While a Mount Barker family had the option of adopting a small ginger kitten, they fell in love with a seven-year-old street cat missing an ear, and have showered him with love and security since bringing him home.

The Hammond family are encouraging others to adopt or foster a pet after the RSPCA Lonsdale shelter recently exceeded its capacity and was forced to turn away animals for the first time since opening in 1979.

The family attended an adoption drive at PetStock Mount Barker last month, when they found Smooth Dylan.

“On the Friday after school pick up, I ended up taking my two girls to meet him and we all hit it off immediately,” Danielle said.

“What it was for me was his little face – his perpetually dirty nose and his missing ear. “I was just drawn to him because he was really special.
“We took him home an hour later – there were many tears from my girls.”
Smooth Dylan came into RSPCA’s care as a stray with terrible war wounds last November, with broken teeth, a missing ear and covered in scars.

While a little ginger kitten was available, her daughters wanted to shower this street cat with love.

“We worship this little man,” Danielle said.

“He has been comfortable from the moment we brought him home – he settled in immediately.”

“He was just lovey-dovey, he immediately came to us and he looked so lonely,” her daughter, Imogen, said.

“I like cats,” Ava added.

Smooth Dylan is “loved to pieces” in their home and relaxed quickly in their care.

“He warmed up really quickly – we just love him, he’s a cracker,” Danielle said.

“He sits in my arms while I’m working, he follows me around a lot.”

The Hammonds joined other families in adopting or fostering RSPCA pets after the charity reached capacity, which is partially due to South Australia’s rental crisis.

Since making the announcement of restriction intakes last month, numbers of pets in care have reduced.

Recent figures show 446 animals are in care at Lonsdale, including 327 cats/kittens, exceeding its capacity of 300, and 99 dogs and puppies, exceeding its capacity of 80.

The centre also has 14 rabbits and six other animals.

RSPCA SA CEO Marcus Gehrig described the situation as a “perfect storm” that has led to “enormous numbers” of animals arriving at the shelter in the past 12 months.

“Our shelter staff and volunteers have been overstretched for months, and the huge toll it’s taking on them as they strive to ensure every single animal receives the care it needs, is unacceptable,” he said.

“We are an underfunded charity – this is a crisis where we have to act now because we’re simply out of room.

“I urge our community to help us through this crisis by giving an animal a home and using whatever resources are available to them to find homes for animals they can no longer care for.

“And we need the current review of the Residential Tenancies Act to urgently address South Australia’s pet-friendly rental accommodation shortage, for the welfare of humans and animals.”

The number of animals in care is attributed to the following factors:

• South Australia’s rental crisis.
• Tighter local council cat management laws, resulting in more stray cats being trapped and brought to the Lonsdale shelter from across the state.
• Other welfare organisations closing their doors to stray and surrendered animals due to capacity constraints, resulting in more animals coming to RSPCA’s Lonsdale shelter.
• Ongoing indiscriminate breeding resulting in colonies of stray, semi-owned cats. lOngoing failure of some cat owners to abide by current laws and desex their pets. lAn increase in major seizures of animals by RSPCA inspectors from squalid animal hoarding situations, with felines the main species involved.