Rescuing animals is not glamorous work. Sometimes, it even involves climbing through garbage heaps, searching relentlessly for the source of tiny, helpless kitten mewls.
The Pet Adoption and Lifecare Society (PALS) is a pet rescue group located in southeastern Pennsylvania. They recently shared a story that shows just how far their volunteers will go to save a family of cats that had gotten stuck.
Neighbors had reported hearing kitten cries coming from an abandoned old trailer, so PALS headed over to see what they could find. They could hear the tiny kittens calling out as they searched the messy trailer, but couldn’t figure out where the sounds were coming from. They returned the next day to try again… and then the next day, and the day after that.
It took them a full week to trap the feral mama cat and locate her four itty-bitty babies. She had somehow hidden her little ones deep inside a insulation tube. They were cold, wet, and hungry: all dangerous conditions for kittens that young.
PALS took the newborns and their mother to the vet, where they were warmed up and given lots of food and privacy for several days. Mama cat doesn’t like people at all, but her caretakers were still able to treat her for fleas and worms and vaccinate her.
“When their eyes opened, they had mild eye infections, which is common in kittens coming from less-than-ideal circumstances,” said Pat Maloney, the executive vice president of PALS. “They were started on medications to treat them and are doing very well. Mama is terrified of humans, so she is encouraged to leave the nesting box when we need to handle them, but at this stage, we handle them as little as possible to keep her calm and feeling safe.”
Rescue workers decided to name the mother cat Piper (get it? Because she hit her babies in a pipe?).
All of the kittens are expected to survive and go on to lead healthy lives, and it’s all thanks to these tenacious animal rescue workers. Our hats are off to those who don’t mind climbing through trash piles if it means saving lives.
Share this story to celebrate animal rescue workers around the world.
Want to be happier in just 5 minutes a day? Sign up for Morning Smile and join over 455,000+ people who start each day with good news.