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Stray kitties await adoption Mail Tribune/Jim Craven Numbers testify to need for spaying, neutering By Bill Varble Mary Babbitt clutches Precious and Mittens, four-month-old, black-and-white kittens, to her neck. "Grandma loves you so much," she coos before putting them back in their cage at the Jackson County Animal Shelter. The little siblings are among the 50 cats and kittens to which Babbitt has provided a foster home over the past four years. There was an adoption event Saturday at the shelter, another at Petsmart in Medford and another at the Grange Coop, also in Medford. And this day Babbitt would like nothing more than to find a home for Precious and Mittens. But it has to be a good home. "I ask lots of questions," she says. Adoptions are one part of what�s happening at the shelter. With the help of veterinarian Bret Meckel of the Best Friends Animal Hospital, staffers are offering low-cost rabies shots and pet licenses. By noon, 14 dogs and one cat have had shots at a special price of $7 (versus a normal $10 to $18). "Including my dog," says shelter staffer Kim Ulrich, of Central Point, whose 120-pound mastiff, Roo, seems to be taking it all in stride as he furrows his large, dark brow. Two dogs have been adopted at the shelter this day � a gorgeous black lab and a mixed, black puppy � but no cats so far, says technician Donna Patnesky. Babbitt says she�s had Precious and Mittens since Aug. 27, when they were only about four weeks old. She feeds them the canned stuff. They sleep with her. You get the idea. But Babbitt already has three cats and two dogs, and that�s her limit. What she�d really like is for somebody to adopt the kittens together, although if that doesn�t work out she�ll understand. If pushed, she�ll admit the kittens aren�t perfect. She found Mittens pouncing on a floral centerpiece the other day, preying on and eating it. "I call him the cat from hell," she says, smiling at him. "Mary�s one of my saviors," Ulrich says. "I�m retired," Babbitt shrugs. "It gives me something to do, and I love animals." Meckel says years of spaying and neutering education seems to have resulted in more people having their pets fixed. "But it only takes one that�s not to have a big effect," he says. A single unspayed cat producing two litters a year with 2.8 surviving kittens in each litter can produce 67 cats in two years (if those cats also have kittens), he says, more than 11,000 in five years and more than 10 million in less than 10 years. Not everybody gets the message. Jane Boudreaux has brought in three tiny long-haired kittens she trapped outside her home in White City. The three tiny furballs huddle together in a cage for new arrivals. Boudreaux has also brought in another young cat from a different litter from the same mother. Now the mother is pregnant again. "Please tell people not to abandon animals," she says. "It would be far more humane to bring them in here." Amy Sebring, of Medford, shows up with a young tiger kitty. She says it�s the fifth one she�s trapped off Vilas Road and brought to the shelter in the past six weeks. "There are so many," she says. "Quite a few get hit by cars, and there are a lot of big dogs running loose out there." Sebring has a cat and four dogs and just doesn�t have room for more pets. She urges others to trap feral cats and bring them in. "It�s better than having them make more babies," she says. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.