon’s Cat Adoption Team Executive Director Karen Green. Watch the webinar.
Find the full webinar series and many other kitten resources at the Million Cat Challenge website.
