Stamp collectors and pet lovers will find "Samantha" the kitten and "Kirby" the puppy irresistible.

By ELIZABETH FISHER Courier Times

The U.S. Postal Service will issue a stamp on Sept. 20 designed to highlight the importance of spaying/neutering cats and dogs.

Stamp collectors and pet lovers will find "Samantha" the kitten and "Kirby" the puppy irresistible, and they might just get the message to protect the domestic animal kingdom by limiting the population.

The new campaign, "Too many animals, too few homes. Save Lives, Spay," will feature a strip of 20 37-cent stamps with photographs taken by Sally Andersen-Bruce.

According to information from the postal service, an estimated 70,000 cats and dogs are born each day in the United States.

Animal shelters and veterinarians across the country urge pet owners to neuter or spay their animals to help combat the problem, according to the statement from the postal service.

The stamp is a boost for organizations such as the Stray Cat Blues Inc., an animal foster-care group that serves Bucks and Montgomery counties, said Linda Palmarozza, the group's public relations coordinator.

Stray Cat Blues was founded in 1990 by a Harleysville farmer who noticed a burgeoning population of "barn" cats in the area, Palmarozza said. She started the organization that has since grown to 100 volunteers who help people adopt cats, or trap outside cats for spaying.

The organization also helps people who like to feed feral cats - cats who live in the wild but show up at back doors and trashcans looking for food. Plenty of folks like to feed them until they realize that, like bunnies, the friendly neighborhood ferals reproduce, Palmarozza said.

The organization realizes that not all feral cats are adoptable.

"Some can be socialized, but others are wild cats that can't be introduced into family life," she said.

The danger of feeding a stray cat is that, sooner or later, it will have a litter. When the kittiens come of age, they also start reproducing. And they don't wait to find the perfect mate, Palmarozza said.

"The public is often ignorant about cats. If they live in a colony, they will mate with their brothers or sisters to reproduce," she said.

The good side of catering to one colony of cats is that they're territorial. If a foster "parent" takes care of one colony that's been neutered, they tend to chase away outside cats who might think of settling in, she said.

Last year, the organization assisted in the spaying and resettlement of 335 adaptable cats and 50 "barn" cats, animals who are too wild to adapt to family life.

When the organization gets a call, a volunteer will bring a cat trap out to the house to show the owner how to use it. The homeowner also gets discount certificates to have the trapped cat - or cats - spayed at one of the participating veterinary centers.

The caretaker has to pay for the neutering/spaying, but at a drastically reduced price, which varies, depending on where the cat is taken.

Once the cat recovers from surgery, its foster parent brings the cat home and can adopt it out, or continue to feed it at the doorstep. The volunteer returns to the house to pick up the trap, Palmarozza said.

"The stamps, prompted by rescue groups such as ours, makes a social statement; it gets the message out about neutering/spaying," she said.

-- Anonymous, September 09, 2002