NATCHEZ — A litter of five black and orange kittens sleep softly in a furry pile at the Natchez-Adams County Humane Society.

A couple of cages over, a beagle terrier mix leaps up with excited chocolate eyes, it’s belly stretched and distended as she can barely keep her balance with that wagging tail.

She couldn’t be less of a ball of energy, racing around her too tiny cage, ears pert, paws flailing, lips trembling, it’s desire vocalized in a series of whines.

Pick her up and she turns into a white and brown-spotted puddle, nuzzled in for the long haul.

Peppy the cat with his ochre eyes begs to be won over with a chin scratch, a boxer mix is dying to jump down and run on his wobbly, unsteady puppy legs, its pencil-thin tail acting more as a propeller than a balance apparatus.

These are the faces, these are the reasons for the Natchez-Adams County Humane Society open adoption today from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Stine Lumber Company.

Nan Garrison, humane society board member, said this open adoption is the first in many years and has a multiple-pronged purpose.

“This is just one of those times a year that we’re overrun,” she said of the first purpose.

So overrun that Pat Cox, shelter director, said this is the worst year they’ve had as far as the influx of animals.

“It’s never let up,” she said.

Right now, the shelter houses 53 dogs, 63 puppies, 13 cats and 65 kittens. And those are just the adoptable ones.

“It’s the biggest goal we could possibly have to show how important it is to spay or neuter your animals,” she said.

This is what causes so many animals to be homeless. A Labrador can have between 13 or 14 puppies in a litter, Garrison said.

So, when animals are adopted, there’s a $35 fee for cats and a $45 fee for dogs, which allows for the pet to be spayed or neutered.

Also, even before the animals are ready to be adopted, they are vaccinated and de-wormed.

Garrison said the humane society has been planning an open adoption for some time and while timing played a part, it was mostly due to Stine offering its facilities.

Stine Manager Cheri Dunn said store employees thought helping out the humane society would be a good storewide team building exercise.

“They were wanting to do something as an outreach to the community,” she said. “We felt like we could be helping people and animals and get some community involvement by doing that.”

The adoption will be inside of the store and both cash and checks are accepted.

Also, the 2 p.m. ending time is just an estimation.

“As long as we have people that are coming and interested then we’ll be there,” Garrison said.