Ten Lives Centre gearing up for influx of cats as kitten season starts

The state’s largest cat shelter is preparing for a surge in residents as the warmer months arrive, and the very small but very bothersome problem they bring.

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THE team at Hobart’s Ten Lives Centre is in wait for the mammoth annual kitten season to start.

With the warmer days settling in the season is expected to kick off at any moment.

Once it hits, an estimated 400 ­felines a week will pass through the Cornelian Bay shelter, most on their way to new and loving homes.

“When kitten season starts, it starts,” says centre manager Noel Hunt. “We open to the public at 10am and it’s nothing unusual to have taken 30-35 cats and kittens by lunchtime.”

“We’re at our quietest time and we have 70 cats in our care, but that will quickly go up to 300 or 400 and we’ll maintain that for six or seven months.”

Centre supervisor Alisha Tams says the centre’s cat hospital, vet surgery and cat adoption areas produce about 70kg dry weight of washing each day during the peak season. Everything from surgery gowns, surgical drapes, surgical kit wraps, surgical beds, cat beds and towels for cat bedding needs to meet vet-grade sterilisation before reuse.

Ten Lives Cat Centre supervisor Alisha Tams with a rescue kitten. Picture: NIKKI DAVIS-JONES

The centre was facing challenges with an amended Cat Management Act and the increased hygiene demands, but a $10,000 cash injection from a federally funded Building Stronger Community grant, arranged by MP Andrew Wilkie, is helping the centre meet its hygiene obligations.

The funds have gone towards a new $24,000 washing machine, which has freed up staff to better use their time in looking after the cats. “It was never-ending breakdowns because those machines are not designed for that usage, or cat hair,” Mr Hunt said.

He said the centre was now better able to provide its cat education programs to the community.

“We want the community to take more responsibility for cats so we have cats in the right place, which is in a home environment, properly looked after and contained or at least curfewed rather than causing damage in the bush,” he said.

To surrender a cat or kittens or adopt one, visit tenlives.com.au