RALEIGH -- Forced to give up her cats, Patty Weeks found every refuge already jammed, filled past capacity by pets abandoned by the jobless and desperate.
The recession had struck so deeply into the feline world that the only open door for Lucky and Shelby Lynne, named for the country singer, came at the Wake County shelter, which now kills four out of every five homeless cats.
Across the Triangle, shelters for cats are facing their highest-ever capacities, strained by a crush of animals dropped off with apologetic notes from the newly unemployed.
Safe Haven for Cats in Raleigh now houses 125 animals compared to the more typical 80 cats.
Last year, nearly 100 cats lived on the sprawling Goat House Cat Refuge north of Pittsboro. Today, it's closer to 200.
"We've had people come into the lobby who were living in their cars," said Safe Haven founder Pam Miller. "They were looking for a place for their cats to go. Many people contact us because they're losing their homes."
At the Wake County Care, Control and Adoption Center, 80 percent of all cats are euthanized, including healthy and adoptable pets. There, said director Michael Williams, people adopt dogs at four times the rate of cats.
Internet options are proving just as futile. Nelson Rivera, 29, lost his job at Rec Warehouse in Raleigh and soon lost his home. He posted three advertisements on craigslist.org. Then he squatted with a friend who couldn't abide his pet, and he was forced to walk the streets at night, holding his cat until he met a sympathetic cat lover to take it.
"The last two nights I stayed up," Rivera said. "I didn't sleep for 24 hours."
Tough times for pets
Nationwide, a comparison of shelters in lean and recession years shows a steep increase in animals put to death before they can be adopted.
In 1997, roughly 64 percent of the total number of animals that entered shelters surveyed by the nonprofit American Humane Association were euthanized -- about 2.7 million animals. Today, the Humane Society of the United States puts that number at 3.7 million.
"I think the economy is making it worse," said Cory Smith, director of the humane communities program for the Humane Society. "We're definitely seeing more strays coming in, more from foreclosed properties."
Solutions are scarce
On orders from her asthma doctor, Weeks is up against a November deadline to free her home of cats, Thanksgiving at the latest. She tried Goat House and its 3-acre fenced plot in Chatham County. But even Goat House and its reputation for taking all comers couldn't help, at least not right away.
"These are my babies," said Weeks, 47. "Where do I go now?"
In the meantime, said manager Mary Dow, they're hoping to post pictures of Weeks' animals on the Internet and suggesting she make do with an air purifier at home.
"We have four cats here that we're looking after for a woman who's had to go into a homeless shelter," Dow said. "It's bad enough having to lose your home, your fortunes, but to have to lose your animals as well ..."
Weeks tried fliers, posters and ads on petfinder.com and craigslist.org. The only response came from a man in Ohio who offered to fly both her animals to his house.
She suspects he had sinister plans, and declined. As the clock ticks, Lucky and Shelby Lynne will wait for a real savior.
