This year, the Aiken County Animal Shelter (ACAS) has navigated the most challenging kitten season in years. Kitten season is an annual occurrence when felines are reproducing at a high rate, resulting in many orphaned kittens who need nurturing and care in order to survive and thrive.
From late April to the end of August, hundreds of orphaned kittens were found by citizens and brought to the shelter. So many, in fact, that there is no way we could have saved and rehomed them all on our own.
Thankfully, we received a great deal of help.
Most of the citizens who found lost and orphaned kittens in 2024, were able to foster and save them with the support of ACAS resources and the guidance of shelter staff. So far this year, 60 citizens have volunteered their time to foster the kittens they found – and in many cases even placed them in loving homes!
“There’s a good chance that if these folks had not fostered these kittens, they wouldn’t have survived,” said Hillary Clark-Kulis, who manages the ACAS kitten foster program. She said about 75 percent of the more than 200 kittens found during the peak of kitten season were adopted directly from the homes of finder fosters. The remaining 25 percent were returned to the shelter once they were healthy and old enough, then adopted from 333 Wire Road.
While the shelter has provided kitten kits to foster finders since 2019, this year the program had to be dramatically expanded to manage the volume of kittens being found. Thanks to FOTAS donors, the shelter was able to provide all needed supplies, food and veterinary care to fosters. In turn, the fosters nurtured and helped socialize the kittens until they were old enough for adoption.
Clark-Kulis works closely with fosters, providing instructions, support and answering questions as they arise.
“We’ve been so lucky to have these wonderful people step up and foster these homeless kittens,” Clark-Kulis said. “Even taking in one litter or part of a litter makes a huge difference, especially when so many babies are being found during the peak of kitten season.”
Sometimes the kittens found are malnourished or have upper respiratory infections that threaten their eyesight. In such cases, the shelter vet provides fosters with medication. The kittens recover more quickly in a quiet, cozy home than they do in a packed, loud shelter where we can only provide limited attention to individual animals.
Unless more cats are spayed/neutered, we will continue to need this kind of foster help from the community. The TNR (Trap, Neuter & Return) program is making a significant positive impact. So is the County spay/neuter voucher program. But there are still too many pet owners who are not fixing their animals.
Although this year’s kitten season is finally slowing down, we expect to see more baby felines pop up around the county until mid-October. If you find kittens, don’t take them in until you’re sure their mother is not returning to care for them. Then, call the County Shelter for kitten kits and any support you need, (803) 642-1537, or email info@fotasaiken.org.
Their lives are in our hands.
By Bob Gordon, FOTAS Communications Director
