Animal Care Center of NYC has about 1,000 too many cats

If you’ve always wanted a cat now would be the time to adopt one of the New York City’s Animal Care Center’s 1,000 surplus cats.

A surplus of cats? Yup.

“This year alone we have taken in nearly 10,000 cats. That’s an additional thousand more than the same time period last year,” ACC adoption manager Jessica Vaccaro explained to Metro.

Why are there 10,000 cats? Two words: Kitten Season (yes, it’s a real thing). It’s a time between April and September when the center sees the largest influx of young cats into its facilities. This year’s Kitten Season in particular has been warmer and therefore could have encourage cats to mate earlier than last year.

“Every year it feels like kitten season starts a little bit earlier and ends a little bit earlier,” Vaccaro said with a sigh.

As a part of an effort to get people to adopt, the ACC is now offering no-fee adoptions for all cats over one year old.

What if you can’t adopt? The ACC suggests fostering as an option, and if you can’t foster, finding someone who can adopt or foster.

Of the 1,000 surplus cats, only several hundred are currently available for adoption, but that doesn’t mean there’s a lack of variety for you to choose from.

“The good thing about having so many cats is that we have just a great pool for potential adopters to choose from,” Vaccaro said. “Whether someone is looking for that very friendly lap cat, or if they want a cat that will sit next to them but not on them, or even if they want a very specific color pattern or size, chances are good that our adoption counselors can find them their perfect match.”

A purr-fect match indeed.

If you’re looking for a cat you can visit ACC’s three Care Centers in Manhattan, The Bronx and Staten Island, open from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Matt Lee is a Web producer for Metro New York. He writes about almost everything and anything. Talk to him (or yell at him) on Twitter so he doesn’t feel lonely@mattlee2669.