Did you know? What is Kitten Season.

What Kitten Season is and how you can help.

Author: Community Pet Coordinator, Miranda Ward

Kitten season is known as the time that unfixed cats are most likely to have kittens.  Kitten season is typically between March and October. Cats can have litters any time of year, but in the warm months, the number of kittens born alarmingly increases. Cats are very prolific creatures; they reach sexual maturity as young as 4-5 months, have an average of 3-8 kittens per litter, and can have between 2-5 litters per season.

One unfixed female cat can have more than 100 kittens in her lifetime, and assuming that half of those kittens born are females, she and her offspring can go on to have upwards of 300-400 kittens in 7 years. Multiply this by the hundreds of community cats in the area, and that number grows exponentially. The fact of the matter is that there are not enough homes to care for all of the kittens born each year, which is why we want you to know how you can help prevent unwanted litters, and support the litters that are born each year.  

How to help Animal Shelters During Kitten Season

The great news is that we have tons of contacts, resources, and programs to help combat this issue. Here’s how to help!

  • Spay and neuter your pets. The cost to get your LHS pet spayed or neutered is included in our adoption fees! If you have a pet that isn’t an LHS Alum and you’re looking for a low cost option, our Spay/Neuter Clinic is a fantastic choice! Click here for information about the services offered by our Spay/Neuter Clinic.
  • Consider donating to support the cost of care for our kittens! For those interested in making a monetary donation, visit our donation page! Here, you can peruse options for donating such as our Community Cat Fix program which helps subsidize the cost of the thousands of spays and neuters of community cats performed at our Spay/Neuter Clinic, as well as our Shelter Medicine program, which supports the care of every pet who comes through our doors. 
  • Support TNR programs! TNR stands for Trap, Neuter, Release. Dozens of volunteers all over our community find colonies of unfixed outdoor cats and work with local vets and clinics to perform low-cost spays and neuters, treat and vaccinate, and release the pets back into their colonies where they are happiest. If you have a cat colony you would like help with, consider contacting Stray Cat TNR at (434) 515-0456, or visit Central Virginia Regional Rescue’s TNR Assistance page here!
  • Beware of kitten napping. Mother cats move their litters frequently in order to keep them safe. When kittens are very young, their best chances of survival are with mom. If you find kittens alone, give them some space and wait awhile! Mom may be in the process of moving the litter, searching for food, or she may be hiding from you. If the kittens are in unsafe places like parking lots, drainage ditches, or under vehicles, or mom hasn’t returned after several hours, make sure they’re warm, and then reach out to your local shelter or rescue group for help. That may be us, or if you live in a different county, it may be one of our neighboring organizations! 
  • Become a foster! The LHS Center for Pets has a bustling foster program ready to support the several hundreds of kittens we get each year. We provide all supplies free of charge to our fosters and are ready to teach new families how to become Kitten Warriors! From sick orphan bottle babies to healthy, plump kittens with a mom, all our underage babies need foster care. We are always searching for the best match based on our pets needs and our foster families’ preferences and abilities, so we always have the kitten for you! No experience is needed; we have a community of Coordinators and other fosters ready to help you! If you’re ready to become part of this life-saving mission, apply here!

Other blogs from the Lynchburg Humane Society:

We Were Adopted! January 31st- February 6th.

We said cheerio to Cheerio, as well as 35 other pets this week!

Everyone’s favorite greeter, Cheerio found happiness this week! Cheerio was our most talkative cat at the Center, chatting up everyone who walked in. She finally sparked up a conversation with the right person and found herself a family! We are so happy for Cheerio and her new mom!

We want to thank Jack Barkley and Susan Barkley Rice who sponsored Cheerio’s adoption fee, and to Beacon Credit Union for sponsoring this month’s adoption banner!

Adopted Pets from January 31st through February 6th.

Cats that were adopted:

Angelite, Bobby, Brewster, Cheerio, Citrine, Clavicle, Dulce De Leche, Dwayne, Earthsea, Fujifilm, Garnet, Hobie, Jade, Malachite, Maxine, Nermal, Obsidian, Olsen, Orchid, Panasonic, Pyrite, Ram, Tabasco, Templeton, Vitoni, Winnie, and Zavalla

Dogs that were adopted:

Archie, Bashful, Blizzard, Hope, Lucky, Meenie, Noel, Pika, and Toby

Did you know? What No-Kill Really Means

What does it mean for a shelter to be No-Kill?

"Did you know" Lynchburg Humane Society logo, a green dog icon that has a confused head tilt

If you follow the Lynchburg Humane Society, you probably know that we are a no-kill organization.  But what does that mean?   

A 90% save rate is the industry-wide benchmark for no-kill designation. The reason that this percentage isn’t 100% is because national data shows that about 10% of the pets that enter an animal shelter suffer from medical or behavior issues that  may require humane euthanasia due to low quality of life.

Some no-kill organizations will occasionally dip below 90% for various reasons but still be no-kill.  As a matter of fact, the Lynchburg Humane Society has had a save rate for cats in the summer months that is below 90%.  This is because we take in a high number of neonate kittens not just from Lynchburg, but from Amherst, Bedford, Campbell and Appomattox counties, as well as from many other areas.  Those newborn kittens are very fragile and susceptible to diseases, illnesses and many fail to thrive. We also take in many hospice, special needs, and injured pets from other shelters that do not have the resources to treat and save these pets.  We also help keep pets in their homes, so we often will take in a pet for life threatening illnesses or injuries, treat them and get them back in their loving home where they belong. So, because we take in a higher number of sick, injured, or difficult-to-treat animals, we sometimes have a month or two that we do not hit a 90% save rate, but we are still a no-kill organization.  

Life-saving Programs

One of the important elements of no-kill is implementing lifesaving programs. These include, foster, targeted spay/neuter, and community cat programs, as well as removing adoption barriers.  All communities are different and have varying needs for lifesaving programs – but all need to have an open mind and be willing to try new things.  Basing lifesaving programs and decisions on data is imperative in creating and maintaining a no-kill organization.

LHS No-Kill FAQs

Some of the most frequent comments and questions we receive about being a no-kill shelter:

  • Since you are a no-kill shelter, that means you never euthanize, right?  No, we do euthanize – if a pet is suffering or too dangerous to be adopted, we will euthanize to alleviate suffering and for public safety.
  • No-kill shelters hoard pets in unhealthy conditions.  No, a true no-kill shelter in my opinion, responsibly manages their population and cleanliness.  Do your research concerning any organization you want to support – be confident things like this aren’t happening.
  • Some shelters misrepresent their numbers to appear no-kill.  The great thing about Virginia is that all shelters must report their data to the state (you can see any Virginia shelter’s statistics here – https://arr.vdacs.virginia.gov/Reports06 ).  We also report our statistics on our website: https://lynchburghumane.org/about-us/statistical-information/. Thanks to this reporting, you can do your own research on the organizations you support!  

How the Lynchburg Humane Society helps other shelters work towards No-Kill

Mother Hubbard who was transferred in from Appomattox with her 10 nursing puppies.

There are many shelters that are under-resourced and need help to meet the pets’ needs and become no-kill.  That is where the Lynchburg Humane Society and other progressive shelters can help – we provide mentorship opportunities to those under-resourced shelters to help them create lifesaving programs and to find every possible resource in order to save all of the healthy and treatable pets.  We also transfer pets to our Center from shelters with at-risk pets.


Essentially, being no-kill is using every resource you have available to save pets and not euthanizing healthy or treatable pets and never euthanizing for space or time.


 For more information on this topic and to help you understand more about shelters that you are supporting, Best Friends Animal Society has a great article with wonderful information, read it here: https://bestfriends.org/no-kill-2025/what-does-no-kill-mean

We Were Adopted! January 24th-30th

Queen Lavender went home to her castle, as well as 39 other pets found happiness this week!

Lavender spent most of her time here at the Center watching out of her tower in hopes of finding the one person that could match her unique personality. Finally, her person came this week, and it was love at first sight for them both. This green-eyed beauty finally has her own castle to call home and a family to love and adore her.

The staff is so happy that Lavender found happiness! We want to thank Allison Norwood, who sponsored Lavender’s adoption fee, and Beacon Credit Union for sponsoring this month’s adoption banner!

Adopted Pets from January 24th-January 30th.

Cats that were adopted:

Autumn, Bandit, Caroline, Celebration, Chase, Cider, Cloudy, Cobblestone, Custard, Drizzle, Goblin, Havana, Humerus, Jensen, Kate, Kodak, Lavender, Mackerel, Otto, Renee, Sierra, Sophie, Spatz, Squall, Stormy, Thunder, Timmy, Tully Hart, and Wanda

Dogs that were adopted:

Brisbane, Camo, Casanova, Eenie, Etna, Finn, Miney, Mitsey, Neko, Riley, and Stella

Did you know? Every Pet that Comes to our Shelter Requires Medical Care

Medical Team member Kaylyn performing a dental cleaning on adoptable dog, Choppa.

From Immunizations to Complex Surgeries, every pet that enters LHS requires medical care.

Every pet that comes into our care requires medical care. It may be very simple care, like vaccines or dewormer or more serious like treatment for skin issues, broken bones, or treatment for a complicated or critical illness. But all the pets that come into our care get and need medical care.  

We perform preventative care the moment a pet comes through our doors to help keep that pet safe and also keep the other pets safe and healthy that are already in our care. Disease prevention is extremely important in a shelter environment. All pets get vaccines (and then boosters), a fecal test, and dewormer, most need spayed or neutered and a microchip. Just those simple things really add up when you are talking about thousands of pets each year. 

Sunflower who was found in the City of Lynchburg as a lost pet with a large abdominal wound.

Of course, some pets come in needing much more intensive medical care. We get pets that have been hit by a car, dogs that have parvovirus, pets that are starving and we can see almost every bone in their body, dental problems, infections, heart conditions, have been attacked by something, skin issues, severe allergies, diabetes…we could go on and on. We do everything we can do to give these pets a second chance, but those treatments add up…fast.

How much does the Lynchburg Humane Society spend on medical care?

In a typical month, we spend about $20,000 on medical care and that doesn’t include spay/neuter surgeries or our medical staff’s payroll. It would be even more if we didn’t have wonderful partners like Peaks View Animal Hospital and Animal Emergency and Critical Care.

How you can help!

We are able to provide the help to these pets because of our giving community. Without you, we would not be able to save so many lives. We thank you for allowing us to do the right thing for the pets and give them a second chance! If you’re interested in joining us in our mission to help pets and people, please consider following the links below to get involved.

Learn about Volunteering at the Lynchburg Humane Society.

Donate to our Second Chance Medical Fund.

Learn about Fostering at the Lynchburg Humane Society.