While this winter’s relatively mild temps allow folks to stow away the heavy coats earlier, they also result in a longer “kitten season.”
Lasting from spring to early winter, kitten season is the time of year when cats give birth to litters of kittens. When temps are above average, the season lengthens. The average unspayed female cat can give birth to three litters of kittens per year, resulting in an average of 12 kittens annually. While that may seem like a small number to some, one unspayed female cat and her offspring could produce 420,000 kittens in just seven years’ time.
During 2018, Gloucester-Mathews Humane Society provided shelter and care for 833 cats and kittens. Caring for so many homeless felines is no small task. Each kitten season, saving their lives requires nearly a ton of Purina Kitten Chow and thousands of hours of care provided by staff and volunteers, including bottle feeding the neonatal kittens.
While the total number of homeless kittens...