A Surprise in the Woodpile

On November 6th, while getting his woodpile in order, a man in East Alton, Illinois did not expect to see tucked in between two logs 4 newborn kittens. Thankfully, he spotted them before any logs tumbled down on top of the vulnerable babies.

The man and his girlfriend suspected the kittens belonged to a stray cat that has been living in the area for a while. People have tried to humanely trap her a number of times, but she wanted nothing to do with the trap. So, the couple thought it was best to get the kittens situation on the ground in front of the woodpile, hoping that if they went in the house the mother would come to collect her babies. When she didn't show back up the decision was made to bring the kittens inside. The temperature at that time was 20 degrees.

Researching online what to do, they got the kittens warmed up and made a run to the store to get a bottle and kitten formula. The kittens were definitely hungry, but after 4 days the couple became concerned they were not eating enough. They knew the kittens needed to be with someone with more experience, so they reached out to a friend who put them in touch with us.

Victor, Violet and Vivian arrived today at the home of our volunteer who specializes in caring for our tiniest fosters. Sadly, the fourth kitten, a little girl, passed away on the drive to drop off the litter. The two girls are the biggest and Victor is the underdog. He weighs just 3 ounces, compared to Violet who weighs 3.4 ounces and Vivian 5.3. He's not eating as well as his sisters, but we are doing everything we can to support him.

This week we have been talking about the change in weather and how hard the cold is on kittens born outside. We're grateful that these three were found in time to be saved. Otherwise, there was no way they would have survived overnight on Thursday. As of today, the mother has still not been seen. We'll probably never know what happened to her.