We had a cry for help in the Cat Blogosphere this week that only underscores how important Adopt A Shelter Cat Month is. A couple had six beautiful, indoor-only Siamese cats. But then the husband died and the wife was unable to live alone. Her son and daughter-in-law moved in, but the daughter-in-law was allergic so all the cats were unceremoniously dumped at a high-kill shelter. Things were not looking good for them — Siamese Rescue was called, but they didn’t have a foster available in Kentucky, where the cats were located. Fortunately, the Black and Orange Cat Foundation posted about them in their blog, and once the Cat Blogosphere found out, many of us sounded the alarm. While word was getting out, the two girl kitties were adopted, leaving four males with just days to live. Fortunately, help was found and arrangements were made to pull the four remaining kitties early this week and place three of them in a foster. The fourth cat, Bubba, shown below? He’s already found a home in Illinois with Nico and JayJay.

Unfortunately, the only exceptional part of this story is that these cats were rescued. Everything else — the fact that these were breed cats, that they were adults who were living a comfortable life one moment and on death row the next, that nobody tried very hard to find them homes before dumping them at the shelter — are all too horribly common. And if word does not get out about them or an adopter does not step up, cats die. This is why Adopt A Shelter Cat Month is so important — we need to raise awareness so that more lives can be saved.

For Adopt A Shelter Cat Month, many shelters are offering discounts for adoptions, or two-cats-for-one-fee deals. Anything to encourage humans to adopt a kitty. Many of you say you would like to help. You can, even if you are maxed out and can’t adopt another cat — you can spread the word about shelter cats needing homes. You can help promote shelter cat adoption in your community. If you’ve got a blog, write a post. I really do believe that there is a human for every kitty in a shelter, which means there are humans out there needlessly going catless! Help them out, and save a cat’s life.

Don’t forget — my June Shelter Cat Contest is still running! If you are an adopted shelter cat, tell your story and you might win a PAWtographed copy of my first book! Click here to find out all the details, and enter!

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