More than a dozen kittens from Edmonton and Kelowna, B.C. have been welcomed additions to Whitehorse families over the past month.

Linda Priestley, the Mae Bachur Animal Shelter’s manager, said Tuesday that in late September, six kittens from the humane society in Edmonton arrived in Whitehorse due to overcrowding of kittens at the shelter there.

It did not take long for Whitehorse residents who had already been pre-approved to adopt cats from the shelter to get their spot and wait in hopes of taking home their new pet once the kittens were able to leave the shelter.

Some even set up their campers outside the shelter the night before to make sure they were there in the morning.

“People were lined up,” Priestley said, recalling arriving at work a few hours before the Tlingit Steet shelter opened to the public.

Finding the lineup at the door, she eventually opted to open up early that day so the kittens could join their new families.

Since then, another eight kittens have arrived from a B.C. SPCA facility in Kelowna. It was also overcrowded with the felines, with all but two finding homes.

The remaining two will likely be adopted out after they get over an illness and/or once Halloween festivities are done for the year. The shelter has a policy not to adopt out black cats during the Halloween season.

Priestley noted that while the shelter doesn’t always have kittens coming in from other facilities, it’s not unusual for the Yukon shelter to take on kittens from the shelters.

Those organizations in turn have taken in and found homes for puppies from Mae Bachur, which often has an overcrowded dog population.

Officials at shelters elsewhere have asked about the possibility of a similar partnership.

Priestley said it’s unlikely the shelter could be part of more partnerships.

The current arrangement, she noted, comes thanks to Air North donating space on its flights to get the animals to their destinations at no cost to the shelters.