A whole lotta kitties, that’s what the Auburn Valley Humane Society animal shelter’ has on its hands.

Kitties in the cages, kitties on the floor, kitties everywhere.

That means lots of kitties, from domestic short hairs to Persians, Himalayans, and Siamese, all primed for adoption.

At this time 70 cats and 30 dogs are at the shelter.

“I’ve kind of got a dog shortage, so we’re able to be a retail outlet to the public there, but I definitely don’t have a cat shortage. We have more cats than we can handle,” said shelter director Phil Morgan.

He explained why.

“All over the county there are more free-roaming cats,” Morgan said. “A girl cat can have three litters a year; a male cat can make three litters a day. There’s not packs of free-roaming dogs. You don’t have a dog overpopulation issue, you have a dog-retention issue. People lose their dog, don’t know where to look for it, don’t care, whatever the situation is.

“In fact, we have kind of asked people who call about a stray cat can you hold on a couple of weeks so we can matriculate it into our system,” Morgan added.

The shelter takes in dogs brought there by the City of Auburn’s Animal Control Officer, and it takes in owner surrenders and strays.

The shelter has started taking in dogs from a shelter in California and another in Arizona, all of the dogs in danger of being euthanized.

Controlling population in a shelter’s is done two ways: by managing intake or euthanasia.

“The philosophy of the organization is that euthanasia is not our first choice, so we want to work with the public, and it’s worked so far to matriculate those animals in,” Morgan said.

For those interested in adopting a cat, please call 253-249-7849 or visit www.AuburnValleyHS.org. The shelter is at 4910 A St. SE.