LEANNE ITALIE Lifestyles Writer.

Strawberry the kitten appears on Wednesday, June 4, 2025, at the Associated Press bureau in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Conlon)

Welcome to kitten season, when animal shelters need all the help they can get

It’s kitten season in warm-weather areas and animal shelters need all the help they can get. Now is the time of year when most cats give birth. That produces a surge of kittens. Shelters tend to get overwhelmed, especially when it comes to the 24-hour care and feeding of extremely young kittens. As a result, more foster homes are needed. There’s a false perception out there that cat foster families shoulder all expenses. Animal welfare advocate Hannah Shaw, known on social media as the Kitten Lady, says nowadays that’s not true. Most shelters and rescues help out. That includes training and supporting cat foster parents.

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(AP Illustration / Peter Hamlin)

Planning a wedding is stressful. Couples and vendors now have to factor in tariffs

Wedding cakes, decor, attire, flowers, party favors, Champagne. There isn’t much in the wedding industry that isn’t affected by new tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump. How much gets passed down to consumers is up to the vendors and the many middlemen often involved. Some wedding couples and their vendors are already feeling the sting. Wedding professionals say some sectors of the industry in the U.S. are underdeveloped and incapable of absorbing the load from tariff-heavy nations. That includes China, but also Latin American countries that provide the U.S. with the bulk of its cut flowers. Some bridal couples will go without.

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