Orphaned kittens find doting care with adopted mother

 Allison Wright loves hosting the family of four who moved into her home last month. The three babies like to play through the kitchen gate with her dog. The mother likes to try and hide the babies in the closet. 

Wright’s hosting a family of cats.

As she talks, the kittens crawl across the floor, letting out high-pitched mewing. Their mother, Gretel, chases after them. Gretel catches one of them and pulls him in, and the kitten mews more as Gretel starts licking his fur.

Gretel adopted the three kittens, two of whom were discovered in the wheel well of a car that drove from Seattle to the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley.

“ So they drove all the way from Seattle, pulled into the hotel and a kitten fell outta the wheel well. And they were about 5 days old,” said Cathy Carlson, a foster volunteer at Helping Hands Rescue, which runs the foster program. “Going over the pass had to be cold.”

Gretel took in the kittens after losing her own litter, which was born prematurely.

“She was very, very sad,” Wright said, describing Gretel meowing all night long. “Another foster had some babies about the same age that she was bottle feeding.  I’m like, ‘Hey, do you think I can steal those and see if we can put ’em with mama and if she’ll take ’em in?’ And she absolutely did. She was so happy to be back with babies.’”

These three kittens will be kept with Gretel until they’re old enough to be rehomed with loving families. 

But there are a few weeks until that happens. For now, the kittens remain, crawling across the floor, climbing on Wright and receiving baths from Gretel. Wright holds a gray kitten with folded ears to her chest.

“It’s gonna be so hard not to keep you,” she said, looking at the kitten. “I’ve never been a foster fail yet. So, knock on wood.”

Though Wright has yet to keep any of her foster animals — that’s a “foster fail” — many foster volunteers are involved in the adoption process to ensure the animals go to homes that are the best fit, she said.

“As a foster, if I’m at the event for adoption and somebody applies, I get to look over, ’cause I know that cat. I know that animal,” Wright said.

Though Gretel’s litter of kittens is unique in its adopted nature, local fosters who care for animals in their homes while they await adoption — or grow old enough to be adopted — said they’re seeing plenty of kittens.

Right now, Helping Hands has up to 30 cat fosters who rotate in as needed, collectively caring for about 60 kittens. There’s over 15 dog fosters. Carlson said there’s always a need for more.

“That’s not counting the mamas,” Carlson said. “(That’s) not counting the ones that are in a house that we’re trying to find a place for.”

Carlson said the nonprofit also has a waiting list to take in more mother cats and kittens. There just aren’t enough foster volunteers to take them all in.

“ One place in Uniontown, the lady called me and she goes, ‘This mama cat went out in this cubby I have and had kittens the other day. And two days later, the other cat went in and had kittens too.’ So there’s two mamas sharing two litters.”

One of the reasons there are so many kittens, Carlson said, is that people aren’t getting their animals spayed and neutered, leading to overpopulation. The nonprofit offers to cover a third of the cost of spays and neuters for pet dogs and cats, as well as feral cat colonies. 

“What people don’t see is, you may not spay or neuter your cat, but then you have other people that have to take on the responsibility of bottle feeding,” Wright said.

Foster volunteers like Mada Schneider are currently caring for around 10 bottle babies, who need to be fed roughly every two hours. 

Kittens often need to be bottle fed if something happens to a mother cat, like a dog attack, or if someone mistakenly thinks feral kittens are abandoned and takes them in before the mother returns.

“Bottle babies, you have to be dedicated,” Schneider said. “It’s like having a child.”

Though bottle babies are more labor intensive, Carlson said, many people are able to foster a cat.

Last year, over 700 animals were adopted from Helping Hands, many of whom were cats. So far this year, over 150 animals have been adopted. 

The nonprofit also takes in animals whose owners need to rehome their pets due to unforeseen life circumstances. 

People interested in volunteering, seeking spay or neuter assistance or who want to adopt a dog or cat with Helping Hands can fill out applications on the organization’s website at any time at helpinghandsrescue.org.