This Box Contained No Gift

It was not wrapped in bright shinny paper but rather it was an ordinary cardboard box with the words The Home Depot printed on the outside. No beautifully tied bow was attached to the top. In its place was boring duct tape doing its job of keeping the lid securely closed. The box was not under a tree to be opened on Christmas morning. It would not even be around by then. This is because it was just days away from being taken to the dump.

The box we are talking about was found in Jennings, Missouri. A local resident was home yesterday when she heard a kitten meowing somewhere in her backyard. When she went outside, she spotted the 3-to-4-month-old kitten sitting on top of the wooden fence. She watched it for a while as the crying continued. When she approached the kitten, it stayed put. She then learned the reason the kitten was not moving. Its back foot was wedged between two fence boards.

Calling for her husband they were able to free the kitten, and as they were deciding what to do next, they heard more meowing. This time it was coming from a recycling dumpster located in the alley behind their house. Placed on top of all the discarded contents inside, was a Home Depot Moving box which definitely had an unhappy kitten inside.

Carefully removing the duct tape, the woman was able to peek inside the box. Staring up at her was another kitten identical to the one she and her husband had rescued from the fence. The box had cutouts on two sides to make it easier to carry. These created just enough of an opening for the kitten who had escaped, to chew through the cardboard and make a big enough hole he could squeeze through. The remaining kitten for whatever reason had decided to stay put.

When the husband came home from work Friday evening, he mentioned then that he remembered seeing the box in the same spot, but he didn't give it a second thought. This means the kittens were outside in the freezing weather, on their own, for at least one night.

Just then a neighbor pulled up to the row of dumpsters and asked what was going on. After explaining what they had discovered, she agreed to take the orange tabbies home with her, since she had what would be needed to care for them until another solution was found.

Last night, the kitten's rescuers were at a Christmas party. When they got home the first thing they did was let their two dogs out. A few minutes later there was some commotion in the backyard and the couple tore out the door to see what in the world was going on. They discovered their Husky and Pitbull had come upon a kitten. Grabbing the dogs the husband got them back inside while his wife checked on the kitten. When she got a clearer view of her, she saw that it was another orange tabby the same size as the two that were found earlier that day. The three had to be littermates.

Of course, the kitten was pretty shaken up and not happy about being picked up, so with some convincing the wife was able to corral her into the basement and inside a container. In the light she could then see the kitten was injured but she did not know how seriously. That was when she started looking for help and we ended up being who she reached early this morning.

We instructed the couple to take the kitten directly to the Veterinary Services Specialty and sign him in as ours. At first, we were told the kitten was a male, so we named him Kris Kringle. After a more thorough exam by the vet, we changed the kittens name to Kristina Kringle. Thankfully, the punctures on both legs and the chest were not deep. We thought Kristina's left eye had been injured too but it turns out it's just an upper respiratory infection that can be treated with medication.

This is one very fortunate kitten to have escaped from the box, to have survived a night in the cold and to have not been killed by the dogs. The vet feels they could have easily done this in the time they had the kitten if they had wanted to.

Kristina Kringle will remain at VSS for 24 hours to be observed. She will also be getting a bath because she had peed on herself when she was in the container overnight. Then she will be going to one of our Foster Care Volunteers, Jeanne, who will show Kristina how it feels to be loved.

We will never understand how people can be so downright cruel. Whoever chose to dump the kittens should be punished but finding them is probably never going to happen. Thank goodness Kristina Kringle will never experience any form of cruelty again, nor will her siblings thanks to a couple who were paying attention and jumped into action.