A non-profit animal rescue in Sudbury says it's overwhelmed by a large number of kittens and animal surrenders.

But some ingenuity, and the crafty work of its volunteers, has allowed Pet Save to stay afloat.

Jill Pessott, executive director of Pet Save, said an early– and plentiful– kitten season is straining their resources. Added to the big litter was the shutdown of their thrift store, which provides a major revenue stream for the pet adoption service.

Pessott also said that a lot of people have given up their pets, some with fears about COVID-19.

"We've seen a lot of seniors giving up their pets," Pessott said. "We've seen people who actually had fears that they were going to catch something from their pets."

"We've [also] had people pass away, quite a few people pass away recently that had senior pets."

Spay and neuter programs have stopped during the pandemic which is also a worry, Pessott said.

But on the positive side, she says volunteers have been sewing and selling masks which have brought in $30,000 so far.

"One of our volunteers came up with an idea to sell some cloth masks she makes...and she decided to call me and use it as a fundraiser," Pessott said.

"She thought maybe we could make masks and sell them with the material that we had locked in at the retail store. So it kind of took off for us which has been a godsend because, again, our store is a major part of our revenue."

The masks have been so successful, and demand has been so high, that Pet Save has decided to get creative with its new product.

"We started getting called about animal related prints," Pessott said. "And we realized that there's a huge market out there for sports."

They're also considering different designs to celebrate Canada Day.

"The response from the community has been incredible and we really are very grateful for their support through all of this."

Pet Save has also had to contend with an influx of animals. With Wild at Heart closing last year, Pet Save has done their best to accommodate what animals they could.

"We opened up a secondary shelter temporarily to house the overflow because with the vets being shut down, we had a backup of animals that aren't spayed and neutered. So they're in our care," Pessott said.

The number of animals in their care, she said, currently is around 145.

But there's only a "skeleton crew" available to care for them, she said.

"We have a few paid employees, and they're trained to deal with some of our medical cases that come in, so we really had to protect them," she said.

"By shutting down all the other volunteers programs in both buildings you know we were able to manage the animals and of course the workload increased for everybody. So I think it was pretty tired by this point. I don't think anybody thought how long it would be shut down."

Now, Pessott said, the pressure is starting to ease a bit as volunteers slowly are trickling back in.

For more information of Pet Save and their adoption services, visit their web site.