FARMINGTON – A creative, competitive staff at the Franklin County Animal Shelter is looking for a touchdown when it comes to cat adoptions this week.

With more than 100 cats and kittens needing a home, the small shelter on Industry Road resorts to unique, fun methods to promote adoptions.

Flavors of the month are cats of a particular color that can be adopted at a reduced rate – $35 instead of $65 – and on Martin Luther King Jr. Day cat adoptions were free. The day was a success with seven cats adopted, said shelter manager Patty Lovell.

This Sunday’s Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants spurred a couple of employees to use the game to further boost cat adoptions.

Jessie Geis, floor manager, had no problem enlisting five employees onto her Patriot team, but Amy Drummond, an animal care technician, found a draft was needed for what she called her “underdog” Giants.

The women devised a point system for people to support their favorite team by adopting a cat. They also hope to train new employees to assist people choosing an animal, Drummond said.

Most important, both said, is the animal’s welfare. While Drummond may know one cat better than Geis, she would step in and help match the cat with a family, she said. Her team would also be given an extra point for her help.

A completed cat adoption – a touchdown – is worth six points while adoption of a flavor of the month, black and white for January, is a field goal for three points. Adoption of a long-term resident cat brings the team seven points, and adoption of two cats brings the team eight points, they said.

Regardless of which team wins the Super Bowl, the animal shelter’s bowl winner, based on cat adoption points, will win a potluck dinner prepared by the losing team.

“It’s just a fun thing for the staff and customers,” Lovell said.

Already the Patriots are well ahead with adoptions, if that’s any predictor for Sunday’s game.

And adoptions are needed.

“The shelter took in 400 animals more last year than when I started in 2003,” she said. “That year there were 1,100 animals but last year, it was up to 1,500 animals.”

Lovell wasn’t sure if the economy is causing owners to give up their pets or if it’s a matter of more people in the area meaning more animals, she said.

While cats are the Super Bowl focus, dogs also are up for adoption. The shelter is at a capacity with 20 dogs being housed. The staff helped with a local seizure from a home in Franklin County that increased numbers by 10 small dogs that are now waiting adoption, she said.