HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FL. – Hillsborough County’s Pet Resource Center is expecting a lot of babies soon and is planning a party to prepare.
Kitten season is just beginning, a months-long time of the year when the Pet Resource Center takes in hundreds of kittens.
To help with the seasonal influx – and to introduce residents to the possibilities of fostering kittens, cats, or dogs – the shelter will host a kitten baby shower from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, April 30. The kitten shower will be at the Pet Resource Center, 440 N. Falkenburg Rd., Tampa, FL 33619.
The event will feature giveaway baskets, enrichment activities like making cat toys, the chance to name kittens at the shelter, and a Hillsborough County Fire Rescue fire truck from 11 a.m. to noon. Residents can tour the shelter, and the Pet Resource Center will be accepting kitten-related items as donations.
The kitten wish list includes:
- Kitten food, wet or dry
- Kitten toys
- Soft blankets
- Unscented wet wipes
- Kitchen scales for weighing kittens
- SnuggleSafe heating pads
- PetAg nursing kits
- Miracle Nipples for kittens
- KOUSI small-animal pens
Kittens present a special set of challenges for shelter staff, especially very young kittens that require hand feeding if their mother is not present.
The kitten shower will include information and resources on how residents can become a foster parent to kittens, cats, or dogs that just need a little love and help to find a new home. Foster parents will receive training and can take care of pets for as little as two weeks.
The foster program provides a temporary, safe place for pets to live, and behavioral or other information foster parents provide significantly increases the chance of a successful adoption when the pet is returned to the shelter.
Residents are also encouraged to not assume that very young kittens found alone have been abandoned by their mother. Most often, the mother is nearby, either looking for food or scared off by the person’s presence. In most cases, the mother will return shortly.
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