Toodles the stray cat was living in a mobile home park when she got into a fight with a dog and needed assistance. She was hurried to the shelter by Anne Arundel County Animal Care & Control worker Mindy Brocato, a local resident.
However, everyone was able to see that she was a new mother when Toodles showed up in early April.
Once Toodles was safe, the search for her family began.
“Toodles was lactating and clearly had recently had kittens,” Chris Weinstein, a board member of Friends of Anne Arundel County Animal Care & Control, told The Dodo. “Mindy alerted her neighbors to be on the lookout for kittens. Five were found under a mobile home and Mindy rushed them to the shelter.”
The mother cat meowed with delight as the first kitten was delicately put on Toodles’ bed by a shelter staffer. The remaining kittens, who were around two weeks old, climbed up on their mother, squeaking incessantly, and started to suckle.
Toodles and her small offspring were taken to a foster home that evening for more individualized care. Toodles had her babies back, but despite this, it appeared as though something bothered her.
A few days later, the sixth kitten, who had been wailing for her mother, was located in the mobile home’s insulation. The kitten, now known as Percy, was hurriedly brought back to her family by Brocato.
“The kitten dived right in for a meal,” the shelter wrote on Facebook. “And Toodles? She seems ‘much more relaxed now that this NEW baby arrived,’ the foster says.”
Toodles is so happy to be rejoined with her kittens in a comfortable home, and is being the best mom she can be. “Toodles, who is thought to be about 2 years old, has been ‘such a good momma,’ her foster says,” Weinstein added. “She is a very attentive mom and the kittens have thrived.”
The entire family will soon be neutered, spayed, and chipped before going home with their adopters.
Toodles herself, though, was the first to find a family: “Toodles and Percy were the first to find a home – together, “added Weinstein. “Given how frequently mothers are the last to be adopted, this makes us all happy.
