09/19/2026
It's the last of summer! Fall officially starts on Tuesday with the . Summer may be ending but it's still at the SPCA of Tompkins County. Our volunteer reporter of feline news has informed us that there were 17 kittens in the lobby on Friday, with more in foster homes. Now is a great time to adopt a kitten or 2!
Allow us to introduce you to Parsnip and Rutabaga, 4 month old brothers looking for a cozy home to plant themselves. Is this not the cutest photo of root vegetables you've seen in a while?!
(If you think it's strange to describe root vegetables as "cute" you probably haven't been around Ithaca very long.😆 )
You may be thinking that if you adopt Parsnip & Rutabaga this weekend, you'll have 3 months to get Rutabaga trained to compete in the annual at the Ithaca Farmers Market. While training a kitten (such as clicker training) is a thing and could be great fun for both of you, we advise you to have realistic expectations. Things to remember:
1. Kittens love to play! We're sure Rutabaga would enjoy training that feels like play to him. Think, attacking a toy or hunting down a laser dot.
2. The best toy and training for a kitten is . . . another kitten! So you should really adopt Parsnip and Rutabaga together.
3. The involves *rolling* a rutabaga down the hallway at the Farmers Market. Kittens don't tend to roll for distance. They prefer to be self-propelled. You might be able to train Rutabaga to *run* down a hallway and park himself in the middle of a circle. That could make for an adorable video and we might see you and Rutabaga in the Cornell Feline Health Center !
4. We don't have the exact rules of the International Rutabaga Curling Championship in front of us, but pretty sure contestants aren't allowed to bring their own Rutabagas.
5. Rutabaga curling involves many people rolling their rutabagas down the hallway toward the center circle. Which could be dangerous for Rutabaga if he's already sitting there. It should go without saying, but . . . Please don't throw root vegetables at kittens!
And finally, these guys probably don't know their names. Feel free to change the names after you adopt Parsnip & Rutabaga!