Older cats adopted after many years at Popcorn Park animal shelter

Older cats housed at the adoption center of the Associated Humane Societies’ Popcorn Park Zoo in Forked River, which currently has about 130 cats waiting for forever homes, sometimes have a difficult time getting noticed. But after waiting many years for potential adopters to take them home, Stormy and Frankie, two cats living at the shelter for nine and six years respectively, were both adopted by separate families last week.

Photo via Facebook
Before being adopted, Frankie spent six years at
the Associated Humane Societies' adoption center.

Both of the cats were brought to the shelter as strays. Stormy, a brown tiger and white female, was rescued from a storm drain in Waretown in 2005. Frankie, a black domestic shorthair male with white back toes, was brought in after being found in the back yard of a home in 2008.

Jay Morris, a cat caretaker at the shelter for the past 13 years, who helped oversee the care of Frankie since he was brought in, described him as “somewhat of a loner.”

“He was a little more of a dominant cat, so he didn’t really get along so well with other cats. But he had an excellent personality,” Morris said. “He was a very good companion. He was very vocal; he would always meow at you. He had a big, deep meow.

“To be picked amongst 150 cats is hard. It’s kitten season now, so the numbers get a little higher, and since black cats don’t stand out as much, sometimes they just get overlooked,” he added.

More often than not, potential adopters are looking for kittens, said Cathi Gray, the shelter’s office manager.

“With so many cats here, people come in, and they’ll just see a certain cat, and the other ones get overlooked,” she explained.

Thankfully, cats that are not adopted right away are kept at the shelter for as long as possible.

“We don’t have a specific time limit on any cat’s stay here,” said Morris. “We try to give every cat as much of a chance as we can. We don’t set a limit on what we can do for them.”

Unless a cat is “overly ill or aggressive,” they are given every opportunity at being adopted, he added.

“Even that cat, if it didn’t get adopted, would have been here longer,” said Gray, referring to Stormy.

The shelter is equipped with two cat roaming areas, one for males and another for females. Two cat cage areas can hold up to 21 cages each and another has room for 24 cages. The hospital area also has room for another 21 cages, Morris explained.

“We keep cats as long as we can. It’s a very last resort to have to put a cat to sleep,” he said. “We give them every chance we can and treat things medically and do everything before that even becomes an option.”

For more information about adopting from the Popcorn Park animal shelter, visit ahscares.org or call 609-693-1900.

— Kelley Anne Essinger


This article was published in The SandPaper.