Contact: Sandy Bodner, Shelter Me, Inc., 617-549-8523, sandy@sheltermeinc.org

MEDFORD, Mass., July 22 /Standard Newswire/ -- The first time Shelter Me, Inc., a fledgling animal rescue organization, ran into a capacity problem, the culprit was not lack of money. The immediate cause was deceptively simple: exhaustion. After rescuing approximately 48 cats and kittens, the group's extended network of supporters reached its super-saturation point. Family, friends and business colleagues had variously trapped, bottle-fed, fostered, and adopted every animal they could. More foster homes were needed and there were none to be found.

While a shortage of foster homes remains Shelter Me, Inc.'s leading challenge, the challenge is not unique to this young organization, just passing its first year anniversary. An insufficient number of foster homes plague nearly every large and small rescue organization across Massachusetts. The lack is especially acute during the summertime breeding season when the exploding birthrate of stray, wild and owned cats fills all available space.

A smattering of posts (minus identities) extracted from Masscats.org, a listserve of 300 volunteers and professionals, on an average day in July reinforces the sense of desperation when helping hands are in short supply:

• I know everyone is full up, but I just wanted to let you know that the MSPCA in Methuen and Lowell Humane Society are both officially FULL... they are desperate for any help possible. If you know of anyone who might be willing to help these organizations with adoption or foster care or transfer please contact them directly. I hate this time of year!

• We have been called to a colony of 2 feral adult cats and trapped 6, 7-week old kittens as well. I know everybody is busy, but if there's anyone who can take them, please e-mail off-line. 3 orange, 3 diluted tortie/gray tiger. I am in Middleboro and will drive almost anywhere.

• I trapped a cat last night who is in need of a foster home. He is a very sweet guy, but pretty beat up. Angel Umbrella was going to take him, but they just had a cat dumped in their parking lot yesterday, who had to go into the last cage. I am paying $165 a night to keep him at Angel right now as I cannot have him in my house. Can you help....even on a temporary basis until Angel Umbrella can make room for him?

The limited availability of foster homes is most severe when all the children in the Commonwealth are on vacation and hundreds more households might - at least theoretically - be available to play with homeless kittens for 2-3 weeks until they are old enough to adopt out. There are virtually no costs to participants. And yet, no effort has ever been able to substantially (i.e., geometrically) increase the number of children and their parents willing to join a foster cats crusade.

Difficult to understand why foster homes would be a hard sell, although many clues reside in the failure - of all undertakings to date - to lower the overpopulation of cats in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Over the last two decades - despite the efforts of numerous rescue groups to provide free and low-cost spay/neuter - more adult cats were surrendered to MSPCA shelters in 2006 - 11,209 - than in 1986 - 10,961.

To place this worsening state of affairs in perspective, consider the number of dogs being surrendered in the same period was reduced by more than 60 percent, from 12,117 in1986 to 4,564 in 2006. While success is credited to multiple strategies, including aggressive spay/neuter and licensing, the situation is not entirely parallel.

"People buy dogs. Cats are more likely to 'happen' to people," is an observation Carter Luke from the Massachusetts MSPCA shared at a Mass Animal Coalition meeting earlier this year. He was referring to the sense of elasticity that surrounds "ownership" of cats, which leads to many lost opportunities to control the population. For example, if someone feeding a stray cat on their back porch does not consider themself an "owner," that person is less likely to assume responsible for spaying or neutering the animal. Unfortunately, the consequences of inattention are explosive. An unspayed female may have four litters per year, a reproduction rate that often begets disease and starvation.

Perhaps sadder still are the young healthy cats that enter the shelter system in the summer months, surrendered by their owners. They face euthanasia in open admission facilities that must continue to accept additional animals, even when they have no more room. At precisely that moment, a foster home is the difference between life and death for the animal. A foster situation buys the time to find a more permanent home.

There are dozens of organizations willing to train, support and supervise the foster homes. Ironically, it is not money the animal rescue movement needs at this specific moment. Money is always welcome but it cannot close this immediate gap. Only foster homes can do that. Help us put the word out.

Shelter Me, Inc. is a nonprofit organization that develops original educational marketing, fundraising and direct intervention programs that support the rescue of neglected and abandoned cats and dogs.