By Kelly Rush

Mower County Humane Society

It is summer, and here at the Mower County Humane Society we are again experiencing an overflow of cats and kittens.

Currently at MCHS we have 128 cats and kittens under our care. An additional three kittens are in foster care because they can’t eat on their own, and four adults and one nursing kitten are residing at the Austin Vet Clinic until we have room for them at our shelter.

The Austin City Pound picked up 11 kittens which were born to two unspayed/unneutered cats in an Austin neighborhood.

These kittens were admitted into our shelter because of space issues at the city pound. Our shelter comfortably houses 75 cats.

Needless to say, we need good homes for the cats under our care, and we need responsible ownership from individuals that currently have a cat. The city of Austin requires all pets — including cats — be confined to their own property when outside. Cats should be harnessed and leashed when outside.

To help battle the over population of cats in Mower County, MCHS is sponsoring four spay and neuter clinics this year. Two of the clinics took place earlier in the year and we have two more scheduled.

We would love to fill every spot available.

MNSNAP is a veterinarian-run, nonprofit organization that travels around Minnesota doing low-cost spays and neuters on cats, dogs, and rabbits. They will be coming to MCHS again on July 25. There are still openings for cats available (dog spaces are filled for July) for this reduced cost clinic which will happen in our parking lot with the SNAP Mobile.

After July, MNSNAP will conduct one more clinic on Sept. 19 for the residents of Mower County. To sign up, go to MNSNAP.org.

Surgeries through these clinics are done by licensed vets at reduced prices. MCHS can only save a fraction of the unwanted cats and dogs in Mower County. We need your help.

Spaying/neutering not only reduces the number of unwanted pets, it also makes your cat or dog more healthy and more mellow.

If you are looking to adopt an indoor cat or kitten, please come and visit MCHS or check out our website. We have some wonderful felines waiting for good, loving homes.

They range in age from newborns up to 8 years old, some are declawed, and some are long-haired and some are short-haired. To help make space for the cats waiting to be admitted into our shelter, we have temporarily reduced the adoption fee to $50 for one cat or $75 for two cats.

All of our cats have tested negative for feline leukemia, FIV, heartworm, are spayed or neutered, are current on shots and are social cats. We adopt to indoor homes only.