Those in the market for a new pet are sure to find one through rescue facilities like Next Chapter Animal Rescue or Klassic Kennels.
On July 8 alone eight kittens from Rimbey were brought in through their animal control officer, who works through Klassic Kennels. The officer goes to many areas including Rimbey, Bentley Blackfalds, Eckville, Delburne and more.
"Whenever he finds cats, dogs or anything like that, he posts them on the Klassic Kennels page, and if they're not claimed within a certain time period, they get transferred over to the rescue," said Crystal Thompson, a volunteer with Next Chapter Animal Rescue.
The Animal Control Officer is based out of Klassic Kennels, which shares a building with Next Chapter.
Thompson said the number of cats coming in depends on the week.
"Some weeks, we have good weeks where we might only get five cats come in. Other weeks we can get up to 20 or 30 cats in one single week that are found."
Some of those are actually claimed due to them getting out, but most of them in care have been brought in through animal control.
"We get quite a few adult cats come in. We tracked it for one month, and I think there was 40 requests for cats, 20 for dogs, and obviously we would love to help every animal that we can, but there is just no space," said Thompson.
They have had up to 75 or 100 cats living in the shelter, which she said is not ideal.
"We have one roam room, so once we know they're friendly and get along, they do get to live in there, but most of the cats when they come in, they live in cages because you don't know their history, you don't know if they're sick.
"Our cat manager is phenomenal and spends as much time as she can with them, but when you've got 50, 60, 80 cats in one building, one person can only do so much."
She added that the pet stores have also been great. Next Chapter has two pet stores they deal with, where they put their kittens in to be adopted out from.
Thompson said every animal that comes in is kept for a minimum of seven days before they are sent to the vet unless they have to go straight to emergency.
"In that seven day period, you're feeding them, providing litter, we vaccinate every animal that comes in, deworm them, microchip them, pay to get them fixed and then they get put up for adoption.
"People are trying their best for these animals, but they can't afford the vet care, and whether they purposely let a cat out or it accidentally gets out, and they figure it's somebody else's problem, we don't know, because obviously the people that don't come and claim them, we don't know their stories."
Many of these cats or kittens are found in different spots, like right at the door of the shelter, vet clinics, etc.
"I would never encourage dumping an animal anywhere, but if somebody felt the need that was their only way out, we would hope they would at least take that route, so at least they know the animals are safe."
Thompson encourages those looking for an animal to consider adopting, as they are getting the animal already fixed.
"It's the long-run expenses people don't think of. They see this cute little kitten, and a cat could have two to three litters a year," she said, adding that they had one cat through their rescue that had 11 kittens.
"It could be 20 to 30 kittens for every cat every year, and that's the biggest thing I advocate for is if you're going to get an animal, get it from a shelter. They're already fixed, you don't have that expense."
Next Chapter Animal Rescue currently has 17 cats in their roam room, 17 in the caged room and lots of senior cats that were recently surrendered, so they've had to make a separate room for those senior cats.
Thompson said in total they have around 100 cats and kittens sitting and waiting for homes.
"We also have a Barn Buddy Program. Some cats are just not friendly, because they've never been socialized, so our animal control guy picks them up, they come in, we still vaccinate them, deworm them, we get them fixed and then we adopt them out to barns."
Barn cats are available by a minimum $25 donation.
"It still saves their lives, they can't reproduce and they're doing what they love.They can spend their days mousing."
Thompson encourages those looking for a pet to follow Klassic Kennels on Facebook, as any animal that comes in through Rimbey is posted on that page.
Once the animal reaches Klassic Kennels, they hold them for a period of time before heading onto Next Chapter.
