Food is up and the cat population down at Warren County Animal Control and Adoption Center.

“We’re still receiving food donations,” said Animal Control director Kim Pettrey. “It’s heartwarming. It truly is. We asked the community for help and people responded. Everyone has been very supportive and we appreciate it.”

The facility has been under an overwhelming feline burden for the last several months with more than 100 cats daily. At the end of November, the facility had 106 cats.

The large number of mouths to feed depleted the department’s fiscal year budget for food in six months. Williamson County Animal Center recently eased the feline burden by taking 43 cats.

“We didn’t expect them to take that many,” said Pettrey. “When they contacted us, I thought they would take a few. They took 43 cats and four puppies. That was a tremendous help to us.”

Williamson County’s center is a public open-intake shelter that is county tax funded. Its facility is a 5,000-square-foot building.

Helping Animals of Warren County, a nonprofit organization, is also lending its support by sponsoring the adoption of eight cats.

“HAWC has generously offered to sponsor eight adoptions,” said Pettrey. “Our Pet of the Week is a wonderful cat. He’d make a good pet. If someone wants to adopt him, his adoption fee will be paid by HAWC.”

Without sponsorship, the full charge for cat adoption is $77.

“Some people think $77 is too much to pay for a cat,” said Pettrey. “It really isn’t because it pays for spay or neuter and rabies vaccination. Those are two things the new owner should do anyway. Spay and neuter is the solution to overpopulation.”

Animals coming into the facility that are already altered have their adopted fee reduced to $10 or in some cases, waived entirely. For more information on adoptions or how you can help, call 507-3647.