Cats in the cradle: Hot summer leaves glut of kittens
IT WAS a long, hot summer – and it left Irish cats feline just fine.
The Dublin Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (DSPCA) said it has an unprecedented number of cats and kittens thanks to our long summer and the mild weather since then.
More than 100 kittens and cats are in the DSPCA shelter in Rathfarnham today – twice the number it’d normally have at this time – and the charity is appealing for people to foster them over Christmas.
“We would normally see our last batch of kittens in August and September, but we’re getting them right up to December this year,” spokeswoman Gillian Bird said. “Apart from the snow, we had a mild spring, a very warm summer and a long stretch of mild weather which is stretching into Christmas.
“This unusual weather has confused Irish cats. They normally mate in the spring time, when other animals are mating and giving birth.
“We would often laugh at people coming up to us in December saying they wanted a white kitten. Now we have lots of white kittens.”
For anybody interested in fostering or adopting a cat, please contact foster@dspca. ie on email.