During breeding season, shelters get creative to find homes for cats

Summer is kitten season. From late spring until early fall, cats are mating and giving birth in large numbers. Many of them wind up in local shelters, which can barely keep up. On Saturday, WRAL will help local shelters find good homes for all of their cats and kittens, which typically takes a little creativity.

On a typical morning at the Animal Protection Society of Durham, a litter of kittens that came into this world under a porch are ready to be put up for adoption.

"Kittens typically go really fast," said APS of Durham's Lindsay Carr. "Adult cats tend to be more difficult to adopt out."

To address that, Carr said, APS of Durham ran a promotion this summer as kennel space became crowded.

"We had pet adoptions for whatever price people wanted to donate, so we had cats leave here for as little as a dollar," she said.

That's a serious discount on the normal fee.

"We're able to do that, thankfully, through a lot of grants that we have received that go specifically for things like promoting reduced adoption prices," she said.

On Saturday, when Durham APS joins 12 other local animal welfare groups in clearing the shelters, expect even deeper discounts.

"Get here early," Carr said. "There are going to be a lot of lines, a lot of interest, a lot of people adopting animals out."