Yesterday Project Purr had a booth at the Meow Luau, an event put on by the Santa Cruz Animal Shelter. Lynne, my friend from the rummage sale, and I all ran the booth. The event brought several local non-profit animal rescue groups together to try to adopt out as many cats and kittens as possible. Adoption fees were half-off- kittens for $75 and adults for $50. The event attracted a lot of people, especially families with little kids, may looking to adopt. The theme was Hawaiian, so all the volunteers had leis and the whole shelter was decorated. (It was funny because in a cats-only event the decorations were all colorful bird pictures. Also, none of the birds were from Hawaii.)
The event was set up with the food and silent auction in front, one non-profit with cats and kittens outside, all of the cat rooms in the shelter open, and then way back in a small room another non-profit with kittens, sharing the space with Project Purr. Since we were so far back and hidden, very few people even found the room. The event itself was very well attended and quite crowded, so it was disappointing to miss out on educating or finding potential homes with all of those people. The event was not a waste of time though, because we got to educate several shelter volunteers who were not sure of what Project Purr does.
Most of the time my friend and I spent helping the other rescue group in the room with us. The group, Animal Friends Rescue Project (AFRP), had 13 kittens up for adoption. There was a 10-week old litter of 5, and the rest were all about 8-weeks old from various litters. We played with the kittens, and held them for people who were interested in adopting them. Although there were only a few people who made it into our little room, almost all of them adopted kittens. All of the litter of 5 (plus their mom, who was in another room) were adopted, and 4 of the remaining kittens were adopted! It was a huge success for AFRP!
There was one kitten who I especially was hoping to find a home for. His name was Tristan, and he was an all white, deaf, adorable, friendly, energetic little guy. I spent quite a while holding him, and having people (especially kids) pet him, but sadly his forever-home was never found. Luckily, directly from the event he went to Petsmart. I hope by now he's been adopted.
This was the first Meow Luau put on, and I hope next year will be better. This year, the rescue group that was outside only adopted out 4 or 6, even though they had many more cats and kittens than AFRP. Their cats were obviously not as happy as the AFRP kittens, and since they were outside, it was not very smart to take them out for people to hold them (because mistakes happen, cats spook, etc.). Next year, the two rescue groups with live animals should be in the small room, with better access for the public. Project Purr should be outside, where people who aren't just looking for kittens will be able to stop by easily.
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