At least here (Eugene) our Craigslist Kitten went down a little this week, although our s/n focus neighborhood, Springfield continued to rise. Nationally, quite a few areas went down this week, so at least their peaks didn’t go any higher.
I’ve done a lot more looking into this. Although everything I’ve checked out on the CLKI side shows this is an explosion of ads for kittens needing homes, and it really is widespread, I haven’t found any more examples like LA and Austin showing in increase in shelter intake. But then, I haven’t found any place else where I can get data as good.
Kern County (graphed here with the Bakersfield CLKI) seems to have had a major change in 2013, which radically reduced both dog and cat intake, so I can’t say anything about what would be “normal” to expect this year. The CLKI could be so high this year because the shelter raised their intake fee, making more people using Craigslist to find homes for unwanted kittens.
It’s possible the general rise in CLKI could be caused by Kitten Season caming late and kittens “hit the market” in a flood, but there aren’t any more per season than usual, even though the peak CLKI’s are higher.
Capt'n Lisa's Log 