‘So incredibly lucky’: 85-year-old NC man rescues four kittens left on side of road

Four newborn kittens abandoned on the side of the road last month will look to find new homes, thanks to a stroke of luck and the help of an 85-year-old Wake Forest man.

The kittens were overheated, dehydrated and hungry when they were rescued, said Samantha Ranlet, a spokeswoman for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of Wake County.

“We have no way of knowing how long they were out there, but they were picked up in the nick of time,” she said. “It’s so incredibly lucky.”

Chuck Campbell, a retiree, came across a sealed bag in a deserted area between Sampson and Johnston counties in May. The grass had been cut that morning, and Campbell said he realized the bag must have been placed there recently. It was an area where he said others had abandoned dogs and cats before, so he looked inside.

“There were five beautiful kittens about two weeks old in there,” he told The News & Observer Monday.

“I can’t believe people can do that,” he said of the abandonment. “It’s heartless.”

Of those, four have survived, and SCPA Wake has helped care for them. Ranlet said young kittens need to be fed every two hours in order to survive, and are extremely vulnerable to the elements.

“They were really set up to fail in this situation,” she said. “It’s actually a miracle that they survived at all.”

Ranlet said the four surviving kittens — brown tabbies named Crow, Raven, Magpie and Jackdaw — are now healthy. They’ve quadrupled in size over the past four weeks in foster care, she said.

“They’ve grown like weeds,” she said,

The playful kittens will be up for adoption in about two weeks, she said.

Campbell, who has fed and cared for feral cats for the better part of the past decade, said the situation made him “want to cry.”

“I’m an 85-year-old person, but you get emotional sometimes, especially with animals,” he said.

How you can help

Most abandoned kittens are not left by people, but are feral and have been separated from their mothers, according to Ranlet. That’s what made the situation so shocking, she said.

“We can’t help but feel it really comes down to folks who don’t know what to do when they find kittens that need help,” she said. “And we want to let the public know that if they do find kittens, there are steps they can take.”

Ranlet said it’s important to assess the situation and look for signs of whether a mother cat is in the area.

“You would only want to intervene if the kittens looked unhealthy, sickly, underweight,” she said. “But if they are very small and they look plump and clean, the best thing is to leave them for the mother cat to come back for them.”

A few weeks later, when they’re old enough to eat on their own, those cats can be safely brought into a foster home and eventually put up for adoption, she said.

If they seem unwell, Ranlet suggests calling local organizations to ask for advice. Others who want to help can look into fostering cats, or donating to local rescue groups.

Every dollar donated to SPCA Wake on Monday will be triple matched up to $100,000 by Care First Animal Hospital in Raleigh, according to a society news release.

The donation matches will be provided by the hospital in the form of veterinary services.