The Red, White, and Green

"Dodo," the stray kitten we found hiding on the tire of a car

I’m sorry to admit that I’m not really a cat person (probably because I’m violently allergic), but when my husband found a tiny stray kitten hiding on the tire of a car parked on our street yesterday, my heart just melted. Of course, we couldn’t leave him there to be crushed once the owner of the car came back and drove away, but it was quite an ordeal trying to maneuver the kitten out of there. He seemed terrified, and hissed and scratched as we pulled him out. 

Thankfully, there’s a cat boarding house on our block, so we took him over there to ask for advice on what to do, since we’ve never really even been around cats before, let alone a possibly feral kitten. I just assumed that it would be easy to find him a home. Who wouldn’t want an adorable baby kitten, right? 

What the woman working at the boarding house told us was grim: The kitten, which she estimated to be only 3-4 weeks old, was most likely born on the streets to another stray. We could try to find a place for him at a no-kill shelter, but most of those would probably be filled up. She urged us to try to foster him until we could find him a good home, since taking him to a regular Los Angeles shelter meant almost certain death. This was confirmed later when, after trying to find a no-kill shelter to no avail (every last one of them was filled beyond capacity), my husband called a regular shelter. “Don’t worry, we don’t kill them for 10 days,” the worker there said. Gulp.

Thankfully, we found a good home for the kitty (now temporarily christened Dodo), and are taking care of him until the new owner can pick him up on Sunday. But most animals aren’t that lucky: The Humane Society estimates that between 3 and 4 million dogs and cats are euthanized each year.

“Have your pet spayed or neutered” is a familiar refrain (thanks, Bob Barker!), and it’s still the most effective way to confront the crisis of animal overpopulation. Aside from the obvious consequences for the pets who never find a home, overpopulation is both an environmental and public health threat: stray animals get into trash and contribute to litter, their waste ends up in our water supply, and uncontrolled breeding is partly responsible for more than 4.5 million dog bites in the US each year. 

Want to do your part? Get your next pet from an animal rescue or shelter and make sure it’s spayed or neutered. Extra credit: Check out this handy guide on how to green your pet.

–Jennifer Grayson

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