Walmart Kitten Adventure Today

 I was in a bum mood today, accomplishing nothing and still in pj's.

Then I got a message from Lisa of KATA wondering if I could go to Walmart.

It seems she was contacted by a shopper, who had found tiny kittens at the very back of the garden section, but in a place where she could not get to them.  They were down behind the tall metal mesh garden center walls and a concrete wall.  She wondered if I could go over and check it out.

I was in my car with nets and a carrier thrown in, in ten minutes flat.  Guess I needed something fun to do.

I parked behind the garden center and located the wall the customer had even photographed for Lisa, for ease of finding.  I looked down behind it and saw six little faces, some hissing, look back at me.

It's maybe four feet down, from top of the concrete wall to the bottom, where the kittens were.   The woman who saw them had seen the mom run out but she hadn't gone far, although by now I had no idea where she might be.  Close, I figured.  Behind me in the parking lot were piled bales of cardboard recycling.  In there somewhere, I thought.

I went and got my two nets and my walking stick from my car.  One net had too short a handle to be useful, so I used the other net plus the handle end of my walking stick.  With that walking stick handle I pushed the kittens into my net, then hoisted them up one by one.  Some were hissy spitty, even striking out blindly, as their eyes were still blue and not their final color and they could barely walk yet.  

The woman who had originally seen them drove up about then, and she held them all while I went to get KMR from a nearby store since Walmart was out.  I got a syringe too, from same store, and we fed them once I got back.  Then I was stimulating little bladders best as I could with a few napkins I had in my car.  Man alive they could pee out a lot!  The little girl who was initially hissy and striking out, bless her heart, the moment she got some KMR down her she turned into the sweetest kitten in the world.  Holy transformation!

The tabby in the following video is her:

The other lady left and I put four of the kittens in a carrier behind a set trap over by the cardboard recycle bales and then I waited.  Catching the mom with kittens as bait can take a couple of hours.

She came around the corner, headed towards the concrete wall, after a couple hours, then did a 90 degree turn toward the trap when she heard the kittens.  She went straight into the trap for them and it snapped shut behind her.   I caught her only five minutes before Lisa showed up from Sweet Home.  Good timing!!  All seven were contained including mom.

They all went back to Sweet HOme with Lisa from KATA.  Including mom (below).

I'll end with the cat weed addict who raids my supply nightly.  Yeah, that's catnip he's got his face in right now, in this photo.  Proof!  His name is Fritter and he's not my cat.