A few weeks ago, Bideawee’s Feral Cat Initiative (BFCI) was contacted about a tragic and complex rescue case.
Five 6-week-old kittens had been living with their feral mother at a community church where they were being fed and cared for. Local Trap-Neuter-Return (“TNR”) Caretakers were putting a plan in place in order to humanely trap mom and her babies so that mom could be spayed and provided with vet care, and the kittens could be brought into a foster home until they were old enough for spay/neuter surgery and an adoptive home.
Sadly, local residents tried to catch and capture the kittens, leading two of them to jump into a window well for safety, where they fell into a hidden 6-inch hole, plummeting 4.5ft down into the inside of a concrete ramp structure with no way in or out, save the tiny hole they fell into from above.
We were alerted to this situation after one of our donors reached out and asked us if there was anything we could do to help. The truth is, we didn’t know how we could help, but once we learned of the situation, we had to at least try. Bideawee staff sprang into action, coordinating with the local rescuers and the church property management to figure out the best course of action. We determined that there was no way to get any rescue equipment to the kittens through the only tiny hole into the concrete structure. We would have to find a way to cut the structure open in order to save these kittens.
Bideawee reached out to a friend of the organization, a construction company whose President led the charge in the reconstruction of Bideawee’s new state-of-the-art Chelsea animal shelter.
When he heard about the story, he and his team jumped into action, offering to send a crew to open the concrete structure and repair the opening, all pro-bono, in order to save these precious lives.
Bideawee was able to successfully trap the first kitten, a skinny, emaciated, dehydrated little boy, J.R. the Miracle Kitten, named after the construction team. J.R. immediately received the urgent, lifesaving medical care he needed, including fluids for rehydration, and around-the-care bottle feeding and TLC.
Sadly, the second kitten, Angelina, J.R.’s sister, had perished. While we were delighted that J.R. was safe, our hearts were, and remain broken that we couldn’t get to her in time.
Their remaining three siblings were all fostered by a neighbor and are doing great. She will be adopting two of them, and the other will be put up for adoption at Bideawee with J.R. the Miracle Kitten. And mama was adopted by one of her loving community caretakers.
This complex, bittersweet rescue serves as a painful reminder of why Bideawee’s Feral Cat Initiative, which supports community efforts to humanely reduce the population of cats in NYC & Long Island through the practice of TNR, is so important.
NYC & LI’s streets, backyards, and alleyways are filled with hundreds of thousands of free roaming community cats. According to the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, up to 75% of free-roaming kittens die before they turn 6 months old. TNR is the ONLY way we can stop the endless breeding of free-roaming cats, which leads to the tragic and unnecessary suffering of kittens being born on the streets.
Sadly, Angelina’s story is just one among countless others. Today, there are thousands of at-risk kittens just like Angelina. The loss of Angelina and rescue of J.R. are salient reminders of why Bideawee works so hard to help thousands of New Yorkers perform TNR… so that kittens don’t have to be born on the streets with a 1 in 4 chance of surviving their first few months of life.
The cat overpopulation crisis is a problem we cannot adopt our way out of. We couldn’t save Angelina, but we are committed to making sure that we continue to do everything in our power to saving the countless others who will come after her. Please help us put an end to the cycle of suffering for kittens on the streets. Donate today.