Abandoned kittens get downtown rescue

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on November 29, 2024.

Submitted photo - A cat and her kittens reunited at Levi Cox's home awaiting for the Last Chance Cat Ranch to pick them up Monday afternoon after being rescued from Galt Gardens.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

After multiple kittens were abandoned at Galt Gardens on Saturday night by a person driving a red mini van that was caught on video and since has gone viral on social media, they have been rescued.

Levi Cox, owner and stylist at Catwalk Salon and Spa, told the Herald Wednesday that he was able to help the abandoned kittens on Monday afternoon and he was happy to report that even though by then they had already spent two night out in the elements, they were all alive.

He said that even though the salon is closed on Mondays, he happened to be in his car listening to a podcast while his mother was inside the salon doing payroll when a lady started knocking on the door with some urgency.

“She said she has seen on Facebook that a man dropped off a box of kittens and a mother cat across the street and she wanted some help looking for them,” said Cox.

He said he offered her a cardboard box, some towels and some food for her to look for them and then went back to listening to his podcast in the car.

“Then she comes running across the street with the one cat under her arm and a box on the other hand and yells, I got them! So we brought them inside to check if they were OK,” said Cox.

He said the kittens were very cold and some of them were barely moving, so his mom warmed them up with a blow dryer at a low heat and low setting.

“The kittens were meowing and they looked scared. We separated them and we counted them. There was seven kittens and the mom, but we noticed that she was not latching them and she was very hungry and scared as well,” said Cox.

He said that while that was happening, the lady who found them asked him to check the park again to make sure no kittens fell out of the box, or have wondered off before she got to them and she was unable to bare the idea of possibly finding diseased kittens.

“I’m back there by myself, videoing myself as I walk over there telling the story, because I document my life on Snapchat and I finally see a box. I thought I heard meowing and when I went over, I couldn’t even believe it. They were stacked on each other like Jenga trying to stay warm,” said Cox.

 He said at this point he looked around to see if there was another mom cat as there were multiple kittens in the second box but could not find it.

 “I raced back. They were even more cold than the other and smaller, so we warmed up and the cat mom actually seemed more interested in these cats. So, we think these were her kittens, not the first ones, because she was more attached to them,” said Cox.

He said the cat began feeding her kittens after they warmed up and once her kittens were fed, she jumped into the other box and began to feed the other kittens as well.

Cox said at that point he called the Last Chance Cat Ranch as the animal shelter is over capacity and he was told they have found a cat mom who needed to be milked. They have been contacted by Progress Clothing as they took her in when she wondered into their store looking for help.

“When we called them to tell them about the other kittens, they told us they will bring the other cat mom to reunite her with the kittens,” said Cox.

He said when they arrived with her, the kittens started meowing loudly and when the cat mom saw them, she immediately embraced them and began to feed them, but also jumped into the other box as some of the kittens in the other box were hers as well and they have been mixed up.

“The two cat moms looked so much alike that we think they were either sisters or mom and daughter, as they embraced each other when they reunited,” said Cox.

The two cats and their combined total of 15 kittens are now at the Last Chance Cat Ranch and Cox said the idea is to have them all together for both cats to “coparent” all the kittens.

“There are 17 cats that will be on the market soon. They’re adorable. And we will be collecting donations for Last Chance (Cat) Ranch here at Catwalk to help them take care of them in the meantime,” said Cox.