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Speaker 1: Live.

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Speaker 2: This is Pet Life Radio. Let's Talk pets.

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Speaker 3: Hello, fee line lovers, Welcome to catatud I'm your show host,

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Michelle Byrne.

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Speaker 2: So guess what.

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Speaker 3: It's kitten season. Actually we're kind of in the middle

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of kitten season, so I'm a little late, but I

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have a guest with me today that's going to tell

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us all about kitten season and more. So stay tuned.

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We'll be right back.

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Speaker 4: You know the expression cats have nine lives? Well, what

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if you can give them one more? But give them ten?

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extra life. How with Spae and neoter, Nootering your cat

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helps them live a longer, healthier life and it helps

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control free rolling cat populations too. Learn more about the

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benefits of Spae and Neoter and meet Scooter, the neutered

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cat at Give them ten dot Org. That's give them

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ten dot Org.

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Speaker 1: Let's talk pets on Petlife Radio dot com.

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Speaker 3: Welcome back everyone. I'd like to welcome Torrifugate. She is

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the director of communications at Shelter Animals count. Welcome Toy.

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Speaker 5: Thank you so much for having me today. I'm excited

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to be here.

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Speaker 3: I'm very excited to have you. You know, kitten season

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is near and dear to my heart, two of my

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fur babes, my cats, are from kitten season, and just

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in that little rescue I learned so much. But before

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we get into kitten season, can you tell us your

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background and tell us also what Shelter Animals Count is

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all about.

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Speaker 5: Absolutely. So, I am relatively new to the Shelter Animals

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Count team, and by relatively new, I've been here a

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little bit over nine months, But I am not new

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to sheltering. So I worked for almost thirteen years for

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the Kansas City, Missouri Animal Shelter. It's called Casey Pet Project.

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We are a nonprofit that runs the municipal shelter for

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the city of Kansas City, Missouri, and started back in

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twenty twelve whenever the city put out a bid for

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somebody to run the shelter, and it was a really,

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really old place, and you know, nobody really wanted to

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run it, and this organization stepped up and said, you know,

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we can really do this and do this well for

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the city of Kansas City, Missouri. So I started really

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in its infancy as an organization and saw it grow

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from taking in about six thousand animals year in twenty

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twenty four, there were about sixteen thousand animals that came

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into the shelter, so grown rapidly over the course of

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the last twelve thirteen years. Got to be a part

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of a brand new shelter that was built in Kansas City,

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and got to be part of just this very progressive

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organization that did a lot for kittens in our community.

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You know, we were averaging about twenty five hundred kittens

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in foster every year. It was a hugely robust foster program.

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And so I left there at the end of last

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year and joined the Shelter Animals Count Team, where I

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handle all of the communications, all the marketing for our

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very small and mighty team. But we are an organization,

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national organization that collects data and analyzes it for shelters

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and rescues across the country. We have thousands of animal

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shelters that submit data to us, and we are able

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to then take that data and analyze it and tell

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you what's happening, what are the trends in animal sheltering

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that is impact acting our industry today. So we look

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at we have two reports that we do each year.

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We have our annual report that comes out at the

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beginning of every year, and then we are gearing up

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for our mid year analysis, so that mid year analysis

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does come out after the first six months of the year,

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and we're kind of able to tell you, you know, we're

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really able to tell you what's happening in animal sheltering

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for the first half of the year, kind of what's

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to be expected. And you know, another thing that we

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offer all of our organizations that submit data to us,

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We have these incredible dashboards and portals that organizations can

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get into that look at they can look at a

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data outlook of like what their data is looking like

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for the year, what forecasting is looking like. We're working

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on other dashboards as well for our organizations. There's grant

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opportunities for those who submit data to us, and really

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like we just can't do the work without the organizations

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that submit data to us, and we're able to put

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this data out there for everybody to look at for

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the year.

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Speaker 3: Now, that's great, especially the fact that the shelters have

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access to a portal and that there's grants that are

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available as well.

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Speaker 5: Absolutely, yep, we offer we do data drives and stuff

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throughout the year, so if you submit data to US,

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then you automatically qualify for grants, So it's a it's

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a huge win win to sign up to submit data

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to US, and it's free to submit data as well.

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Speaker 3: That makes it even better because there's so many rescues

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out there. I'm just curious about this. How many rescues

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and shelters would you say there are in the US.

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Speaker 5: So we analyze that there were thirteen five hundred and

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twenty seven animal sheltering organizations that operated in twenty twenty

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four in the United States, so that breaks down to

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a little over forty one hundred shelters and about ninety

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four hundred rescues. And we collect and analyze data for

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both shelters and rescues because it's very important to tell

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both both of the stories of what's happening in the

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shelters and what's happening in foster based rescues as well.

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Speaker 3: Right, and these are only now. There are are other

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possible rescues and shelters that are not incorporated.

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Speaker 5: So the data that we do collect, we have over

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seven thousand organizations that submit data to US, and then

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our data team actually built in this scientific estimation model,

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so we're able to, with the help of this model,

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you know, put together like fill in the gaps of

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those organizations that maybe we don't have data from. And

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there's a lot of information on our website about what

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goes into this model that we do have, but it

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really does help us, you know, fill in the gaps.

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And our goal, of course is one hundred percent participation

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because without the data, we can't tell the story. And

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it's so important that every animal is counted and that

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every organization's efforts are amplified.

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Speaker 3: Yes it is. Now we're talking about kittencies and we're

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going to get into that in a second, but to

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also do dogs as well.

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Speaker 5: We collect analyzed data for both dogs and cats, but

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you can also submit data for really any species that

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you're caring for, so horses, we analyze equine data, small animals, livestock,

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you know, whatever it is that your organization cares for,

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you can submit that data. We also have our community

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Services dashboard, so if you are an organization that provides

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services to the community, such as giving out pet food supplies,

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maybe you're a low cost veterinary clinic, or you're offering

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medical services to the community, you can also submit that

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data through our Community Services dashboard, So that is another

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way that you can submit data to us. And it's

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really important to note that data as well, because we

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none understand that shelters are really having to provide a

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lot more community services such as giving out pet food

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and offering those low cost services to the community or

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free services. So if you're an organization that provides any

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sort of support to your community, you can submit data

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through there as well.

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Speaker 3: Okay, good to know. Let's talk about kitten season. So

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we're recording in July, so kitten season is really April

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through October.

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Speaker 5: It is. Yeah, we really see. It's really interesting. So

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we have these automatic data transfers that we get from

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from our shelters that submit data to us. So if

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you're an organization that is submitting data to us and

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you don't like manual data entry, if you use certain

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softwares animal management softwares, you can sign up for what

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we call APIs for those automatic data transfers, so that

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you don't have to submit that data manually anymore. It

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just comes to us automatically. And with that data, we've

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been able to really dive into what we call animal

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level data. So this is getting down into the nitty

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gritty with our data and looking at an animal's journey

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from intake through their outcome.

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Speaker 3: Just in the information that you sent me and I

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just read the basic report, it gets very detailed. Let's

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talk about kitten season. What is kitten season because some

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of the cat levers listening now and some are like,

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I'd never heard of that before.

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Speaker 5: Yes, kitten season is the time of year where we

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do start to see those underage kittens typically under eight

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weeks old, that are coming into the shelters to be

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careful coming into rescue groups, and that really rants up.

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We see a huge spike in May. So when we

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look at it breaking down by region, we can see

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it's a little bit varied by region, but my goodness,

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when May hits, you just see this massive intake increase.

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And really that peaks around Memorial Day holiday is when

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we see the most cats coming in to shelters as

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around Memorial Day.

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Speaker 3: A female cat, they can have kittens all year long,

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though correct, yes.

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Speaker 5: They can definitely shelters that if you are in a

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shelter that experiences four seasons, if you're in a community

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that does have four seasons, you may not see as

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many kittens coming in. But I live in an area

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in Kansas City where we have very very mild winters,

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and we would see kittens coming in all year round,

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but majority of them were coming in during those spring

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and summer months.

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Speaker 3: Right, And I live in South Florida, Fort Lauderdale, so

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we have no sea. Yeah, so all year long, you.

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Speaker 5: Were going to see them the most. And in fact,

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when we look at the South Atlantic, that is the

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highest region that sees the most kittens coming in.

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Speaker 3: Yes, but I was gonna asked this question a little

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bit later, but I was surprised to see that the

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Pacific Northwest actually had the most kittens.

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Speaker 5: Correct, It looks like the majority of the South Atlantic

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had the most by regions, so and then the Pacific

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was very much up there. So the Pacific region, the

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South Atlantic region, and what's South Central also, So any

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of those lower lower states in the United States were

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seeing majority of the kittens coming in.

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Speaker 3: Okay, And why is it that you know, everybody is

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just aware of kitten season. Why they don't say, you know,

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my regular listeners cat lovers, they love cats. They don't

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necessarily work in shelters some do you know or rescues.

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But what's so important for people to know about kitten season?

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Speaker 5: Oh, there's so many things really to know about kitten season. One,

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I think the shelters and rescues have done a really

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good job over the last many, you know, ten years

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or so of just informing the community how they can

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help kittens. And we can always strive to get the

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word out even even more so when kitten season is

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ramping up, people can use data like what we provide

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at shelter Animals Count to really look at Okay, so

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this is the time of year that I can expect

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to see the most kittens coming in. So how can

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I get my community rallied around helping with getting all

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these kittens out of the shelter and eventually into new homes.

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So it's through fostering, asking for support, Through fostering, asking

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for donations. Kittens require a lot of very specific types

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of donations like warming blankets and disks and kitchen scales.

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I mean, there's so many interesting things that the community

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can help with and provide support for. Just volunteering maybe

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the kittens are coming in volunteering to help clean kennels,

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you know, just there's so so many ways that you

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can help, And so shelters and rescues always can really

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inform their community about how they can help move these

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kittens into new homes.

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Speaker 3: What about the age of adoption. So the people that

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work at the shelters and rescue are pros. They can

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pretty much gauge the age of the kitten.

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Speaker 5: Yes, the kittens that come in. There's so many great

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resources out there for aging kittens and how to wean

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them if they come in without a mom, how to

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wean them into solid food. There's so many great resources

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out there for shelters and rescues to follow in. Around

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eight weeks is typically the time where we see kittens

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that are going into homes. They're at least eight weeks old.

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Speaker 3: My next question about how old? I know what you mean?

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Why am I cats?

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Speaker 5: Molly?

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Speaker 3: Her mom gave birth to her and my doorstep along

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with two others and kittens. They take a lot of

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work and they were all healthy and fine. But then

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when they start moving around, that's a challenge.

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Speaker 5: Yes, they become very active. Let's say, what can we do.

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Speaker 3: I had neighbors calling because where I lived there's raccoons

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in the back. So neighbors calling I had. I had

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to figure out a way to keep the raccoons and

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put non toxic of course, And I had a neighbor

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write me a letter saying, somebody put something very smelly.

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There was something you could do with hot pepper and

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something else. It wasn't toxic to any animal, but it

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would keep the raccoons away. I had to put this

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smelly rag all over my property and a neighbor called

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and said, who did that? This was like, sorry, hello

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is me. I didn't want the raccoons to get the kittens.

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You know.

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Speaker 5: I always loved like whenever we had kittens coming in

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in the shelter, like every day, multiple litters of kittens.

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We had so many families that fostered together, like if

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it was really fun that we would see like kids

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that were naming all of the kittens. They would have

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just the most ridiculous set of names. But they were

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always so so cute, And I think really another good

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thing for people to understand is what kittens need to

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come into the shelters and what kittens perhaps are being

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cared for by a mom. And again there's great resources

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out there if kittens are you know, being taken care

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of by a mom. Then there's an alternate path that

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you can take to potentially not have those kittens come

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into the shelters. But for those of them that do

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need to come in and get that medical support and

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everything that they need, the shelters are great resources for that.

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Speaker 3: Okay, we're going to talk more about that as soon

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as we come back. We'll be right back.

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Speaker 6: Begging to hear more of your favorite show, Colful. Episodes

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of all our shows are available on demand. Go to

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pedlife radio dot com to fed show our retire lineup

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of possum ped podcasts. Also dig us up in iHeartRadio

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and iTunes. Let's Talk Pats live and on demand only

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from pet Life Radio.

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Speaker 1: Let's Talk Past, Let's Done Past on pat Life.

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Speaker 7: Radio, Headline Radio, petlive radio dot com.

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Speaker 3: Welcome back everyone. We're talking to Toy Pugay. She is

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the director of communications at Shelter Animals Count and we're

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talking about kitten season. We're talking right before the break

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about the age of kittens, because not everybody knows this.

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What is the highest population of kittens at risk?

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Speaker 5: Well, definitely the highest. The most vulnerable population of kittens

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that are at risk are those under four week old.

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Kittens and the four to eight week old kittens. So

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when we look at we break down our non live

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outcomes by age group and we look at it. In

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twenty twenty four, thirty five percent of non live outcomes,

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which means they had to be euthanized or dieting care,

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we're under four weeks old, so those kittens are incredibly

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vulnerable when come in. And then again those four to

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eight weeks old was about thirty eight percent of all

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the non live outcomes. And kittens and fostering kittens can

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sometimes be a heartbreaking situation. Like you can you can

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have kittens that maybe die and care or have to

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be euthanized, and they're very very they're very vulnerable population,

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and I think that it's so important, you know, for

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shelters and rescues to be very transparent about you know,

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what could happen when people are fostering kittens. It can

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be one of the most rewarding experiences that you'll ever

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have in your life of taking care of kittens. But

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this is a very tiny and vulnerable population, and sometimes

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there is heartbreak associated with this, and I think it's

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just important to look at the data and understand that

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these are vulnerable populations and then work towards how do

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we continue to strive to towards those live outcomes.

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Speaker 3: So we talked a little bit again before the break

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about the data and how it helps shelters. How can

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the data and helping shelters to help the people that

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are just cat levers that are listening. Does it help

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the cat lever to just know when to adopt kittens

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or what they can how they can support the shelters

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or yeah, I.

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Speaker 5: Think you really hit the nail on the head. It's

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how you can lean in and support shelters. Chances are

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there is a shelter or rescue near you that would

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love to have your help, whether it's through fostering, whether

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it's through donations of time or monetary gifts, supplies, whatever is.

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There are a lot of kittens out there still that

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do need support and help, and there are a lot

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of groups out there that would love to have that support.

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And when we look at this data, we can really

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look at you by region, by age, group, whatever it is.

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We can look at it and say, okay, so in

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may I know that the kittens are going to come

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in big time, and so I can really ramp up

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my efforts and help them by signing up to be

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a foster advanced of that, or you know, maybe it's

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doing a supply drive like a kitten shower. I love

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kitten showers. I think they're the cutest thing ever, like

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having a baby shower, but for kittens. Wow, We're where

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you just get with your group of friends and say,

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here's the wish list for this organization, bring supplies. We

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used to host them in breweries. I always thought that

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was so fun, Like we had a brewery that would

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host a kitten shower and people would come and drink

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beer and bring supplies for the shelter. It was always

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a good time.

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Speaker 3: Hey, that is a great idea, you know, having or

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if someone's even having a party, don't bring anything, bring

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something for kittens.

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Speaker 5: Absolutely. Oh. We always had like the cutest kids that

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did birthday parties for the kittens. Instead of asking for

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birthday gifts, they asked for items from the wish list.

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Like just the cutest thing ever and the best kids ever.

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It was just adorable. So there's so many ways to help,

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and really just looking at the data, you can really

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see that timeline of when most help is needed.

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Speaker 3: So the most help is needed May through.

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Speaker 5: So underage kittens that are under eight weeks old peak

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in May, but they come in pretty much all summer.

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Then we start to see the eight week old to

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five month olds. They come in June, and July is

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when they peek coming in. So the kittens that are

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born in the spring that end up coming in just

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a little bit older. So it really just goes on.

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I mean the whole year you do see kittens coming in,

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but May through you know, July August is when we

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see the peak times of kittens coming in.

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Speaker 3: Okay, And then one of my peeves is people from

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times forget that kittens become cats, so you know, when

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you're making the commitment. They're cute little fluffballs when they're little,

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but they become cats and they're part of your family

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while they're a kitten, wather juvenile kitten while they're a cat.

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So I think too many people forget about that. And

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they're cute kittens, Let me have them around and when

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they become cats and more mischievous. Okay, let me get

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rid of the cat. Dennis. My first cat was rescue.

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He was just in the streets dumped. So what do

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you have to say about people that are thinking about

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and I know you work for a research place, but

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you have enough experience with shelters. But think of people

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that are like, it's kitten season, I want to go

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get a kitten, but am I ready or not? What

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would you tell them?

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Speaker 5: Yeah, I think really just look at your lifestyle, like,

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you know, do you have kids, how often are you home.

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The good news about just cat adoptions overall is that

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cats are still having are definitely having a moment in

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animal sheltering. Cat adoptions have just increased and the time

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that they're spending in shelters, the amount of days has

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decreased over the past five years. So cats are getting

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adopted at a pretty significantly fast rate versus their counterpart

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with dogs. So we are seeing cats that are getting

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adopted faster than dogs, and I think a lot of

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that does have to do with lifestyle changes. You know,

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the cost of care is going up for pets. People

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maybe think that cats are, you know, more affordable to adopt.

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So cats are definitely continuing to have a really really

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good moment. We still see, of course, a lot of

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senior pets coming into the shelter that need homes. And

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there are some amazing people out there that just love

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to adopt senior or special needs cats. So no matter

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you know what type of animal you're looking for, what

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type of cat you're looking for, just kind of look

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at your lifestyle of coft and your home thinking about,

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you know, what would fit best with your family if

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you have other pets, all of that factors need to

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go into when you make a decision to adopt.

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Speaker 3: Those your good point. I also want to add, if

402
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you have super super fancy furniture, probably cats not for you.

403
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Speaker 5: Well, they make all sorts of fun things like cat tees.

404
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Speaker 3: Yeah, they do. I was actually I had Jennifer Conrad

405
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from American Cats The Good Bad Cudley about did you

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see that movie?

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Speaker 1: No?

408
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Speaker 5: I didn't, really good check it out.

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Speaker 3: Pagonist is a British woman who's pregnant, and she was funny,

410
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it's not the typical kind of like a documentary that

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you'd see, it's wonderful. And so I mentioned that and

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she said, you're you're wrong, because she has a lot

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of clients, you know, fancy Beverly Hills and fancy areas

414
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of California that have gorgeous sofas, And I said, you're right,

415
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you know, there are deterrens. There are plenty of deterrence.

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And if you get a good scratcher.

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Speaker 5: Yep, a good scratcher or the little kitten claw covers,

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you know, the cat claw covers.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, for myself, I get the furniture that's universal because

420
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it never fails. There's going to be one of them,

421
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you know that's gonna claw. The part of my couch

422
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that has a few claw marks, there's two scratchers right

423
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in front of it. So wow. You know, kittens are

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smart and they're cunning and if they want to, you know,

425
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get into some mischiff, they will. And to me, I think,

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just be prepared, you know.

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Speaker 5: Yes. And here's another tip too, that we always acourage

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people if they were interested in adopting a kitten to

429
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consider two, adopting two at once and getting a buddy

430
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from the same litter potentially, or that way that they

431
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have each other to play with and cause mischief with

432
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that they're playing with each other. And so we had

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great success of finding homes that were people wanted to

434
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adopt two kittens and then they grew up together.

435
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Speaker 3: Yes, that is a great idea. Actually, my mother in law.

436
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When her two cats passed, she adopted two together, and

437
00:23:29,480 --> 00:23:31,799
they just they're the best of friends. They keep each

438
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other busy and they're all good. I think it's better

439
00:23:35,200 --> 00:23:38,519
to have two together at once rather than have one

440
00:23:38,759 --> 00:23:42,400
because their cats are territorial, then add another one. So

441
00:23:42,640 --> 00:23:45,200
that's what happened to me, and that was a challenge.

442
00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:48,680
We worked through it, but that was definitely a challenge.

443
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Speaker 5: Yeah, good for you. Yeah, it's uh, you know. We

444
00:23:52,839 --> 00:23:55,839
would do even buy one, get one discounts and things

445
00:23:55,880 --> 00:23:58,880
like that. So it was always always very successful and

446
00:23:58,880 --> 00:24:01,279
it was really just so keeps see two kittens going

447
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home with a family.

448
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Speaker 3: I heard it from Venarians and so so much that

449
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if you're going to adopt, adopt to it doesn't cost

450
00:24:08,839 --> 00:24:11,559
that much more. They don't eat a lot, and this way,

451
00:24:11,559 --> 00:24:14,319
don't keep each other company, and you don't don't have

452
00:24:14,359 --> 00:24:16,680
to worry as much when you're at work or out

453
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of the house.

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Speaker 5: One hundred percent. You're absolutely right.

455
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Speaker 3: We'll see as trends in the near future for shelters.

456
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Speaker 5: That is a great question. It's really interesting when we

457
00:24:28,319 --> 00:24:31,480
look at your overyear data because we're kind of seeing

458
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we've been comparing to pre pandemic levels of like what

459
00:24:36,480 --> 00:24:39,559
the animal welfare landscape and shelters and rescues look like

460
00:24:39,680 --> 00:24:43,960
before the pandemic, and we've kind of established this new norm.

461
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We continue to hear about shelters that are in crisis,

462
00:24:46,839 --> 00:24:50,359
that shelters that are full, dogs are staying in shelters longer,

463
00:24:50,799 --> 00:24:54,279
causing capacity capacity strains, and we're continuing to see this

464
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sort of new normal with the data, and we're going

465
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to continue in like analyzing it that's year over year analysis,

466
00:25:00,240 --> 00:25:04,200
so that we can look for any sort of varying trends,

467
00:25:04,599 --> 00:25:07,240
especially with our mid year analysis coming up. Compare it

468
00:25:07,240 --> 00:25:10,240
to last year, see how things are looking. But it's

469
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really exciting with this data that we've been releasing, like

470
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our kitten level analysis animal level analysis, because this has

471
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never been done before, so we're looking at brand new

472
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data for our industry. And because of this, we're able

473
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to look at what potential trends we can, you know,

474
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have for next year. We can say, Okay, this is

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what the datas looked like for the last two years

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for kittens coming into the shelters. We can expect this

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same you know, data for or at least very very

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close to it. For the following years, and so it's

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really being able to provide this level of analysis to

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our industry that's never been done before and just informing

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trends for the future.

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Speaker 3: Right, it's like forecasting for the forecast.

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Speaker 5: Yes, and we do have forecasting dashboards for shelters too,

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so they can look and see, Okay, this is what

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my year has looked like so far, So this is

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what can I can expect for the rest of the year.

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Speaker 3: Oh, that's wonderful. Where can our listeners find out more

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about Shelter Animals Count and about kitten season.

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Speaker 5: You can go to shelteranimalscount dot org. We are on there.

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We have publicly available dashboards, so you can see national

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trends as well as state level data. So if you're

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curious of what your data is looking like in the

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state where you live and comparing it to those around you,

494
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you can see that. We also offer a lot of

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webinars and blog content that do feature information about data standardization.

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A lot of these deep dives into the analysis, such

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as the kitten data, and that's all on our blog.

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And so there's a lot of really exciting things that

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we have coming up for the rest of the year

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as well as looking towards next year and just offering

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more and more resources for our shelters or rescues and

502
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the animal welfare industry as a whole.

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Speaker 3: Well, that's wonderful, Toy. Thank you so much for all

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you do for the kitten and the cat.

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Speaker 5: Yes, of course, thank you so much. You can follow

506
00:27:03,640 --> 00:27:07,559
us on social media as well, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and substuck.

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Speaker 3: Okay, thanks so much. I hope all of you enjoyed

508
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the show. I want to thank Torri Fugate, the director

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00:27:13,240 --> 00:27:16,880
of communications for Shelter Animals COUNT, for coming on Catitude.

510
00:27:17,079 --> 00:27:20,319
Thanks so much to my loyal listeners of Catitude, I

511
00:27:20,359 --> 00:27:24,160
appreciate you so much. Thanks to my rescue cats Dennis,

512
00:27:24,240 --> 00:27:28,279
Charlotte and Molly, my wonderful cat crew, and of course,

513
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this show would not be the same without the magic

514
00:27:30,720 --> 00:27:33,319
of my producer, Mark Winter. Thank you so much, Mark

515
00:27:33,400 --> 00:27:37,640
for all you do and remember, lose to Attitude, Have Catitude.

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Speaker 1: Let's Talk pets every week on demand only on Petlifradio

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00:27:43,920 --> 00:27:58,480
dot com.