The Kitten Shelter Diversion (KSD) Program is a partnership between Operation Catnip and the general public, with a goal to sterilize and find indoor homes for friendly and highly adoptable kittens born outdoors without the utilization of shelter or rescue resources.
Qualifiers for the KSD Program:
1) The kittens must be under 4 months of age. Ages are estimated based on physical characteristics, such as general appearance, weight, and tooth development.
2) The kittens must be the offspring of community cats.
3) The kittens must be friendly and easily handled.
4) The caregiver must make every effort to bring the mother cat and any other unaltered cats from the same area in for sterilization.
5) The caregiver must have the intent to adopt the kittens out to indoor homes using their own social networks or the list of rehoming resources provided by OC. NO rescue or shelter resources should be used for adoption placement.
Kittens enrolled in the KSD program are not required to come to our clinics in humane live traps, and will not be eartipped, provided their caregivers will be adopting them out to indoor homes. They can also be sterilized as young as 8 weeks (and 2 lbs in weight), rather than our typical minimum 12 weeks for TNR cats.
We ask that all caregivers interested in enrolling complete our online application, even if they have participated in the KSD program with other kittens before. The data we collect is critical to grant funding and reporting, and we need a new application for each litter of kittens. As part of the application, the caregiver must provide a photo of the kitten(s), at which point our team will estimate an age and set the kittens up for a spay-neuter appointment (if estimated to be 8 weeks or over), or a wellness appointment for first vaccines (if estimated to be under 8 weeks). We can see kittens as young as newborns if they are ill or injured, but prefer caregivers wait to bring in healthy kittens until they are at least 2 weeks old.
This program is a wonderful way to provide alternative outcomes to TNR for friendly and adoptable kittens without adding to the populations in our crowded shelters and rescues. With your help to care for these kittens and find them homes, we can do this together!