Kitten season in Sonoma County is getting longer, worrying local feline advocates

If it seems like there’s more unowned cats roaming around Sonoma County this winter, it’s because kitten season has started earlier than ever, according to local feline advocates.

Typically, cats go into heat, the state immediately preceding ovulation, in late March through October. This winter, Pip Marquez de la Plata, executive director of Forgotten Felines of Sonoma County, said the spay-and-neuter nonprofit saw pregnant and in-heat cats in late December, the earliest time anyone at the organization has ever seen.

“That creates an issue of more cats being born,” he said.

Marquez de la Plata and Forgotten Felines trapping coordinator Mary Pulcheon argue that as the climate changes, and temperatures heat up, cats are in heat all year long.

“Heat and warmth is what it’s all about,” said Pulcheon.

Pulcheon said the organization is now seeing cats as young as 5 months old having kittens. Cats typically go into heat for the first time at 6 months old.

And that means, according to Forgotten Felines, more unowned cats in the region are being neglected and also creating issues for songbirds and other wildlife that can be killed or injured by the cats.

Established in 1990, Santa Rosa-based Forgotten Felines is not a shelter or animal rescue. Rather, the organization humanely traps and holds twice weekly spay and neuter clinics for unowned cats.

One female cat, her mate, and their offspring, producing two litters per year with an average of 2.8 surviving kittens per litter, can produce more than 11,000 cats in a decade, the group said.

To accommodate the growing number of unowned cats, the nonprofit is adding more clinic days.

“Spay and neuter is the only solution, there is no other solution to the problem,“ Marquez de la Plata said.

Pulcheon said locals can help Forgotten Felines by acting sooner when they see an unowned cat in their neighborhood by getting it scanned for microchips at a local shelter or animal rescue or getting it fixed at one of the organization’s clinics.

“We can avoid all these kittens if we get people to kick into action in the wintertime,“ she said.

Pulcheon said if a person encounters an unowned cat, they can request Forgotten Felines to come trap the animal. The organization also lends out humane traps and guides residents on how to use them.

For more information go to forgottenfelines.com.