Overwhelmed by cats that were surrendered from a “bad situation,” the South Okanagan-Similkameen SPCA are now overwhelmed with emotion by the response from the community.

“It has been just awesome how the community has come together to help,” said Carolyn Hawkins, branch manager. “We have had lots of great donations. People are still bringing them in. We had a whole pallet of cat litter donated by Pet Pantry. People have donated canned cat food, litter, cat scratch posts. We have also had monetary donations which are very important because the vet bills keep growing.”

Hawkins said 64 animals in total were surrendered from a bad situation, overwhelming the Penticton SPCA building which normally has a capacity for care of 24 cats.

“We are doing good now because we have been able to transfer quite a few out to other shelters in the province. That has helped us to be able to properly take care of them.”

Related: Over 60 cats and kittens surrendered to SPCA

There are 20 cats left in the care of the SPCA branch in Penticton that are receiving medical care and behaviour modification treatment. Hawkins estimates the cost of that care for each cat is about $600. They are still a few weeks away from being adoptable pets.

“It will probably take two to three weeks of treating for illness, that happens quite often in situation like this where they all get parasites, plus we are doing medication because they were not all socialized so it takes them awhile to come around and realize that we are not all bad,” said Hawkins.

At this point it is unclear if there will be charges laid to the owner because it was a surrender situation, rather than a seizure.

Hawkins said she is thankful for the community assistance and what they are really in need of now is monetary donations.

“We are really good with food and litter. Any monetary donations would really help because the vet bills are rising all the time and they haven’t been spayed or neutered yet.”

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