Kitten Season is Upon Us! #FoodShelterLove

This post was sponsored by Hill's. I am being compensated for helping spread the word about Hill's® Food, Shelter, and Love program, but Catladyland only shares information we feel is relevant to our readers. Hill's Nutrition, Inc. is not responsible for the content of this article.

Kitty lookout at Feline Rescue Inc. in St. Paul, MN

Even though there's still snow on the ground where I live, spring is on its way (or so the calendar tells us)! When I think of spring, I always imagine lilies popping through the freshly awakened ground, robins happily singing from the bird feeders on my deck, and ... kittens. Yes, spring is also kitten season, and soon shelters will find themselves overwhelmed with babies looking for new homes.

Saffy's my son's favorite video-game partner.

We adopted Saffy right in the middle of kitten season, almost exactly 13 years ago. She was a cute little gray girl who's grown into quite the lovely lady. She'd bonded to the males in our house. My husband and son are complete putty in her paws!

My husband and his baby girl.

She came from Animal Humane Society, one of the shelters here in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. Most every city or town has at least one shelter, and I'm sure they will all be affected by kitten season, and they most likely need assistance of various kinds all through the year.

There are lots of ways to support your local shelter -- even kids can help! In fact, involving kids in volunteerism early on means they grow up believing helping animals is the norm ... they just do it. You can help by donating supplies, collecting monetary donations, physically helping at the shelter, assisting with TNR efforts (prevention majorly impacts kitten season) and fostering kittens.

The Hill's® Food, Shelter & Love™ program is passionate about providing proper nutrition to pets in shelters so they can find the best forever homes possible. In fact, they've provided over $240 million worth of food to nearly 1,000 shelters! Kitten nutrition is especially important during this season, and Hill's Science Diet Kitten Healthy Development food provides the perfectly balanced, easy-to-digest nutrition these kitties for a strong start in life.

The folks at the Hill's Food, Shelter & Love program aren't just big talkers either, they walk the talk! Their daily commitment to helping shelter pets is based on the four pillars of their mission:

1. Volunteer: Encouraging loving individuals to support their local shelters by caring for and spending time with local shelter pets.
2. Donate: Whether it's cash or toys, local shelters can always use donations. We can help get donors connected directly to your organization.
3. Choose: Helping pet parents everywhere learn more about our shelter program and find out how choosing Science Diet for their own pets can help thousands of shelter pets across the country.
4. Adopt: The ultimate goal of the program is to bring some love home.

Foster baby. Photo: Felissa Elfenbein

Everyone deserves a loving home. Everyone.

A Miracle Rescue, Kitten Snuggles, Happy Catladies, and Thank Goodness my Husband is Neutered

You know those mothers who hold an infant and suddenly feel the urge to have another one?  I am the mother of two teenagers, have held many infants since the birth of my two, and have NEVER felt the yearning (not even half a thimble of yearning) for another baby.  After the birth of my second, I promptly had my husband neutered and that was that.  Now kittens, on the other hand... I can hold a kitten and the kind of urge I feel is to stash that baby in my purse and make a break for it.  I could hold kittens all day long.  And I'm really, really good at it.  I think if anyone were looking for a kitten-holding expert, they'd hit the jackpot with me.

All this kitten talk is really going somewhere -- I promise.  Many of you know last week I was in the D.C. area attending the BlogPaws pet blogger conference.  On Friday night, I wandered into the hotel lobby and saw many of my cat-blogging friends lounging, laughing, and holding kittens!!  My desire to cash in my free drink ticket went right out the window and my kitten-radar zoomed in on the babies...especially one little girl named Blaze, who resembled my own Phoebe (and not by just a little)!

We learned the babies and their mama, Amberly, had just been transported by Georgia rescuers, Maria and Bobby to the hotel, where they landed in the safe arms of Robin, the rescue-queen from Covered in Cat Hair.  She and Sam would then take them back to their home in Connecticut and work with Kitten Associates (who also helped immensely and immediately with financial support surrounding the cats' care and transport) to make sure they found loving forever homes.  The story is truly a miracle and you can read it in its entirety on a more detailed post I wrote for Life With Cats.

Now back to the subject of holding kittens!!  We catladies were truly in our element and probably could have stayed in that lobby all night, loving on those babies.  In fact, after some of us went out to dinner, a few of us went back to Robin's hotel room for more kitten playtime.  

Here are some of the photos from that night:

Tamar from I Have Cat cuddles a Petie look-alike named Jack LiLac!

Ingrid from The Conscious Cat, holding Truffles, is a tortie-whisperer!

Here I am, getting a serious smooch from the Phoebe-twin, Blaze.

Nicky from Mew Brew borrows Blaze for awhile.

Caren from Cat Chat doing the two-step with Truffles

Caren, Joanne from Tiniest Tiger, and Tamar with Truffles and Flat Gracey

Dorian from Your Daily Cute gets a giant dose of cute from Truffles.

Sachie from My Himalayan Cat, Goma and Kate from Moderncat share some Jack LiLac snuggles.

A clowder of catladies!  Deb from Zee & Zoey, Ingrid, Sachie, Kate, Tamar, Robin from Covered in Cat Hair, Amy from Sebastian, the Sensitive Soul, me, Dorian, and Caren sharing the shot with Jack and Truffles.

The rescue team!  Sam, Robin, Bobby, and Maria (seated with Mama Amberly)

Amberly and the kittens' care expenses have added up -- please consider making a contribution by clicking on the ChipIn widget below.  Also, those sweet babies and their beautiful mama are available for adoption via Kitten Associates.