Kitten Rescue Life

One week ago we received an urgent plea for three kittens at risk in a high-kill shelter, who could be euthanized without notice at any moment due to their medical condition. There were six kittens in the litter, but three of them were exhibiting signs of limping calici, so those with symptoms were the most at risk. The shelter was willing to split them up to get the most urgent kittens to safety.

Splitting up litters is just not how we roll. One of our fosters said she’d take all six, so I rang the shelter to set things into place. Imagine my surprise when they said there was actually SEVEN kittens PLUS their feral mom. Mom and the bonus kitten were in a separate kennel, likely due to space, and mom was listed for euthanasia due to behavior.

We are a neonate focused rescue. We specialize in neonatal care and complex medical cases. We easily intake a dozen kittens for every adult we can help, and feral cats are not an area we have a ton of experience in. With that said, leaving mom behind to die alone in the shelter while we take all her babies was just not an option for us. I couldn’t live with myself or be proud of the work we do if we operated like that.

So, that’s the story of how we ended up with a mama and seven of her babies. Mom is definitely feral and will need a barn home once she’s completely vetted. Luckily we have a vet who can safely anesthetize ferals and some help lined up for placing her in a barn home as well.

We are very thankful to our fosters, Cynthia and Christine, for stepping up to help us save this family. It was a team effort and required a transporter, two willing fosters, and some help from our rescue community to pull this off. It takes a village and we are lucky to have ours.

Mama’s shelter name was Nina. Her babies are Tina, Tiff, Tracie, Treble, Tanya, Troy & Trenton. We are still exploring names. Drop your suggestions below 👇

These posts never get easier to make. We never expected to be writing this, but despite everything we were doing for him, Hopper passed away.

When we took him into our care we knew he was very sick. While he had been eating, seeking affection, and enjoying the comfort of having a friend by his side, it became clear that his little body had been through far more than what we could see from the outside.

Sometimes rescue is so incredibly unfair. We meet them at the very end of their story and are left wishing we had gotten them sooner. Wishing someone had noticed sooner. Wishing love alone could have saved them.

The one thing that brings us comfort tonight is knowing that Hopper did not pass away alone. He spent his final days safe, warm, cared for, and surrounded by people who loved him. In just a short time, thousands of people from around the world were rooting for him, praying for him, donating toward his care, and hoping alongside us that he would pull through. Thank you for giving him that. Thank you for seeing value in his life, even if his time with us was far too short.

Please keep Cricket in your thoughts as she navigates losing her little friend. We will continue caring for her and giving her the future that we had hoped both babies would share.

Run free, sweet Hopper. You were loved more than you’ll ever know.

An update on our two kittens from yesterday. First, wow. The response has completely blown us away. Between the donations, shares, comments, and hundreds of people rooting for them they’ve raised over $1,000 in just a day. Thank you for loving them as much as we do.

We wanted to answer a few questions and clear up some confusion in the comments.

These kittens were not previously adopted from our rescue, Kitten Rescue Life. The Siamese kitten was adopted from a municipal shelter over a month ago and later returned to that same shelter in critical condition. We learned about him through a volunteer networker advocating for him and asking rescues to help him. Once we saw the plea, we stepped in to get him to safety and out of the shelter.

Because the shelter is a completely separate organization from us, we do not have access to their private records. We do not know who the adopters are and we have no information that would allow us to report or contact them.

We also don’t want to villainize shelters. Municipal shelters are often overwhelmed and doing the best they can with limited resources and space.

That said, high-volume shelters often have very different adoption processes than rescues. Some offer reduced-cost or free adoption events in an effort to save as many lives as possible and move animals out of overcrowded facilities. While those programs help many animals find homes, they can sometimes result in placements that aren’t the right fit or bad people looking for easy and free access to vulnerable animals.

Our approach is very different.

At Kitten Rescue Life, every adoption includes an application, phone interview, meet-and-greet, and an adoption fee. We know our process can feel lengthy, but it’s designed to make sure our kittens go to homes that are prepared for the commitment of caring for them. Because of that, our return rate is extremely low, and our adopters tend to become lifelong members of the KRL family.

As for the kittens themselves, they’re doing great. Our Siamese boy is incredibly affectionate, very ravenous, and happily enjoying regular meals. He’s receiving specialized care including medication, fluids, and close monitoring. We hope with time and TLC he will recover.

And while these two kittens being put together by the shelter was risky, we’re choosing to look at it as a silver lining because they enjoy each other’s company.

The night before this intake, Cassondra found a green grasshopper in her bathroom. The very same night, Amanda found a cricket in hers. Less than 24 hours later, these two boys found their way into our rescue. They didn’t tell each other until well after the rescue was in place.

So we’ve been tossing around names like Cricket & Grasshopper or Jiminy & Hopper, but their official names are still TBD.

If you have any name suggestions or like the ones above please tell us below! And if there’s anything we didn’t answer, leave your questions in the comments and we’ll answer those too. 🦗🐾

Donation links: https://linktr.ee/kittenrescuelife
Zelle: [email protected]
Mail a check to:
PO BOX 6004
Oceanside, CA 92056

Today we saw a plea for a kitten who was adopted from the shelter a month ago, then yesterday returned by the family in critical condition. They said they didn’t know how to care for a kitten and by the time he made it back he was incredibly emaciated, sick, and on deaths door.

One of our directors, Cassondra, didn’t hesitate and immediately jumped into action. She coordinated everything and stepped up to take him in so he wouldn’t have to sit in the shelter waiting someone would come for him.

No one know exactly what happened during the month he was away, but we do know he’s now safe and officially a Kitten Rescue Life kitten getting the care he needs.

Unfortunately due to lack of space, he was combined with another sick kitten at the shelter, which made our intake double and we’re hoping no repercussions will come of such a risky decision.

As with any emergency intake there will be veterinary costs. Exams, diagnostics, medications, supportive care… it all adds up quickly, especially when a kitten comes to us this sick. We don’t know what his road to recovery will look like yet but we do know he deserves a chance.

If you’d like to help, donations toward his care would mean the world. Every dollar goes directly toward giving kittens like him a chance to recover and have the future they deserve.

Donate here: https://linktr.ee/kittenrescuelife
Zelle: [email protected]

Thank you to everyone who shared his plea, advocated for him, and to Cassondra for saying yes when this kitten needed someone most. Welcome to the KRL family, little guy. We’re rooting for you. 🐾

We’ve got vision, I repeat, we’ve got vision!!! We are on our way home from picking up Shimmer but we had to stop and make this post real quick before finishing the drive home. We are so ecstatic, thrilled, and relieved! Her eye is a little cloudy so we are continuing her eyedrops for a couple weeks and coming back for another check up, but she’s already able to track my movements and I just know she’s about to be even more of a handful and a firecracker than she already is. Join us in celebrating this huge win for Shimmer!!! 🥳✨

I know everyone was hoping for an update on Shimmer’s remaining eye. Unfortunately we’ve had a minor setback. She did get her stitches out, but we’ll be waiting until Tuesday to share more info about her eye and its condition. She needs one more visit with her vet before we’re ready to say for certain how things are looking. Thank you for loving and supporting our girl along with us, we’ll share more in a few days 🫶🩷🌸

Thank you so much to all our wonderful donors who sent some supplies to the kitties, we are very grateful! 😻

Hello, world! We are in major need of wet food and dry food. We are completely out of a few items and have had to resort to purchasing them and shipping to fosters in need. This eats away at the funds we reserve for major medical cases, and with more than a handful of those in care right now we could use all the help we can get to replenish those supplies. Below is a list of what we’re completely out of in order of importance. Please consider sending a gift or two to our kitties in care. Thank you and enjoy the rest of your long weekend. 🩷

Donation links: https://linktr.ee/kittenrescuelife

ITEMS WE HAVE NONE OF:
Purina kitten dry food
Fancy Feast wet food in chicken or turkey
Petinic - vitamin rich supplement
Tapeworm dewormer
Dawn dish soap

Dry and wet food is most important and we go through it the fastest. 🙏