Adoptable Cat Marketing. Big Ideas for Finding Them Homes.

I have too many rescued cats and kittens. Too many, I say. Way too many. I've been trying everything I can think of to find them homes. I've got not much of a budget. So I was weighing advertising costs against the costs of possibly having them here forever. That made advertising seem much cheaper.

But, advertising in the local paper last week with the one free ad granted per month produced only two calls. One resulted in an adoption. The other call was a crank caller. I did adopt out a second kitten yesterday. Thank you God in Heaven, if you're there. If not, well Yay anyway! One more got a home.

That adoptor called because I'd asked another person attempting to adopt out kittens in town, to refer any overflow calls. She had only one kitten to find a home and she did that in the first call. So she referred the next callers to my number. An Albany lady got referred. I remembered her. She'd called last fall, wanting a free fixed kitten, wanting me to deliver it sight unseen because she had no car, and I just told her that all the kittens had died suddenly.

But this time, I told her I remembered her, and said "That was last fall. You must have gotten a kitten by now. Why are you wanting more?"

I'd also been warned by some homeless folk out of Camp Boondoggle about this woman, that she's a collector.

Well, to make a long story short, I'll be getting at least one of her unfixed cats fixed Tuesday, through POPPA. She claims her neighbor has 17 cats, three of them unfixed, all three of the unfixed cats being females, one with a litter of seven.

I asked this woman to please get me her neighbor's number, because I'm getting really tired out doing all this and maybe I'll be dropping dead really soon, so I better get all those cats right there, in that two house cat mess, fixed before I drop dead of dealing with all this. So she said "ok" but that doesn't mean she'll do it.

Isn't that something, being called by a collector who wants more kittens. I'm not convinced she's getting kittens because she likes cats. She also called another person a couple months ago who had two rescued cats up for adoption. I bet she calls every free kitten and cat ad. What becomes of the cats she takes in from kitten and cat ads? Nothing good is my bet. This kind of shit can keep a person up nights.

I need to take up drinking, or rather, I need to drink more often and up the volume. Alcohol consumption will go so well, I think, with the intermittant low level CO in this place.

(On the CO problem, I may have a way to keep the danger down from that for now. I think I'm going to be running a fan backwards in the kitchen window to suck through and out bad CO air that might be coming in on certain days in certain conditions from next door's car revving).

So here's what I'm coming up with, for marketing cute little rescued kittens and cats.

Well I did place two ads, one in the Eugene paper, which has a wider readership but is rather distant I would assume, if people are looking to adopt a cat or kitten.

Adopting a cat or kitten is usually more of an urgent need with people. They don't want to wait once the decision is made. They just can't wait. If they call one ad, and nobody is home, they immediately call the next. If they find a kitten next door or two blocks down, they're not going to come up and look at kittens in Corvallis.

So my feeling is that won't be real useful. I also placed an ad in a small town paper to the north, because it was cheap, real cheap, and because they don't have a local shelter or rescue. So far, I've had two calls, both from Eugene, both looking for a specific type of kitten I don't have.

I made car magnets and am giving them out to anyone who will slap it on the rear of their car. They feature the faces of kittens and cats I have for adoption and my phone number. No calls have resulted. I thought about sneaking up behind a city bus or cop cars or taxis and slapping my kitten car magnets on those highly visible vehicles. It's probably illegal. And with my phone number right on the magnets, it might not be a wise marketing move.

Stunts. I thought about a big stupid stunt, that would draw media attention inadvertantly to my rescued cats and kittens. Hmmmmm. Have not come up with a suitable stupid stunt yet, but I'm good at those things and I have no doubt I will think of one.

I thought about digging over in the woods again, on the south side of HIghway 34, across from Trysting Tee Golf Course. I found a whole lot of golf balls over there, when I was trapping in the woods to the west of the pond. I could clean them up and write my petfinder site on them with black marker then give them away in a promotion.

There's always streaking. That sure gets attention in Corvallis. I could put kitten photos in strategic bodily locations, so I'd be technically not naked. I told a very funny Albany couple about this idea and mentioned I'd probably end up with sex offender status.

"Oh no you wouldn't," said the Albany lady. She'd know. She'd mooned an animal abuser they had the misfortune of living next to on the coast. He then called the cops. The cops told him as long as the "mooner" or "streaker" is not sexually aroused when mooning or streaking it's not considered a sexual act. It is considered public indecency, however, if the behavior is not conducted on your own property. She was certainly not aroused sexually by an animal abuser and was on her own property, so the cops told the guy "don't call us again." This is a very cool couple.

Captive audiences. I need to follow the news crews, to, I don't know, events, protests, crime and accident scenes. I'd just be someone in the crowd. But I'd be someone in the crowd waving an ADOPT MY RESCUED KITTEN sign.

Going to church wearing a T-shirt featuring my petfinder site in loud letters--another captive audience opportunity. Same with going to concerts, fairs and bars, although drunks don't remember much.

I thought about putting a bit of sticky stuff on small Kitten fliers and putting them on the ground where people walk. They'd get them stuck to the bottoms of their shoes.

Someone would say "Hey, you have something stuck to the bottom of your shoe." The person would bend down to pull it off, then look and think "Oh, look. It's a kitten flier with a cute little homeless kittens' picture. I think I'll adopt this kitten."

Well anyhow......I'm banking on football season which is right around the corner. Football season means heavy drinking, at least around here. Heavy drinking means cans to pick up and turn in to pay off rescued kitten advertising credit card bills.

So, you college students out there and football fans, drink up and then drop that beer can. I'll be right behind you.