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From the local paper...
If you want to get a cat in Seattle, you have a lot of options. You can go check the yellow pages for breeders. You can look online on countless Web sites, from personal pet breeder pages to classified directories like nwsource.com or Craigslist. You can peruse your neighborhood pet shop.
Or you can adopt.
From Jan. 1 through Oct. 21 of 2006, residents adopted 1,459 cats from the Seattle Animal Shelter. In the same time period this year, 1,392 cats have found home and shelter officials say they're on track to find homes for 1,700 cats by January.
The number of cats in the shelter hasn't changed much this year from last year. But on a longer timeline, it's a different story.
There could be several causes for what shelter director Don Jordan says is a steady increase in the number of homeless cats in Seattle -- from the fact that there is no cat leash law to an observed tendency not to spay or neuter cats as diligently as dogs.
But there's another possibility, and it might surprise you -- global warming.
"A decade ago or two decades ago, when there were cold spells in the winter, a certain part of the cat population died off. But if we're not having those real cold spells, a lot more animals stay alive through the breeding season," Jordan said. He hasn't seen any data to back that up, but it's "certainly been discussed" among directors of other shelters, he said.
