Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 28, 1995 TAG: 9506280024
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SHEBA WHEELER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It contained an article saying the Roanoke Valley Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was receiving so many cats and kittens that the shelter would have to kill some of the animals to make room for others.
"I started crying and begging my husband to let me have one," Carroll said. "I just didn't have any idea that all of this stuff was going on - that there were so many animals left homeless and that there were so many people who weren't having their animals spayed and neutered."
Carroll went to the SPCA Saturday and adopted a female cat that her children named Buttercup. She wasn't alone. Eighty-three cats were adopted in a little more than two days, said animal shelter Director Al Alexander.
"It was enough to make an old man cry," Alexander said. "I look at it as having saved 83 lives. I don't even know how to put it in words, but I was so happy that I just wanted to get up on the rooftop and scream HEYEEE!''
In an effort to offset the seasonal surplus of cats, the SPCA is offering a discount so more people can adopt. The normal fee of $50 has been reduced to $35 throughout the summer. The fee covers the animal's first set of shots, worming and a discount on spaying and neutering.
By 10 a.m. Friday, more than 100 cats were awaiting adoption, Alexander said. That's when the first rush of people began coming in - all wanting to adopt a cat. When it stopped Tuesday afternoon, only 15 cats were left.
"There wasn't an hour that went by that we didn't have somebody wanting to get in," Alexander said. "Some folks took cats out by the pair. And when we began to run out of cats on Saturday, people started carrying away dogs. It restores your faith to see the people respond the way they did."
But residents continue to bring cats into the shelter, and the current number of 15 cats will become 100 by the end of the week, Alexander said.
Carroll regrets that she will not be able to save more cats.
"I should be happy because I was able to save one," she said. "But as we were bringing our cat out, others were bringing more of them in. If I could, I would have taken them all."
by CNB