SCRAPS sells kittens for half price during busy season
Rona Smith, 12, smiles as she holds a kitten that will be coming home with her from SCRAPS on Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2017. Adoption fees for cats are half-price until Aug. 13. (Kathy Plonka / The Spokesman-Review)Buy a print of this photo
The Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service has a cat problem. And they need your help.
From Aug. 9 to 13, the agency is cutting the normal adoption fee in half for felines under 6 months to $35, which includes spaying/neutering, licensing, microchip insertion and the first round of vaccinations. Janet Dixon, SCRAPS’ special programs manager, said they’re hoping 35 kittens will be adopted by Saturday.
“Kittens are huge during the summer,” she said. “This is when we have the most kittens by far.”
SCRAPS is well on its way to meeting its goal. Twenty-five cats were adopted on Tuesday, and several more found homes on Wednesday.
Potential adopters even got a little competitive on Wednesday, as there weren’t as many cats after Tuesday’s rush and everyone was racing to get the right one.
When Linda Hathaway heard about the sale, she knew it was time to get a cat. She came to SCRAPS with her daughter to find an older, adult cat, though she said she wasn’t as picky about the age or breed. It’s the personality that matters to her.
“If you find a cat and you don’t click, it doesn’t matter the color of their fur,” she said.
Another couple looking for a new furry family member had just lost their 17-year-old cat a few weeks ago. Cat lovers through and through, they even have a doormat that reads “It’s the cat’s house, we just pay the mortgage.”
Though they were still grieving, Jay Moynahan said they were excited to get a new cat. Moynahan’s wife, Cinde Johnson, has had tuxedo cats for 34 years and said she wasn’t sure if she could leave without one from that breed, as a tuxedo cat meowed at her and pawed her arm.
Dixon said 75 percent of the 6,000 cats SCRAPS receives throughout the year come in the summer months of June, July and August. The agency normally transfers cats to shelters throughout the state, but she said by this time each year, every shelter is at full capacity, so there’s nowhere else for these cats to go.
“In June, we were able to handle this, and July was getting worse,” she said. “Now the water is coming to the top of the bucket. We don’t have anywhere to send these.”
Those looking to adopt can head to the SCRAPS building at 6815 E. Trent Ave. in Spokane Valley.