1.5 million animals are put down every year in the United States; not to mention all the pets that get abandoned by their owners and forced to try and survive in the wild. It’s no-kill shelters and animal sanctuaries like Kitty Quarters All Cat Rescue and Adoption Center in Torrington that are working to lower these numbers.
The shelter has been pulling stray cats off the streets, treating and healing them, and getting them into loving homes since April of 2018. Roberta (Bobbie) Chamalian, the owner of the adoption center, is a recent recipient of a Lifetime Humanitarian Award from the Connecticut Secretary of the State for her rescue work.
“There’s a great need out there. There’s so many cats on the street and they shouldn’t be. They should be in loving homes where they can be protected and given love because once you discover love, there’s nothing like it.”
A big problem that most shelters face happens during the holiday season, when people are adopting pets as gifts, then realizing they can’t actually take care of them. They either relinquish their pets at this point, try to get them put down or abandon them.
“We ask everybody to give them 90 days to get used to their new surroundings. Its like you landed them on another planet and the natives don’t speak their language, and they’re trying to figure out how to get by in life; so it takes them a little while.”
However, the busiest time of year for animal shelters like Bobbie’s isn’t the holiday season, it is actually summertime. July 5th to be exact. At this point, adoptions decrease for a short period of time, plus shelters take in hundreds of run-away pets who got scared and ran off during 4th of July fireworks. This is the time when shelters actually need the most help. Oftentimes, shelters during this time are in need of food for the animals, pet beds and carriers, and financial donations so they can get all the animals vaccinated and medicated.
“Financial help is always the best. It costs close to $300 to get a cat ready to go home with someone. Reach out with whatever financial donation you can make. If you make it through someone’s website, it’s possible that a percentage of it will be given to the processing agent. While a check or cash would be the full amount of donation going to help the cats.”
If you’re looking to help cats this holiday season or throughout the year, you can visit the Kitty Quarters website at kittyquarters.org for more information.
