Robin Kilgore arrived at the gates of the Logan, West Virginia, animal shelter to find a cardboard box lying on the ground as he drove through severe downpours to pick up a puppy from the facility.
She could only hear weeping over the sound of the rain when she stepped out of the car.
“It was raining super hard and the box was soaked,” Selena Marcum, president of The Paws Squad rescue, told The Dodo. Marcum was the first person Kilgore called after finding the box.
When Kilgore opened the box, a mother cat peered up at her — and three newborn kittens were shivering at her side.
“She moved the box and it just fell apart,” Marcum said. “The mama and her babies were drenched.”
Luckily, Kilgore had already been planning to drive a dog to One By One Animal Advocates later that day — so the staff there offered to find a foster home for the young family. She dried them off and loaded them up for the trip.
The kittens were only 3 or 4 days old, according to the veterinarian, so they wouldn’t have had much time to live in the chilly, rainy weather.
Marcum remarked, “We’re incredibly fortunate that Robin happened to uncover them at that particular time. They “really” “would have drowned in that box,” I believe.
Marcum claims that it happens frequently for individuals to leave animals in front of the county shelter before it opens for the day.
She remarked, “When we’ve previously been over to take up animals, we’ve seen them put in crates or chained to the front gates outside.”
Although it’s unknown how long the mother cat and her young were left outside in the rain, they thankfully suffered no health consequences and are currently residing in a foster home.
Gypsie is the new name for the mother cat, while Cheddar, Velveeta, and Panda are the names of her three kittens.
Mom is a little reserved right now, but she’s breastfeeding and caring for her boys well, according to Marcum. They’ll remain with their foster mother until they are weaned, at which point they will all be fixed up — spayed and neutered — and ready for a new home.
