While alive and fighting for their lives in this picture, these two have since passed away.
Their mom is now spayed, but their life and suffering was anything but “cute.” Nothing is cute about kittens born prematurely to a mom only months old herself.
Not when that mom is too scared and unprepared to be a mom that she doesn’t produce milk nor want her babies, quickly abandoning them and even biting at them after birth.
Not when one in the litter is born a stillborn, one dies soon after birth, and two die days later after fighting so much harder than their tiny hearts and souls should have ever had to.
Not when the suffering of the mom and her four babies could have been prevented with spay and neuter.
Not when their deaths and mom’s pain and anxiety were simply due to lacking pet responsibility.
We were supposed to get these two babies in the coming days, but they didn’t even make it to stable condition to be passed off to us.
We were contacted by another local rescue to take these two kittens in as soon as they were stable enough to pass off, but sadly they both died earlier today.
While not in our care, we can assure you the rescue did everything they could for these two fighters and they died loved in hands that warmed and caressed them in their final hours.
We were on standby from the moment they were found and we were heartbroken with each update - their premature birth from an incredibly young and small mom, their mom biting at them and running from them, her lack of milk and their lack of colostrum, and their fight against all the odds.
It reminded us of why we do this - why we foster and why we fight to promote pet responsibility, the spaying/neutering of pets, and why we advocate for the tiny souls that don’t get to speak for themselves.
With a simple procedure, the lives of these 5 would not have had to endure the trauma and pain they did.
While kittens are adorable, their lives are often much harder than their small bodies and mighty hearts need to endure.
Please, PLEASE, PLEASEEEEE - spay and neuter your pets, foster for your local shelter and give an animal a second chance at a life it deserves.