Why We Do What We Do

Tiny Lives Left Behind: A True Story of Abandoned Kittens

One sunny late afternoon in February, a woman was walking her dog along her property line in Michigan and she noticed a bag along the dirt road they were passing. People had been known to dump animals in this area, so she went to investigate. It was a cat food bag, but it was not moving. To her surprise, when she opened the bag, she discovered it was full of kittens that looked to be no more than a week old! Their eyes were not yet open and they huddled together for warmth. Whoever had left them was long gone.

The kittens were clearly too young to survive on their own. Without their mothers, newborn kittens can quickly become cold, dehydrated, and weak. The person who found them knew time was critical. She carefully lifted the bag, and rushed the kittens home, placing them on a heating pad in a box. There were 13 kittens in the bag! Unfortunately, one had already passed, but the other 12 seemed to be healthy.

The next challenge was to figure out what to do with them, as she had no experience with newborn (neonate) kittens. She knew her neighbor used to volunteer with Pet Refuge, a local animal rescue, so she called her for advice. Her neighbor put her in contact with the Cat Foster Coordinator for Pet Refuge.

Once contacted, Pet Refuge agreed to take the kittens. However, finding enough neonate (bottle feeding) fosters for that many kittens at once was going to be a challenge. The ideal number of kittens for a neonate foster is two to three. Neonate kittens require a special kitten milk replacer that is around $100 for a five pound bag. They must be fed every two to three hours, kept warm (as they cannot control their own body temperature at this age), stimulated to potty, and kept clean & dry. It is exhausting work, but very rewarding as they grow and become stronger.

The foster coordinator was up for the challenge and asked the woman to bring the kittens to the Pet Refuge shelter. She then contacted the Cass County, Michigan animal control officer to let him know what had happened. He was grateful for the call and the fact that Pet Refuge had stepped in to help. He said he never would have had the resources to take care of neonate kittens. The foster coordinator then began contacting Pet Refuge current and past neonate fosters to ask for their help with these kittens. She was able to locate three fosters, who all headed to the Pet Refuge shelter. The foster coordinator then sent out a message to the head of Meow Mission, a local TNVR (Trap Neuter Vaccinate Return) group, asking if she had any volunteers that were experienced with bottle feeding and would be available to foster some of these neonates. A message was then sent out to the Meow Mission volunteers asking for anyone that was experienced with neonates to respond.

The foster coordinator met the three Pet Refuge neonate fosters at the shelter as the kittens arrived. After a quick check of the kitten’s body temperature, condition, and estimating their ages, they began feeding the kittens. Neonate kittens do not always take to a bottle nipple because it is very different from the mother. Because of this, some kittens must be syringe fed. This is a more difficult process to manage, due to the fact that they are not suckling the milk. A foster must be very careful not to allow the kitten to aspirate the milk, getting it into their lungs, which can cause pneumonia.

After feeding all the kittens and passing out supplies, the three Pet Refuge neonate fosters left with four kittens each. All of them hoping for more fosters to be available soon. When aging the kittens, it looked like there were at least three different litters in the bunch. Some were approximately 5-7 days old, some 7-10 days old, and some around 14 days old. The attempt was made to divide the kittens up according to age as much as possible.

By the next morning, multiple responses were received from Meow Mission volunteers and two volunteers were chosen to foster some of the kittens. The foster coordinator arranged to pick up 4 kittens from different Pet Refuge fosters and meet the two Meow Mission volunteers at the shelter. They all arrived at the shelter and the new fosters were given supplies and two kittens each. This left the Pet Refuge fosters with three, three, and two kittens, much easier numbers to handle.

Over the next several weeks the kitten’s eyes opened, they learned to walk, play, and explore. Thanks to an alert animal lover and devoted neonate fosters, their once fragile bodies became energetic and healthy. Eventually, after age appropriate spay/neuter and vaccines, they were put up for adoption through Pet Refuge and found loving furever homes.

The cat food bag that once held fragile, abandoned kittens became a reminder of how vulnerable animals can be - and how a single act of compassion can change their fate. Not every abandoned animal gets a second chance. But these 12 kittens did, simply because someone stopped to look in a bag and decided to help. Sometimes, saving a life, or 12 lives, begins with something as small as opening a bag. That is why the Pet Refuge tag line is… WHERE NEW BEGINNINGS HAVE HAPPY ENDINGS even for kittens in a bag on the side of a dirt road.