Napier SPCA late-night adoption event a ‘spectacular success’

Napier SPCA's special late-night adoption event to help find new homes for more than 40 cats and kittens was a big hit with locals

While 13 may be an unlucky number for some, the Napier SPCA couldn’t feel any luckier after finding 13 felines homes at their late-night adoption event.

Last week the Napier SPCA was close to full to capacity, with more than 40 cats and kittens looking for new homes. The centre decided to host a late-night adoption event for those who couldn’t make it during the centre’s open hours.

Napier SPCA centre opened its doors after hours for one night only and was blown away by the number of people looking for a cat.

Napier SPCA centre manager Joy Walker said the late-night adoption event was a “spectacular success and we were so happy with the outcome of every single adoption”.

Walker was not expecting that many people to come along and said, “Word must have gotten around through the power of different media channels, and word of mouth.

“It was an almost constant flow of lots of different families, and it was quite fun and an outstanding result.”

The centre had many different age groups come through the late-night adoption event and 13 felines found homes.

At Thursday’s late-night adoption event, eight kittens and five cats were adopted, which was followed by a successful next few days of adoption with 35 cats adopted by Saturday afternoon.

Walker said, “It is great for people to be able to come to the centre and spend time in the adoption rooms before choosing their cat, as they can observe the different energy levels and temperaments on display.”

Because some people would prefer a lively and playful kitten, and some would like a quieter and more reserved companion.

However, “if you show cats love and good care, they will give you their trust and affection - and there’s nothing better than earning that from an animal”, Walker said.

In the end, the late-night created awareness within the community of how many animals are in need of good homes and made a huge amount of space for all the other cats who were waiting.

The Napier SPCA centre hopes to host late-night adoption events on a semi-regular basis, as quite a lot of people with challenging work hours and other commitments were able to come and adopt, Walker said.