One of the pitfalls of being in animal rescue is that people tend to think they can just drop off cats and kittens on your doorstep at any time. Suddenly their inconvenience becomes your problem.

I’m not speaking of those who find a single lost or hurt animal, a true rescue, but the ones who just don’t want their animals any more. Afraid to take them to the shelter for fear they will be put down, they bring them to our volunteers instead or just dump them at the local park. This is not cool.

Once a person is known to be involved with animal rescue, those who are too lazy to handle their own problems impact the volunteer’s life. If you don’t want kittens, get your cat fixed but don’t bring those unwanted kittens to us to assuage your conscience.

If you can’t afford to fix your pets, then you can’t afford to feed and vaccinate them. This is not fair to the animals and is not fair to the public and rescue groups. Letting cats free roam in order to feed themselves is not the answer.

This is breeding season. As much as we love the kittens we rescue, we would rather that they not be born at all. The ones we save are but a drop in the bucket of those born on the streets. There will always be kittens, because that is how nature works. Where there’s a will, there’s a way, and cats in heat will stop at nothing to get at each other. This is really were Catalyst comes in.

Our motto is “Make every cat a wanted cat” and this means we take spay/neuter very seriously.

CatNips is once again sponsoring $20 spay/neuter appointments during the month of February! This is a countywide event open to all Santa Barbara County residents. Each participating facility has a limited number of openings so don’t delay; call today to schedule your pet for surgery.

North County: SM Animal Center 805-934-6968 and SMVHS 805-349-3435
Santa Ynez Valley: C.A.R.E.4Paws 805-968-2273
Lompoc: V.I.V.A. 805-735-6741
South County: SBHS 805-964-4777 and C.A.R.E.4Paws 805-968-2273