Late last month, a volunteer animal rescuer in eastern North Carolina returned home to a suspicious box waiting at the end of her driveway.
At first, the woman assumed it was a Walmart or Amazon delivery. But as she got closer, she realized it wasn’t a cardboard
package at all, but rather a grocery basket with a note and a bottle of water taped to the top. She approached cautiously, her heart beating faster with each step.
“[She was] just stunned and fearful of what she would find,” Shelley Mayfield, the cat team liaison with RescueConnect, told The Dodo.
The woman looked into the box and locked eyes with multiple scared cats huddled inside, panting in the heat.
“Found these cuties under my new place,” the note affixed to the box said.
The rescuer, whose home was already full of intakes, contacted Mayfield for help. She worked swiftly, moving the box into her car and driving straight to Mayfield’s for further assistance.
“Halfway to my house, she called, very alarmed that the cat had broken out of the hole in the top of the box,” Mayfield said. “She could see in her rearview mirror that there were at least two kittens that came after mom.”
Safe in Mayfield’s garage, the rescuers gently grabbed the mama cat from the car and then got to work locating all three of her babies. They fed the cats, assessed them for injuries and began making plans for their future.
Today, the mama cat, named Maxie, is being cared for at a cat cafe in in Alexandria, Virginia. Having finished nursing her babies, she's awaiting spay surgery before heading to a permanent home.
As for the kittens, they’re safe at The Sound Cat Veterinary Hospital, and they’ll be available for adoption in late September.
After everything they’ve been through, this sweet family is finally safe, awaiting families who will love them forever.
