By Tanya M. Ursual

From The Lanark Animal Welfare Society (LAWS) L.A.W.S., P.O. Box 156, Smiths Falls, ON, K7A 4T1:

Hey Zack here again. From my lofty perch atop the pop machine I see the staff getting ready for kitten season. Soon these cute little guys will be arriving and once again it will be my job to instruct them on the finer points of being the perfect pet. I am puzzled why every year we get so many kittens. After all, every cat that leaves our shelter is either spayed or neutered. So I asked Stacie, our shelter manager, why so many kittens every year? Stacie told me that not everyone gets their cat from LAWS and many people don’t get them spayed or neutered and allow their cat to roam the neighbourhood. I was surprised, after all getting your cat from LAWS gives my students (the kittens I told you about) a chance at a loving home and it’s a good deal. For $90 your new cat is spayed or neutered, micro chipped, first vaccination, de-wormed, 30 days health insurance and a bag of food. MEOWWW, that sounds good to me! Getting your cat spayed or neutered is the responsible thing to do. Being neutered has not affected my ability to do cat things and I’m still the top cat around here. I decided to go on line recently to see what I could find out about all these kittens. Did you know that two uncontrolled breeding cats will produce 12,680 offspring in only 5 years and in 9 years 13,958,290. That is a CATastrophic number! Do your part and don’t litter; get your animal spayed or neutered. It’s time for me to go inspect the kitten room to make sure it meets all of my regulations. We have over sixty (60) cats in the shelter right now so I’m going to do roll call. So send me an e-mail sometime with your questions, comments or ideas. I’m here 24/7 and I’m thinking about an “Ask Zack” column for the future. Sort of like a “Dear Abby” but this will be “Dear Zack.” After I make my rounds to make sure everyone has settled in for the night, the dogs too (yes I care about them), I go back to my desk, have a snack and plan my day for tomorrow. I am always alert for an e-mail so I can play with that darn mouse.