The workers and volunteers at the Paris Animal Shelter in Texas didn’t first take the woman’s claim that she had some kittens to surrender seriously. This wasn’t odd because it was “kitten season,” the time of year when shelters take in the most kittens, until the woman handed over a package containing 39 very small kittens.
According to the woman, she had found all 39 kittens abandoned near her greenhouse while she was out in her yard doing some work. The kittens all ranged in age from around 3 to 8 weeks old, and their conditions varied as well.
Some were dehydrated, underweight, flea-ridden and suffering from diarrhea, but some were surprisingly healthy considering the situation. Regardless, the shelter knew that taking care of 39 newborn kittens was a very tall order, and that they were definitely going to need some help.
“We’re used to a high intake but obviously something of this magnitude is extremely hard and sparks panic,” Stephanie Ann, a volunteer at the Paris Animal Shelter, told The Dodo. “I knew that social media was going to be our best bet at getting these kittens to safety as quickly as possible.”
The shelter wasted no time in contacting as many local rescues as they could think of, and before long, ten different organizations had stepped forward to take a share of the kittens, including Paws of Love Animal Rescue, Awwdoptables, Kaley’s Place Cat Rescue, A Voice for All Paws, Home Rescue, Texas Little Cuties, Saving Hope, East Lake Pet Orphanage, Trophy Club Texas Animals, and Hearts of Life.
Stephanie Ann said that the rescue offers “started flooding in quite immediately.”
Within only a few days of arriving at the shelter, all 39 kittens were safely with their respective rescues in foster homes, getting the care they desperately needed, and the shelter is still so grateful to everyone who stepped in to help.
“We just couldn’t leave them behind to an already overwhelmed shelter,” Nancy Berryhill, of Kaley’s Place Cat Rescue, told The Dodo. “We played just a small part in this whole crisis.”
All 39 kittens are now doing remarkably well and are getting better from their different ailments. Since they are all so young, they are all a little bewildered and startled by their new surroundings, but their rescuers are trying their best to help them adjust, and they are growing more at ease and playful by the day.
Every single rescue that received these kittens in was already overburdened with needy kittens, but they understood that they had no choice but to accept the small ones.
Despite having a package of 39 black kittens at a shelter that has no space for them, Berryhill noted, “We find place somehow.”
The kittens will all be available for adoption through their various rescues after they are all old enough, well-adjusted, and have had spaying, neutering, and vaccinations. From there, they may all move on to lovely forever homes.
It’s unfortunate that 39 kittens were abandoned, but thankfully they are all safe now, and all of the social media attention actually assisted the Paris Animal Shelter in finding rescues and homes for their other cats and kittens.
This past weekend, about 75 animals were taken in for rescue, according to Stephanie Ann. Although the situation could have been catastrophic, more lives were spared as a result of that box of little black and white kittens than we had imagined.
