Silver is a beautiful cat currently available for adoption at our facility!

Great joy and relief among us staff and volunteers toiling at the Spring River Animal Services facilities: The Cattery, or Cat House as we affectionately call it, is ready for its new inhabitants! Getting the cats and kittens at the facility moved should be completed by the end of the week and more helping hands are always needed and appreciated so please come and volunteer a few hours of your time!

I know some on the city council making unannounced visits to the facility were "apalled" at the smell and condition in the FEMA trailer which houses our "office" and had, out of necessity, also housed many of the cats and kittens we were inundated with. What no one expected was the flood of cats and kittens which were (supposedly or not) "dumped" in people's yards or on front porches starting in late spring which we were forced to accept as "strays"!

If you ask me, some of these litters might have really been "dumped"; however, I suspect that many cat owners who have not had their female cats spayed and/or male cats neutered ended up with yet another unwanted litter! Folks, a cat can have several litters in one year! Most of these "accidents" are self-inflicted by irresponsible cat owners not getting their cat(s) altered!

What's more, for the small fee of about $35 for spaying and/or neutering, this problem could be rectified once and for all and the cat owner(s) would have contributed to cutting back on wild and feral cat populations in a small way; however, if everyone who owns an animal - be it cat or dog, were responsible enough to do what is necessary, we could have an immense impact on helping to reduce the number of unwanted pets in our area and at the shelter. Consider this: If you're not part of the solution (spaying/neutering all of your pets), you contribute to the problem we as a community have and you make your problem everyone's problem.

Here's another fact: While dog adoptions are up tremendously since we put our pets online, no cats have been adopted over the internet and hardly any cats or kittens are adopted locally from the shelter because there are "free" kitten signs all over the city, the Walmart parking lot, and in the newspaper! Folks, sooner rather than later hard choices have to be made at our facility because there is only so much room to house cats and kittens!

I know of some neighbors who have started shooting cats in their yard - then throwing them over onto another neighbor's property under the cover of darkness! NOT THE SOLUTION TO OUR PROBLEM!!! To those people I would like to say: Remember, we have an ordinance in effect in Cherokee Village which prohibits the discharging of a fire arm and sooner or later you will get caught!

I beg all cat owners to please get their kittens 6 months of age and older cats spayed or neutered at one of our three local vet clinics: North Arkansas Vet Clinic (870/994-7315), Drs. Shaw (870/856-3243), and Dr. Langley (417/264-2206), or call or leave message with Cheryl at 870/847-4262 to get scheduled in at the LOW COST SPAY AND NEUTER CLINIC, SEPTEMBER 16, 17, AND 18 on the grounds of Spring River Animal Services, 1531 Hwy 289 North in Cherokee Village.