More than 50 cats — mostly kittens — are looking for their forever homes at an adoption event held by the Georgina Feral Cat Committee next weekend.
On Saturday, Jan. 14, the organization will be at Two Feathers Yoga at 155 Riverglen Dr. in Keswick from noon to 3 p.m. All of their cats and kittens that are ready to find new homes will be there for the organization's largest adoption event ever.
Georgina Feral Cat Committee founder Eva McDowell said they're going to "bring as many of our kittens as we can."
She started the organization in 2015 to address the feral cat problem in Georgina. It operates under a trap, neuter and return model. Volunteers capture adult feral cats, get them spayed or neutered to prevent further reproduction and then return them to their colony.
"We're dealing with ferals. Some of them were either lost or abandoned and had reverted back to feral because they've had to live outdoors and fend for themselves but most of them are actually born outside, so they're really like wild animals," McDowell said.
When kittens are trapped, they are cared for and placed in volunteer foster homes until they can be adopted into a loving forever home.
Feral cats are unsocialized outdoor cats that do not have contact with humans. Because of this, volunteers at Georgina Feral Cat Committee have to work to prepare them to become indoor family cats.
"In the beginning, depending on age, they come in we can't even touch them at all. When they come in, they're wild. So those would typically go into a cage where we have access to them and over time, you start taming them up through food and play," she said.
This is harder for cats who are three months and older and especially difficult for cats five months and older. That's why majority of the cats in Georgina Feral Cat Committee's care are kittens. However, there are some older cats available that have been in foster homes for several months.
McDowell said they have an especially large number right now after a slow year for adoptions, plus an increase in cats being abandoned. She said this may be because the low cost spay and neuter clinics were closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. They have received more calls than normal about feral cats out in the community.
"Last year was just insane. We've never had that many never. And it was all rescues, not just us. All rescues were in the same boat," she said.
Now she is hoping to get those cats and kittens into new homes through this adoption event. Since they have fosters homes instead of a shelter, this is rare opportunity to see all the cats altogether. The team at the cat committee can also help play matchmaker with potential adopters.
"Because our kittens are all in foster homes, we know them. So some kittens are in homes with young children, with dogs, with other cats with all of the above. So we know the personalities of the kittens and who would fit in the home," McDowell said.
One thing she aims to do is adopt cats out in pairs. A number of the kittens already in the organization's care are in bonded pairs with siblings but even when they're not, McDowell said they usually insist they adopt them in pairs if there isn't already another cat in the home.
She said if people are out of the home working, it is not a good life for the kitten to be on their own for several hours. Having a sibling cat also gives them someone to roughhouse and play with, helping to avoid unwanted behaviours with humans.
Anyone who is interested in taking home a cat or two at the upcoming event should complete an adoption application on the Georgina Feral Cat Committee's website to be pre-approved. Then they can be vetted and have their references checked ahead of time, so once they find a cat, they are ready to go.
There will also be cat treats and toys for sale at the adoption event with the proceeds supporting the cat committee and the work it does.
