We Rescued Three Babies

Baby cats, that is.

Last weekend, we were moving salvaged lumber from a pallet to our barn, and my husband exclaimed, “Honey, come look at this!  Quick!  Come here!”

Well, I hurried over as fast I could and lo and behold, look at what I saw!

Three kittens!  A tortoiseshell kitten (a female) …. and her two orange brothers.

Due to all the racket we were making, they were truly terrified.  These cuties were hissing at us!  (So funny to see something so tiny put on such a show.)  They wanted to be left alone, thank you very much!

Well, I would have none of that.  Life out in the wild is no fun whatsoever.

I caught each of them fairly easily.  One was so terrified she was lying in a puddle of water.  Broke my heart to see it.

Of course, I couldn’t resist loving on each of them and soothing them as best I could.  Oh my, they were such docile little things when I held them.  So sweet and tiny!

I put them into a pet carrier, gave them food and water, and started searching for rescue organizations as soon as I could.

Of course, I would have loved to keep at least one of them, but you see, we own two terriers, and I think they’d torture (or perhaps kill) a little kitten.

I reached out to numerous rescue organizations and finally found the O’Malley Alley Cats organization who agreed to foster the kittens and find them permanent homes.

We met representatives at the Earth Day Festival we attended, and I immediately thought of them.  Their mission is to spay/neuter feral cats and return them to the wild, and they also find homes for rescued kittens and cats, if they’re suitable for adoption.

(They’re wonderful!  Please check them out and “like” their Facebook page!)

We met the non-profit’s executive director and chief angel, Diana Hensley, at a vet’s office the same day.

Next on the agenda, catching Mama Cat.     Diana loaned us a humane trap for that purpose.

Not surprisingly, she’s a tortoiseshell cat also … and very feral.

Catching her was not as difficult as I thought.  Just a little bit of food did the trick.  She was hungry like her babies.

When I dropped off Mama Cat at the vet’s office to have her spayed, her three babies were already tame, just a few days later!  Diana is going to foster them until a shelter or homes can be found.  If you’ve been thinking of adopting a kitten, please do contact them.)

The day after Mama’s surgery, I picked her up and released her back on our land.   I see her from time to time.  She seems to have made our place home.

She’ll never be a tame cat, and that makes me grieve a little because her life will not be easy.  But at least she’ll have shelter under our carport or one of our sheds, and I’ll give her food and water periodically.  And, thank goodness, she’ll never have kittens again.

I feel a lot better knowing that the kittens will have a good life, and I did what I could to curb the cat overpopulation problem.  Hopefully, most people who are put in my shoes would do the same thing.

One final thought:

Amen to that.

Oh!  I just heard from Diana.   She says she’s named the smaller and darker of the two orange kittens, Cramer, and the lighter  orange tabby she named Cosmo.  The tortie she named Elena.

She shared the photos below and said they are doing well and are such little talkers.

Remember, they are up for adoption and of course, donations are always happily accepted by O’Malley Alley Cats for their care   Even it it’s only a few dollars, every little bit helps.  🙂