Being a shelter photographer you have two seasons, kitten season and old pet season.

Both represent hope and sadness.

Kitten season is happy because who doesn’t love kittens? I don’t get too excited about human babies but baby animals, I’m all over that.

Kitten season is also sad. Just when you think folks are starting to learn to spay and neuter their animals, the shelter and rescue communities get slammed with hundreds of kittens.

Choices have to be made at shelters and at animal control that no one wants to make.

Just when you think you can’t photograph another kitten, it’s over. This is usually late fall.

That’s when old pet season starts. This is usually October through January.

This is when it seems many older folks pass on or transition into retirement/nursing homes. Their pets are taken on by family. Sometimes this family doesn’t want the pet. Then the pet who has now lost their people whom them may have known their whole life, find themselves at the shelter.

These older pets are often scared, confused and stressed. They are at the shelter simply because their human can’t look after them anymore.

These senior dogs and cats are often overlooked because the general public see them as no fun and a future filled with potentially high medical bills and saying goodbye all too soon.

As the pet parent to two aging cats, senior pets have more love and support to give than you will ever see from a kitten or puppy. Senior pets have many years to give, you just have to give them a chance.

Often because of space issues or because of long term shelter stays, decisions have to be made that no one wants to make.

Where am I going with this? Spay/neuter your pets and give older pets a chance.