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A box of Torties isn't a gift of delicious chocolate treats. Tortie is short for Tortoiseshell, and this type of cat has beautiful tri-colored fur. Torties are primarily black, with reddish orange and cream patches. They are usually female.
The box we received contained six Tortie kittens. These were the survivors of a litter of nine. From what we were told, two of the kittens starved to death. One was maimed by the mother cat and did not survive. The owner of the kittens had to find a new home for them
that day as her husband said he would just leave the box of kittens outside in the cold if she came back home with them.
These kittens were about 3 weeks old. They were too young to be weaned from their mom and they require bottle-feeding.
Four of the six kittens we rescued survived. This is amazing considering what had
transpired prior to their rescue. All of kittens were malnourished
and dehydrated when they came to us. An AHF volunteer witnessed the owner outside of one of our adoption
locations, box of kittens in hand, tossing the little babies in the
air: "Free kittens" "Look, see how playful they are!". It
turned out that one of the kittens we rescued was paralyzed. The
kitten was not in any pain, but the kitten could not move her back
legs at all. The vet suggested that we euthanize her. We were all
hopeful that the paralysis was temporary. We tried, but the little
girl did not make it.
The smallest kitten in the bunch never grew.. Foster mom tried
every trick in the book to help the baby gain weight. It was a
losing battle. Deprived of any nutrition early on, the kitten had
no chance. Someone on the scene told us that this is the
fourth time this has happened with this particular lady. Obviously, her unspayed cat has given birth at least three times before.
This type of situation is a rescuer’s nightmare. An irresponsible pet owner who does not spay or neuter their pets, one who lets their cats outside and who is then surprised when the inevitable happens. After the kittens are born, the owners only concern is getting rid of the kittens. The cycle repeats.
What is even more frightening is what could have happened if one of our volunteers did not intervene. The unspayed female had nine kittens. She has had at least three litters before this one. If each litter consisted of nine kittens, this unspayed female has already produced 36 homeless kittens. Suppose the other litters were like our box of Torties: that would mean that at least six kittens of each litter were female. In just a few months, we would have 24 females capable of producing their own litter of kittens.
Now what if each of these 24 females had a litter of nine? We would have 216 homeless kittens! Just
one
female cat and her offspring can produce 467,000
kittens in
a 20-year span.
Please help us stop this cycle. Please Spay or Neuter your
pets! We rescue and spay/neuter as many animals as possible, but we cannot do it alone. We need foster homes for the animals, and we need funds to cover the cost of vetting and for food.
Please consider becoming a foster home or
volunteer!
Your donation would help us save more animals. Anything you can do to help us would be much appreciated.
Click
here
to donate.
Click
here
to find out how to become a foster home. |
