RSPCA has slashed adoption costs for felines by half as staff make room for kittens in dog crates and endure the meows of particularly cranky cats.
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After some creative space making, the Weston shelter is now a temporary home to 82 cats and 178 kittens - double the amount of felines in care compared to 12 months ago.
In December, shelter manager Simon Yates said the RSPCA could accommodate 50 adult cats and 32 kittens on site and it was easy for the cattery to go from empty to full in a matter of weeks.
RSPCA ACT chief executive Tammy Ven Dange said the stress on the shelter was partly due to a mild winter in 2014 which extended the breeding season.
"Unfortunately, we are literally out of space now and overcrowding is a big concern since putting too many animals in one space increases their chance for illness," she said.
Ms Ven Dange said she decided to cut adoption prices on Sunday when she saw kittens being stored in portable dog crates due to the lack of space.
"We have so many cats and kittens down here that I'm going to have to start putting them into my office," she said.
"We've also got some really loud cats down here which need some love and some of my staff members are telling me they just won't stop meowing."
Ms Ven Dange said a lot of the kittens at the shelter were smaller than usual which meant staff had to keep them in foster care until they were big enough to de-sex.
"We're so short of space at the moment that we're worried about them catching colds as the likelihood of illness increases when they are crowded together," she said.
"It's hard to say when we reached capacity but I knew as soon as I saw the dog crates that we had to do something."
Ms Ven Dange urged Canberrans to think about whether they could accommodate a cat or kitten in their household.
"If you've been thinking about adopting a cat then this is a great time to do it with adoption costs halved and the shelter full," she said.
Cat surpluses at the Woden shelter are not unprecedented with RSPCA staff handing select kittens to pet stores in December just months after have not cats to give.
In September, the RSPCA had claws for celebration with no cats available for adoption for the first time in at least two decades.
