This past summer, we rescued lovely Lolapalooza from an animal control facility where she was slated to be euthanized because she was pregnant. Unfortunately, with approximately three million cats entering shelters every year, pregnant females are the first to be euthanized when it’s necessary to make room for the arrival of more stray and abandoned cats. Lola’s story is, sadly, all too common. Lola’s guardians chose not to spay her, and when she inevitably became pregnant, they relinquished her because they could not handle the burden of caring for a litter of kittens. Fortunately for Lola, her story has a happy ending. Thanks to members like you, Tree House was able to save Lola, and she is now living in the loving, forever home she deserves.

The real victory, however, has yet to be accomplished. We cannot celebrate Lola’s happy ending when there are so many cats out there who will not receive a second chance at life. As you read this, hundreds of thousands of animals are sitting in shelters awaiting euthanasia, and, unlike Lola, most of them will not be rescued. And the real solution to this problem is not to rescue one animal at a time. The solution to this problem is to create a country where there is no pet overpopulation, where there are no Lola’s euthanized at shelters, and the best, most efficient way to realize this dream is to spay and neuter.