Archive for the 'Rescue Effort' Category

Happy Home Animal Sanctuary continues to trap at the apartment complex where the six kittens were found foamed into a wall. We’ve been out there multiple times every week, but progress has been slower than we would like. Many of the remaining adult cats have shown remarkable savvy avoiding the traps, and every day that passes without catching them increases the odds of them creating more kittens. Frustrating!

We did manage to get two more kittens from the complex. Both are males, between three and four weeks old. Currently, they are being kept in the same foster home, but separate from the other nine kittens, until we’re certain they are completely healthy. As you can see in the picture, they are still pretty small. The one on the left actually has a white blaze which extends across his entire belly. He is also sporting white “mittens”. The one on the right is mostly white, with some dark grey/black markings.

They are currently eating solid (wet) food, but we’re supplementing with kitten formula. In a week or two, after they gain a little more weight and start feeling a little less nervous, we’ll give them a bath, which both desparately need! Right now, their white furr is dingy and grey with dirt. Can’t wait to get them nice and clean! It may sound funny, but after you give a kitten a bath, they really do act happier and more “bouncy”.

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I know we talked about feeding time before, but I thought I would touch upon the topic again. I have a new picture, and some video footage which is absolutely hillarious. As the kittens have gotten healthier and larger, their zeal for food has reached dizzying new heights.

As I mentioned before, I feed the kittens by preparing their food on a large platter. Since I got tired of them climbing up my legs while I prepare their food–one actually made it all the way to the counter, once!–I don’t let them out of the bathroom until after I put the platter on the floor.

Honestly, the commotion they raise while waiting for me to open the door is completely over the top. How is it possible that kittens so small can make such loud meows? And the pawing at the door! It sounds like a pack of wolves in there!

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A couple of days ago I promised pictures of the ninth and final kitten in the “foamed” litter, “Phoebe“. Trapped last week, she was fortunate enough to have avoided being foamed. She is very beautiful, but very shy. She doesn’t interact with the other kittens very much, prefering to sit on the cat condo.

She is calm while being held and handled, but just as she starts to relax, one of the other kittens will rocket past and you can sense she wants to be somewhere else. Butterfly and Victoria were like this at first, and they’ve both opened up nicely. Phoebe seems to be taking a lot longer to come out of her shell, so we’re spending extra time with her.

Perhaps this is simply an issue of her being the last one trapped. Maybe in a few more days she’ll start to enjoy the other kittens, or maybe she’ll always be more comfortable with people instead of other cats. Until she gets a little older and more used to things here, we’re going to continue working with her.

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In my last post, I promised pictures of the three new kittens from the litter that was foamed into the wall. In between constant cleaning, litter box changing, feeding, and medicating, I finally managed to get their pictures together, so here we go…

Sierra was the first kitten that was rescued from the apartment complex. Only her paws were covered in foam, but that was enough to let us know this wasn’t going to be a “normal” rescue. The president of Happy Home Animal Sanctuary, Amber Snethen, took Sierra back to the sanctuary with her and began coordinating the rescue effort with the rest of the volunteers. She was reunited with the rest of the litter a few days ago, so we could get her to the vet appointment with the rest of the kittens.

Sierrra started out as a bit of a shy girl, unlike her brother Floyd who has similar markings but is quite an outgoing character. Now that she is settled in, she is beginning to show her true personality. Generally a calm kitten, she has moments of pure joy when she discovers a new toy or simply decides to pounce one of her unsuspecting litter mates…

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Now that we have the serious stuff out of the way, I want to talk about feeding time. The kittens receive a mixture of wet and dry food. As soon as the first can is opened, the meowing begins. We carefully spread the wet food around the edge of a large dish, mixing in a healthy portion of dry. Generally when the plate gets about a foot off the floor, we have at least two kittens hanging on the edge and the other six sitting on the floor meowing loudly.

As soon as the plate hits the floor, food begins to fly. The floor is covered in food. The kittens are covered in food. We’re covered in food. This is when personalities really start to show. Floyd and Twitch usually battle for the center of the dish, getting their legs and bellies completely covered. Grace can be pretty pushy as well, shoving aside her more polite litter-mates.

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We had some good news after the rescued kittens’ vet visit… they were all deemed healthy enough for their first vaccination. They also tested negative for FeLV (Feline Leukemia Virus), which is a very good thing! In a few weeks, they will have their second vaccination and we’ll have a better idea when they can be spayed and neutered.

We also had a few new additions to the litter. Sierra was the first kitten which helped bring this mess to our attention. She was in the care of Amber Snethen, the president of Happy Home Animal Sanctuary. Butterfly was trapped near the infamous foamed wall, and she is clearly part of the same litter. Finally, Lucky was picked up yesterday from the complex. A resident found him roaming around the wall as well. If you’re keeping track, that makes for eight kittens in this litter.

Lucky was particularly lucky… hence the name . He had a bit of foam on his tail, and it was a real mess. Under the foam we found blood, a bit of infection, dirt, and dead skin and we initially thought he was going to lose his tail. Fortunately, there was just enough blood flow, and the vet thinks he should be able to keep his tail. He is on a course of antibiotics to help fight off any infection.

Happy Home Animal Sanctuary is pleased to announce that four of the five surviving kittens, which were foamed into the wall at the apartment complex, are completely foam free! Even better, they just endured their first bath. A fifth kitten, who was trapped on site but was not covered with foam, was also bathed.

We snapped this post-bath photo of the soggy kittens. From the top left, we have Grace, Victoria and Ranger. Grace was not covered with foam, but she sure needed a bath! In the middle center is Twitch. Floyd is on the bottom.

It was somewhat cathartic for us to finally get a chance to give everyone a bath. We’ve been picking foam off the poor guys for a solid week, so the bath gave use some sense of closure. The kittens, on the other hand, we’re slightly less appreciative of the whole bathing experience. They were happy to finally be clean, though, and spent the next thirty minutes purring while grooming each other. We don’t have the heart to tell them that we think they’re going to need another bath…

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On June 1, 2008, volunteers of Happy Home Animal Sanctuary were notified of a serious situation at a Las Vegas apartment complex. When the volunteers arrived, what they found was horrifying. Six young kittens had been sealed into a block wall using urethane foam, a type of insulation that hardens around anything it touches.

The volunteers were able to rescue the kittens, but unfortunelately one was lost due to the damage from the foam insulation. They worked long through the night trying to clean up and stablize the remaining kittens and the work continues today.

The event was covered on Las Vegas channel 3 KVBC yesterday afternoon and their article can be found at http://www.kvbc.com/Global/story.asp?S=8419110.

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