The Newest Craze: Kitten Rental. All The Cool Kids Are Doing It!

Why Kitten Rental?

1) Because SOMETHING in the bay area should be affordable to rent.

Unlike Air B n'B, we promise our kittens won't drink that bottle of wine you were saving...

You want $4,000 for a 150 square foot 'studio'? Why does that look so much like a broom closet? What do you mean parking and bathroom facilities aren't included?

Not only is kitten rental free, we'll also give you all the supplies necessary to take care of your rental kittens. All you have to do is feed them, love on them, clean up after them and raise them to not be little feline miscreants for a few weeks. Easy peasy. We even have a lovely two hour orientation that will show you the ropes and we'll give you the phone number of a nice person you can call if you have questions.

2) Because kittens are adorable for a few weeks. When they're not, you give them back.

I want the power to evict these little buggers before they shred my curtains.

If you didn't hear, kittens are actually from hell. That's the bad news. The good news? The little muffins that are available through our rental program are pretty small to be raising hell. Yes, they might shred things and yes, they still do use the bathroom but on a much smaller scale. Plus they're way easier to contain. By the time they reach the age of mass destruction, you return them and we send them on to their forever homes.

3) Three words: tiny little poops.

No backhoe required for litterbox cleanup. 

In all likelihood you will receive more than one rental kitten. They do best in groups. The good news? Kittens under two pounds create teeeeeeensy little poops. Yes, there will be poo. Yes, kittens are pretty much born litter trained so it will be contained. And yes, even if there is an accident, it will eensy weeny. Poop is never cute but if a case could be made for cute poop, kitten poop would probably be the winner.

4) HOLY DOG, THE ADORABLE!!

Shleeeeeepies.

There is absolutely nothing to be added to this photo to make a point.  Except maybe this:

This kitten is so adorable we actually want to eat it. 

'Nuff said.

5) Oh yes: you're saving lives.

I's can have forever home?

Kitten rental is a really nice way of saying 'kitten fostering'. By having foster homes available, we can take kittens that are too young to be safe in a shelter situation. We help out other shelters that don't have foster programs but also receive underage kittens. Without foster homes, we can't take these guys. And if we can't take them, then hope is lost for a lot of them.

Because cats are seasonal breeders (#truefact!) kittens pile in all at once over the warm months. People 'renting' a few kittens (even if you just do it once) allows us to expand our capacity beyond what our walls can hold. All levity aside, we need you.

This is super easy: just look at our calendar for feline foster orientations. Show up. Bring your elderly neighbor, the stay-at-home dad down the street, your aunt who talks to her houseplants because she's lonely, whomever is responsible and cool enough to lend a hand. But just come. Together, we've got this. Let's see you there.

And because this is our blog, we don't want to leave you on a down note. So have another adorable kitten-rental meme.

Ma'am, your rental kitten.

And maybe a picture of these little nuggets, too.

We can come home with you for a little while? 

(Just a wee quick clarification: we don't euthanize for time or space. All the little muffins that are here are safe. We do help out overcrowded shelters that are out of options and don't have the resources to run a foster program. Our ability to help them - to go in and pull these guys out - is dependent on having fosters available. The more homes we have, the more of them we can pull out. We want more homes to bring more kittens to safety. Which is where you come in.

Please don't hate on shelters that don't have foster programs. It takes resources - time, staff and funding- to run a program. We're super lucky. Our supporters and community are awesome and we have those resources. There's no 'good' shelter or 'bad' shelter here. Just a problem and folks and organizations working together for a solution. And that's good stuff.)

Go Ham Or Go Home!

I know I was blabbing on about how we are flooded with kittens, but I want y'all to put that to the back of your mind. We have some other super furry totally loveable creatures that would like to call your place home. One word, two syllables, hamster!

Darn tooting! We have so many of these little furry love machines 

that we're giving 'em away for FREE! So come on down!

Yes, let us give tribute to big time animal lover, and "Come on down" praiser, Bob Barker. A man that I may be so bold to say, would be delighted in our enthusiasm to find homes for these hams! 

And now photo/meme/gif montage of, you guessed it, hamsters...

Wait, free adoptions for all hamsters?

Wha-wha-what?!!

I think we all could use an adorable fairy sized creature to watch stuff its face, 

run super fast on the wheel, or even wear a teeny tiny sweater. *Squeezes cheeks*

Check out our available chubby cheeked friends here.

Just saying this one...

Curly is all ours and is super photogenic. I mean, this knocks 

Kim Kardashian's "Paper" cover out of the park.

Please adopt one of our little hams! 

So You Found Yourself In A Shelter: An Open Letter To Incoming Pooches

Dear Future HSSV Dogs,

So you found yourself in a shelter. We're sorry. That stinks. 

It does. Where are my people? 

We won't dwell on why you're here. No sense thinking too hard on the past. We know it's hard to see it right now when you're frightened and unsure, but you have a huge future ahead of you. A great big, ginormous, wonderful, amaze-balls future. We'll just try to think on that while we get through the scary bits. 

My whole life feels like scary bit right now...

The good news is that there aren't that many scary bits. Yes, you have to go through a vet exam, get fixed and get some shots but that's not terrible. Our vet staff is really nice. They're also pretty goofy and will crawl around on the floor with you and rub your belly if that's what it takes to make you comfortable. 

Slobbering on you is a comfort to me. 

Plus if anything is hurting when you come in, they'll take care of it and make you feel better. They're really good at that. 

Feeling better is great. Lampshades on your head are not. 

And if you need some modifications or help to get rollin', we can handle that, too. 

You see me rollin', no hatin'. 

Even if you're so little you need an extra special safe-place, we've got you. 

This looks like a good spot. 

Didn't we tell you everything was going to be okay?  It's pretty nice around here. While it's not as good as a home, it's a pretty great place to hang out while you wait for one.  There's lots of toys...

This is a particularly awesome toy, just so you know. 

And a really fun yard. If you ask this guy, he'd tell you it was the best yard EVER. Like, ever-ever. 

Is there a dog under there? Or just a tongue and some teeth? 

Of course if you can actually find his face to ask him then good on you. That's a powerful lot of hair.

We even have little pools in the yard for hot days. 

Can I get a peanut butter margarita in here? Where is the pool boy???

If you ask Nala (who's been adopted), she'll tell you the pools were pretty awesome. 

There are plenty of loving people around who will hang out with you and take you on walks and comfort you if you're having an 'I-need-a-hug' moment.

Thank you.

Or just want to hang out and hold hands. 

I won't mention your sweaty palms, nice volunteer lady. 

And if you're feeling a little ratty and need some freshening up, we've got you covered on that, too. 

Can we talk about this? Was this really necessary?

We're going to get you all ready for a new life with a wonderful forever family. It will be an adventure. 

I'm dressed for adventure.

Then that day will come when you do find your forever family and take off to live happily ever after. 

New Mom why can't I drive? I have a license!

We'll be so happy for you but a little sad, too. Because we'll miss you. Maybe you'll send us postcards from your new life and we'll almost cry because we're so glad you're doing well. 

We definitely need a tissue after this picture. Yay Christopher!

Seriously though, everything is going to be okay. We promise. Okay? Feel better? 

Wait - you said shots? 

Well, we tried. Just settle in a bit. You'll see. 

Are my new peeps here yet? 

A quick note: most of the pics in this blog were captured by the wonderful Jackie MacMillan (AKA Jackie Mac) who is not only an amazing volunteer and photographer but also a great visual storyteller who manages to document the journey of so many of our dogs while they're with us. We are incredibly lucky to have her.

Another quick note: you see the puppy-hugging volunteer? That's Desiree. Desiree has been volunteering with us for years. We've had the pleasure of watching her grow up and every weekend we remained awed by her dedication to the animals. She is, to put it succinctly, the most amaze-balls kid. Or teen. Whatever. She's just awesome.

It's Raining Kit-tans!

So kitties, it's time to talk about da birds and da bees. What? I can hear y'all cringing. This is an education blog folks. Don't worry though, we're strictly talking about cats.

 Kimi

We'll leave the human stuff to the school system, late night premium television, wink, "Game of Thrones", and the bowels of the internets.

Folks have been asking for days, weeks, perhaps even months.

"When are you getting kittens?"

"Where are the kittens?"

And then the straight up demand.

"I want kittens!"

Don't worry, nature has heard your cry, and I'll tell you when and why you're going to start seeing these little fur balls shortly.

The 'when' is spring/summer. Basically heat = kitten babies.

The why is pretty simple when you think about it. Unaltered mommas and poppas are running the streets looking for mister or misses right.  All those single lady cats go into heat about three times a year usually starting in January/February. Two months later out pops a litter of kitty babies. Yep.  And there you have it.

So hug yourself in knowing the kittens are coming. In fact we've already had a couple litters come and get adopted. Again, I can hear you.

"But, what about me? I want a kitten!"
Reel it in Veruca Salts*.

Don't worry there shall be a kitten for all! Perhaps even two for each of you!

Check out these kitten babies (pronounced BAY-bees) below:

 Chunk

Rex, Woody, and Buzz.

Abby 

 Tansy

 Cali

Wanna get involved? Foster a litter of kittens? Listen to the meows and chirpy chirps of kittens? Clean up the absurd amount of poop they produce? PERFECT! Check out this link below:

Sign up to foster a litter!

We could always use more capable foster parental units to lend a hand or two.

*Veruca Salts is a character from the magical and wonderful musical that should be seen by all, called Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. If you haven't seen it, well, you have two options. If you live in San Jose, drive down to Powell's Sweet Shop on Lincoln Avenue. They play the musical on a continuous loop. Or buy the darn film!

http://www.humanesociety.org/animals/cats/facts/kitten_season.html

http://meoowzresq.org/free-info/kitten-season/

http://paws4life.org/?page_id=2807

Impudent Juvenile Delinquent Puppies Invade HSSV.

We just don't know what's wrong with kids today. When we were young puppies not only housebroke in a week and never chewed anything, they also saved Timmy from numerous wells and occasionally did your taxes. 

But these young pups just have no respect. We know we're always bagging on puppies in our blog but this recent crop of pupsicles that have found their way to our doors just seem to be particularly wayward. Case in point: this little nugget was just transferred in from another shelter and couldn't be any cuter. A bug's ear, right? Adorbs... 

Don't I make you want to talk in a high pitched voice and make weird noises at me? 

We don't have enough words on thesaurus.com to convey how cute this puppy is but...

Pppphhhhhhhttttt.

See what we mean? Does he think we don't see him?

We'd like to say this is an isolated incident but it seems to be more of an epidemic. 

If my paws had thumbs, I'd be thumbing my ears at you, too. 

Maybe it's because we're filling up with the little buggers. Thanks to our amazing friends at Maddie's Fund, we pretty much emptied the shelter last weekend. Not only did we empty our shelter but Maddie's helped empty pretty much every other shelter in Santa Clara county, too. Why?

Because ppppphhhhhhttt.

Daisy stop that! We see that! But why did Maddie's help empty almost all of our county shelters? Because Maddie's Fund is amazing. So with most of our pooches sleeping in good homes...

I'm sorry. I'm a good puppy, I swear. 

No, Daisy. You are not sorry. You are not even the least little bit sorry. Anyhoo, with most of our pooches safely nestled in forever homes, the shelter was very empty. Which meant we were able to go to some of our more rural buddy-shelters and help them out by taking in some of their little juvenile delinquents. 

Ppppphhhhttttt.

Do you think we don't notice that, little rat terrier mix? You are not subtle. The moral of this story is...

Seriously? Is this look of contempt subtle enough for you? 

that the aftereffects of Maddie's Pet Adoption Days went far beyond the 308 animals we adopted out last weekend. 

Wait - re-read that last sentence. Yes, we said 308. 308 adoptions. 

A number so monumental we cannot stop saying it. A number so amazing it belongs on a semi-truck.

We digress. Returning to the moral of the story, the ripple effect of Maddie's Days reached far beyond our county and community and into the lives of homeless pets desperately needing homes in other parts of California. Like this adorable baby...

A puppy so cute you actually want to eat it. 

who was also transferred in from a rural shelter. 

Even in the rural shelters we know pppphhhhtttttt..

Okay, seriously. Enough already. Anyway, predilection for being rotten little monsters until they reach an age of reason aside (puppies are, after all, evil) these guys are all sweet and friendly, if prone to pulling faces behind our back. 

Currently all of them are going through medical and intake check-ins but if you're interested, keep an eye on our adoptable animals page and they'll be posted when they're ready. 

In the meantime, we'll be trying to figure what made puppies in the past so wonderful and puppies now so bratty. We're thinking it might have something to do with the fallibility of human memory and not, as we had previously thought, heavy metal music and the popularity of that sarcastic dog on Family Guy.

I love that sarcastic dog. 

Okay, enough. We give up. The takeaways? 

We will have puppies.

Maddie's Fund is awesome. 

That is all.