Two kittens were rescued from a window well on a freezing day. They bounced back with the help of kind people.
A family from Indiana heard what sounded like a cat's meow on a Saturday, and it continued into the afternoon. Upon investigation, they traced the cries to their basement, and discovered a feral cat mom and her kittens in their window well. The family immediately contacted Catsnip Etc, their local cat rescue, for help.
They noticed that some of the kittens weren't moving or nursing, and realized that four of them had passed. As soon as help arrived, the cat mom ran off and left her kittens there.
"We reached down in the window well to check out the babies, not knowing what to expect. We found two still alive, but barely," Missy McNeal of Catsnip Etc told Love Meow.
The kittens were dehydrated, very cold to the touch, and hadn't had any food for a while. "They were barely moving, too weak to meow, and their mouths were full of dirt from being hungry and sucking on the ground. We immediately cleaned out their mouths as best as we could, and got them on a heating pad to warm them up."
The tabbies curled up together right away, keeping each other comforted with their own heartbeats.
While they waited for the kittens to warm up to a safe body temperature for feeding, they set a humane trap in the area, hoping the cat mother would return.
"She didn't come back. I think she knew she couldn't take care of the kittens, and they needed help," Missy shared with Love Meow.
The kittens, Wednesday and Pugsley, were taken in for intensive care. They were given a tiny amount of karo syrup to help their blood sugar. Despite being so frail, they tried with all their might to swallow kitten formula, drip by drip. "We told them as long as they wanted to fight, we would fight with them."
For the next 24 hours, volunteers kept them fed every hour around the clock. The little fighters were able to increase their food intake a bit more each time.
"I was so scared to check on them each feeding, praying they were still alive," Missy told Love Meow.
After a long day of painstaking care, Pugsley perked up and made his first cry for food, a sign of life that everyone had been waiting for. "That was the first noise they had had enough energy to make. At that point, we really got optimistic that they would pull through this."
The two were huddled together when they were first found, and continued to be each other's biggest cheerleader while they were recuperating.
Over the next few days in foster care, the brother and sister made great strides and began to thrive. They took to their bottles like champs and started to grow their healthy, chonky bellies.
"Wednesday and Pugsley really wanted to survive. They seem to have a bond and are always snuggling and touching each other," Missy shared with Love Meow.
"If it wasn't for that and their will to fight, they wouldn't have made it. They helped each other survive until help came to them."
The feline siblings recently turned two weeks old. They are getting incredibly active and very curious about everything around them. With their eyes wide open, they are eager to use their little legs and try to explore around the nest.
They are still very small for their age, but steadily putting on weight and gaining strength.
"Everyday we look at them and feel so blessed they found their way to us," Missy told Love Meow.
"I'm not sure they would have survived another hour without intervention, but now they are healthy, happy and love to eat and purr."
Share this story with your friends. Follow updates on the kittens and Catsnip Etc on Facebook and Instagram @catsnipetc.
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