The initiative follows the Mornington Peninsula Shire Community Animal Shelter and East Mornington Veterinary Clinic being inundated with stray adult cats.

Within the past few months, clinic staff have been forced to euthanise up to 10 cats a day, after the animals passed the eight-day deadline to be claimed at the shelter.

"You can imagine how flat you feel at the end of that. They're gorgeous, they're purring, they're rubbing up against you and it breaks your heart," veterinary doctor Julie Campbell said last week.

Thanks to the co-operation of the shelter and the generosity of vet clinic owner Mark Lethlean, Dr Campbell and veterinary nurse Nikita McGrath have started an adoption program for adult shelter cats.

"Because we do a lot of work with the shelter we were concerned about the adult cats, there are so many smoochy, friendly, purry ones, so we decided to take one at a time into our adoption program," Dr Campbell said.

Ms McGrath is responsible for visiting the pound and choosing the perfect cat for the program. She is very particular about

temperament, testing the animals and only selects cats with calm, loving personalities.

"With adult cats, their personalities have already formed so it is easy to tell if they will fit in, we've been tempted to take them home ourselves so many times."

Ten cats have been successfully re-homed since June and it has taken staff no longer than two weeks to find a loving family for each pet.

"We called our favourite cat Barry Hall. He had a big boof head and scars on his face but he was a big softy and someone fell in love with him," Dr Campbell said.

All the cats in the program are tested for the feline aids virus, are wormed, fleaed, desexed, microchipped and vaccinated and cost $165 to take home.

"It actually costs the clinic to do this but owner Mark Lethlean recognised this is where our passion was and he's happy for us to do what we do at the clinic's expense," Dr Campbell said.

People are encouraged to spend as much time as they like with their potential pet at the clinic and can take the cats home to see how they interact with children and other animals. If the cat does not fit in, the adoptive parents are welcome to a refund.

Details: 5975 7766.