Animal shelter will host ‘kitten baby shower’ to raise awareness for foster program
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IDAHO FALLS — A local animal shelter is hosting its first-ever “kitten baby shower” to raise awareness of the need for more foster homes.
The Snake River Animal Shelter will host the kitten baby shower on Wednesday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The event is inspired by a traditional baby shower. Click here to view the Amazon wishlist.
“You will have the opportunity to bring gifts for our future kittens that will need our help with things like food, blankets, and replacement milk, and you’ll get to play games as well as have snacks and get to socialize with the cats and kittens that are currently here,” said Michelle Ziel-Dingman, the animal shelter’s executive director.
At the event, people will have the chance to sign up to become “foster parents” for kittens that come to or who are born at the shelter during the first eight weeks of their lives.
“We have a kitten foster program in place currently, but we want to expand the amount of families that foster kittens for us by inviting them to this event,” said Ziel-Dingman. “We have about ten families right now that are regular fosters for us, and that doesn’t include staff members who have frequently taken home a kitten … our staff members oftentimes will fill that need as a foster.”
Ziel-Dingman is hoping that there will be another 12 individuals or families that will sign up in the next few weeks that are willing to foster kittens.
“We would really love to see more, especially as more people in our community now have work-from-home jobs or working remotely, and those families or individuals are ideal to foster kittens,” she said. “The commitment can be anywhere from a week to eight weeks depending upon the age and size of the kitten.”
In this year alone, Snake River Animal Shelter rescued 96 kittens, with several so young that they needed special care, according to a news release from the shelter.
“As we are entering what we call ‘kitten season,’ we are getting lots of either pregnant cats or cats that are being surrendered to us with very, very small kittens,” she said.
Refreshments will be provided at the kitten baby shower, and there will be a chance to win a raffle basket with goodies, including an Amazon gift card for everyone who comes to the event.
Ziel-Dingman is excited about the event and invites anyone to come.
“We seek these fosters because we want each kitten to start off their life in a warm, loving home, and although the shelter staff loves and adores every animal here, we can’t re-create the feeling of being in a home and the socialization with people that you can have in a foster home,” explained Ziel-Dingman. “It really helps set that cat or kitten off in the right direction … of getting adopted into a permanent home.”