Charcoal and Toasty

If you can believe it, there is a downside to living in the country. Dumped cats. A man in Owensville, Missouri knows all too well what happens when a cat someone no longer wants is turned loose on his property. What makes the situation worse is when the cats are already pregnant, which more than likely is one of the reasons they are being ditched.

Two of the discards recently gave birth. A litter of 2 were born on June 11 and ended up on the man's front porch in the middle of the night. He was prepared for their arrival though and had an extra-large pet carrier set up in a safe spot, hoping the mom would choose to raise her kids in it. He picked the kittens up and placed them inside and the friendly mom joined them shortly. However, she showed no interest in the grey and brown Tabbies. The first indication that she had no desire to take care of them was she did not clean the afterbirth off the tiny bodies.

He waited for a while, hoping the young mother would change her mind, but when he knew they needed to eat he stepped in. One of our SNUGGLE Pet Rescue Foster Volunteers had given the man, a year earlier, information on how to take care of newborns when he dropped off another litter of motherless kittens. Therefore, he was prepared with a bottle and formula, and he knew the importance of keeping the babies warm.

Thankfully, the man got the kittens through the night and in the morning, he called to ask if he could bring us the two new arrivals. They are now in the care of the same Foster Volunteer who had helped him before. Charcoal and Toasty are preemies and weigh half of what they should. Both took to the bottle and the amount of formula they are drinking is a good sign. They have now been cleaned, the volunteer using a toothbrush to remove the dried afterbirth from their fur. It will be touch and go for a while, but the brothers have a decent chance of making it thanks to a man who knew what to do and played mom until he could hand them off to SNUGGLE Pet Rescue.