Cats Rescued from Storm-Torn South Arrive Downtown, Await New Homes

After being driven overnight from Georgia, 20 cats were  decamped at the Best Friends Pet Adoption Center on West Broadway. Ten dogs from Florida continued on to two rescue centers in Massachusetts. Right: Two of the felines await a vet check before being taken upstairs for adoption. Photos: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib 

A heart-piercing chorus of meows filled the lower level of a West Broadway animal adoption center Thursday morning following the arrival of 20 lucky cats rescued from Hurricane- battered Georgia.  

The cats made the 1,000-mile journey by van to the Best Friends Pet Adoption Center at 307 West Broadway in Soho, along with 10 dogs that continued on to another animal center in Cape Cod. 

The cats were doing well following the long trip, said Alina Hauptman, a spokeswoman at the shelter. But now they need a real home.

“One of the best things you can do is get out and foster and adopt them,” she said. “Because that’s going to give the pets time to decompress and get the loving second chance that they deserve.”

Once checked to make sure they are microchipped, spayed, neutered, and vaccinated (surgery is done elsewhere), the cats go upstairs where they await a future new family. 

Most of these cats, Hauptmann said, come from shelters. “The shelters can’t operate. They have no electricity, no water, no supplies.”

Best Friends works with over 5,000 shelter and rescue groups around the country, dedicated to ending the killing of animals in shelters. The organization has been on the ground in hurricane-impacted areas of the South to help provide essential supplies such as pet food, cat litter, and generators “for those who have lost everything,” Hauptmann said. 

“What a day. Lots of babies,” said Best Friends’ Leah Cohn, who was weighing a tiny kitten. Many cats normally arrive on Thursday from shelters that don’t have “adoption partner outlets,” she said. “But it is special when we can  help, especially in the South, where they really need that extra support.”

Best Friends Adoption Center, 307 West Broadway, is open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Go here for more information on adoption.