Flooded With Felines, St. Hubert's Says 'Make Us an Offer'

It is almost like the purr-fect storm at St. Hubert’s Animal Welfare Center these days. A series of factors have conspired to bring over 250 cats to the shelter, which has locations in Madison and Long Branch.

First, September is typically a time when the shelter receives its most cats each year. Then, there was the recent role shelter employees played in an animal hoarding situation, when the shelter took 25 cats in from an Atlantic City area home. Add a recent influx of 40 cats from a Jersey City shelter that evacuated its animal residents in advance of flooding from Hurricane Irene, and St. Hubert's is lousy with cats.

"Spring and summer is breeding season for cats," explained St. Hubert's Vice President Nora Parker. "We are always inundated with kittens at this time of year."

Parker added that the warm weather finds many wild cats heading into open areas, so that people are more likely to find them and bring them to the shelter.

St Hubert’s has a special deal to move all of their feline residents to good homes. Through September 15, instead of paying the shelter's customary charge of $150 to adopt a cat, those who want to adopt can name their price. The cat must be six months or older (the standard $175 fee still applies to younger cats).

"All of the regular conditions of adoption apply, and adopters choose their price," said Director of Shelter Operations Colleen Harrington. "It's a great time to adopt because there is such a large variety of wonderful kitties to choose from."

St. Hubert's survived the hurricane with some flooding and a week-long loss of power. But the community came through for the shelter, with concerned friends bringing clean bedding for the animals and helping to put medications that need to be refrigerated in coolers for the duration of the outage.

"It was wonderful to see what a great community we have," said Parker. "People just came in and said, 'How can we help?'"

Power is now restored to the facility and operations are back to normal, with just a few extra meows throughout the day. 

To see available cats, visit www.sthuberts.org.