A Box Beside the Car
It was nearly dawn when Cat Ouellette, a volunteer at Room 8 Memorial Cat Foundation, finished checking on the rescue’s most fragile kitties. She was ready to head home, got into her car… and then froze.
“I just had this weird feeling,” she recalls.
Trusting her instincts, she stepped out to look around — and that’s when she saw it: a taped-up cardboard box on the ground beside her passenger door. On top was a note explaining that someone had found a litter of kittens but couldn’t keep them because they had dogs.
Ouellette’s heart sank. It’s not uncommon for boxes of kittens to appear outside the rescue, but finding one alone in the middle of the night always hits hard.
“I’d rather see them here than by a trash can,” she says.
She opened the box — and her heart broke again. One tiny kitten had already passed away. The seven survivors were huddled together, confused and hungry.
Without hesitation, Ouellette scooped up the box and rushed inside. She mixed warm formula, fed each kitten, and gave them a quick exam. They gulped down every drop.
Two weeks later, the babies are thriving in foster care, their playful personalities beginning to bloom. Volunteers are taking turns caring for them until they’re big enough — and strong enough — to be spayed/neutered, vaccinated, and adopted into loving homes.
“This could have been prevented if the mom cat had been fixed,” Ouellette says. “That’s where the problem starts.”
For now, Ouellette is cherishing every moment of kitten chaos. “All I want them to know is how loved they are,” she says.
From a taped-up box in the dark to safe beds and full bellies, these seven little lives are proof of what can happen when someone listens to that weird feeling — and decides to check.