How Our Mission Has Changed in the Covid-19 World

Shelters have been effectively closed, so what happens now?!

We’re living in uncertain times for sure, previously this is how things worked. We volunteer for Kitten Rescue LA (KR), KR connects with shelters and when kittens show up KR finds fosters like us to take in those fosters.

We raise the kittens, KR provides for their medical needs and we cover food, litter and other costs (from toys to nutrients). When they are ready they visit a vets or med holders at different points in their stay for vaccines, combo tests, spay/neuter, etc.

Ultimately once ready the fosters do a home inspection, meet the potential adopter, they meet the kittens and a drop off happens.

But now Los Angeles shelters have effectively shut down, they’re not taking in new animals and are sending people away. KR and many vets are working with bare-bones crews. So what happens now? Where do the kittens come from?! What do you do when everyone is social distancing?

Where are new kittens coming from?

Since no new animals are being brought in to LA shelters, a crucial step is missing. What’s ended up happening is vigilant fosters like Amanda have taken to neighborhood sites like Nextdoor and Craigslist to look for postings of “kittens found” etc.

Some fosters are even patrolling shelters to check for “doorstep drop offs” (please don’t drop off animals at these shelters).

And unfortunately, some of the animals coming are from past adopters who have been struck by unstable circumstances due to the pandemic.

Vet visits 2.0

The new modus operandi is a very tightly scheduled drop off routine. Pets are dropped off in their crates.

Vet techs bring them in, and do what needs to be done. (this is very sad for skiddish pets who’s owners can no longer be with them, but it’s what has to happen right now).

Once the vet visit is done, fosters are texted and the pick up is arranged again with the pet in the crate and placed on the front landing of the vets doors.

Adopter and Kitten Meetings

What was once a face to face interaction is now all done through video conference calls. Potential Adopters meet the kitties in a video chat, while fosters do a virtual home check.

One of the best ways to meet our adoptable kittens is through the 24/7 live stream and of course checking out the pictures and clips on our Instagram

The final drop off is done much the same as the vet visit, with the cats/kittens placed in a carrier on their new homes from porch along with a contract. They’re brought in by the new family, and once the kittens are entered in to a secure room and the contracts are signed the carrier and contract are returned out side and the foster is texted to retrieve them.

The biggest hurdle to all of this is potentially replacing adoption events. So far it seems the number of available foster kittens is much lower than the number of people who what kittens, but if those numbers shift we may have to find a virtual version of adoption events.

So that’s the ins and out of what’s going on in the way we do things these days. It’s a bit of a shift, but nothing too hard to adjust to at this point.