New Fairfield shelter seeks kitten foster homes
NEW FAIRFIELD — With a higher than normal number of kittens in need of fostering, the New Fairfield/Sherman Animal Welfare Society is seeking people willing and able to open their hearts and homes.
The organization’s president and director, Agi Pace, said the COVID-19 pandemic indirectly put a hold on trap-and-return programs through which feral cats are spayed and neutered — resulting in more kittens in need of foster homes.
“We usually do a lot of T&R in the fall so they don’t have the kittens in the spring, but the program was put on hold because a lot of veterinarians couldn’t do it,” Pace said. “The cats then, of course, had kittens and now the kittens are coming in.”
Pace said the increase in pet adoptions during the pandemic is one reason why veterinarians have been too busy to help with trap-and-return.
Due to the program’s hold, Pace said cats have been giving birth “a lot more than usual,” and it’s created a problem for the NFSAW.
“We ran out of fosters,” she said. “They’re pretty much booked, and some only take adult cats — not kittens.”
Pace said a NFSAW staff member recently had to take in seven kittens due to the lack of available fosters, and after that is when the “plea” for kitten foster families was posted on social media.
“At this point we have 22 in foster, and we’ll probably have another 30 coming in soon,” Pace said Monday, noting that the NFSAW does not house kittens at the Route 37 shelter building.
“We don’t keep kittens in the shelter at all — mainly because we don’t want them to get sick,” she said. “They’ll be exposed to other animals, and the shelter environment can also cause them stress.”
Through a home-tohome approach, the shelter’s kittens are placed directly into foster homes.
“The best place is to put them in a home until they’re about 12 weeks, and then we adopt them out right from the homes,” Pace said.
Anyone interested in fostering kittens through the New Fairfield/Sherman Animal Welfare Society should call 203-746-2925.
To learn more about the shelter, visit nfsaw.org.