r/CatRescue

UPDATE*** After trying each and every suggestion we found a few different fosters to include our own Reddit community! I will update with the full ending and hopefully photos tomorrow. I can’t thank you enough

*** 3rd update***
I did a long update on the page! With updated pictures on the fur babies

Second edit***
It’s 0515 and all 12 are still with us 🖤

Edit** okay wow thank you to everyone for all the nice words and advice. I read so many of them to my boyfriend after we got done feeding them all. I am going to get a quick nap in as it’s 0129 and I’m in for a long night. I will reply/post update and photos when I can! Thank you again ***

Long story short. 12 kittens were dumped on the property behind mine in the middle of a rain storm. The animal control officer told us either I keep all 12 or he would take them and euthanize them as the shelter isn’t 24/7 and they need to be bottle fed.

So here I am with 12 babies and a goal to keep them alive until Tuesday when the shelter opens.

I’ve dried them, stimulated them to pee and put a heating pad on low while I run and get emergency formula. Pictures so my heart isn’t the only one bleeding tonight.

Any advice is welcome and I’ve never attempted this before but it was either take them and try to keep them alive or they all get put down so a girls gotta try!

FIRST PIC IS FROM THE OLD POST. REST ARE FROM TODAY.

You guys remember this stoic bastard Walter? For those who do not, I'll give you the run-down. We met him shortly after moving to SE Idaho. Very distrustful but would come by for food which we'd leave out for him and another stray (Sisu, who we adopted a year ago). He was the sheriff of the strays. Won every fight, but rarely went looking for them. Allowed all the cats (but one, that we're pretty sure is his son) into our yard for food and rest, but did not tolerate any tomfoolery. It took about 6 months to gain Walter's trust enough to pet him. We made him an "apartment" in the front yard. A cat-sized tent & bed with a rigid canvas canopy over it to keep the elements out. He lived in that for months. We'd see him every day. He got an infected paw from a fight so we brought him inside and had a vet do a house call. She figured he was about 10. The plan was to eventually get him to a vet to be neutered, medicated for anything needed, and brought home to live indoors.

That plan went to shit... at first. See, we were THREE days from his vet appointment when he vanished without a trace. The longest we had gone without seeing him prior to this was maybe 24 hours. After the first week my wife started losing hope, believing something had happened to him. She cried herself to sleep for at least 2 weeks. Having grown up with many cats over the years, many of whom were formerly strays themselves, I told my wife to keep an eye out. That sometimes strays go off questing for long periods of time and then show back up like it was no big deal. It didn't help, and honestly, after 6 weeks I started to lose hope.

So after he'd been missing for 7 & 1/2 weeks, while I was downstairs playing Crimson Desert on my PS5 (great game, btw), I get a phone call from my wife... Who works from home... 15 feet away. I answer, very confused. She's talking but very shaken. "IT'S WALTER! HE'S BACK!" I bolt outside to our garage, where she had set up several cat beds, food, water, and toys for all the strays, and there he is, awoken from his nap and startled, as if he'd almost forgotten who we were. He was a little skinnier, his cheeks were a little swollen (bad tooth), dirty, and a little beat up. The breakaway collar we put on him 2 days before he disappeared was also gone. My wife cried on my shoulder. She was overwhelmed in the best way. I'll be honest, I shed a happy tear or two for Walter's unexpected return to us.

We were able to remind him who we were and feed him. He gave us some headbutts and rolled around on his back a bit before starting to head down the sidewalk. It was now or possibly never. I scooped him up (he never cared about being picked up) and brought him into the house. He is secluded in a spare bedroom downstairs with everything he needs until both the vet stuff is done, and the other cats have had enough time to get used to his scent. He is a bit stressed about not being let back outside, but he's calmed and is resting. We aren't going to let this chance to finally give him the life he deserves slip away again.

So, as of now, Walter, the Sheriff 'round these here parts, the Ron Swanson of all cats, is retired to a peaceful life indoors with a loving family. He will likely occasionally unretire for a minute or two to put our other 3 cats in their place. Specifically Sisu, the only other male.

Walter, my boy... you're home.

Well guys we did it. The last 3 days have been a blur but it was worth it. Sorry for the delay in the update in writing this now after a 0300 feed. I’ll try to keep it short and I’m sorry if I didn’t message you back or reply back it was… alot at once haha. I tried to make an update earlier but the mods took it down since I mentioned not to financially support me but a charity instead.

All the kittens are alive and well with fosters! Thank you to this incredible community for making it possible. Your advice and words of encouragement got us through it.

The kittens got distributed out to different fosters with 1 being a Redditor found off this post! Huge shout out to u/clean_ad_1556 for taking some! Obligatory Reddit meet up photo thrown in the photos!

I called over 30 groups/ organizations and none would take them and I was beginning to think the shelter was the only option but finally North Texas Barn Cats said she would help! She runs a non profit that finds non adoptable feral cats and rehomed them as barn cats. On special occasions however, she takes bottle babies and gets them adopted out as normal adoptions.If you visit her website there’s a way to inquire about adopting one once they turn of age.

Lastly I want to thank my tenant for hearing the kittens in the rain, jumping the fence and calling me, mildly trespassing was worth it. As well as u/gimme_more_cats for your help and willingness to take some.

Thank you all again, this community has absolutely saved these kittens and changed our lives.

Newborn kitten found in gym parking lot!

I just found a kitten while going to the gym for a lift. Tiny little guy just sitting in an empty spot meowing and cold. Bases on his weight (89 grams) and the fact that he still has his umbilical stump and his eyes are still closed, Dr.Google said he is probably a day old? Couldn’t find mama cat, or any other kittens nearby so I’m really stumped on how he got there!
Any tips are appreciated as all the vets/rescues around me are closed until Monday. Right now he’s in a box in a tiny cat bed covered with a blanket, a heated goose stuffed animal & in our spare room with the heater on. We fed him kitten formula from a bottle about an hour ago, but it only ate probably 1ml. Rubbed his butt with a warm cloth and it pooped a bit which is a good sign I think.
Gonna feed it again in an hour and keep weighing it over the weekend to make sure it’s gaining weight properly.
In the meantime does anyone have any clever gym themed names? Lol

I posted about this boy a few months ago looking for advice and had to give an update. He’s continued to become more brave and turning into a total mama’s boy 💕 So proud of him how far he’s come.

There is a cat im trying to help looks in bad shape, cant get in carrier can i borrow a cat net from someone? Also if anyone can foster that would be great after I take her to the vet and get her healed

We're in the process of trapping this little family. We'll TNR and fully vet them, socialize them, and hopefully find them the best homes. We've made great progress so far (swipe through some of the pics... I can't handle the cuteness sometimes!).

I woke up at 2AM thinking my cat must’ve had gotten into some trouble, but no it was a doppelgänger!! I had two babies in the house. I never let my cat outside unsupervised, but sleep deprived me was not thinking. Not sure who to call or what to do. We’re located in Chandler AZ. I got him some shade, food, and water for now.

This is Lola. She has been a fixture here at Central Texas Feline Rescue for about 13 years.

Lola and three other cats, Stubbs and Ingrid, had a bounty on their heads. Management at a trailer park where their caregivers lived was threatening them with eviction if the residents continued to feed them.

So, we stepped in to help.

Ingrid and Stubbs passed peacefully some time ago.

Lola has mammary cancer. She has a tumor growing, but her personality and habits are the same. Today we took her to the vet for a follow-up. We know she doesn't have much time, so we are making the best of it. She will let me know when it's time to cross the rainbow bridge. ❤️

Found this semi-stray hanging around my apartment since the rainy season. He used to be super skinny and sick-looking, and while he’s gained some weight, he still has a really runny/crusty nose and keeps squinting/blinking like something’s bothering him.

He’s actually really chill and seems used to people. I want to help him and could even take him in, but I already have cats and don’t want to risk spreading anything.

Anyone know what this might be or have advice/resources? I just want to get him checked out and safe.

Although this video focuses on dogs (and other social media outside of Reddit), the mods of CatRescue and many other cat subs on Reddit continue to encounter these scammers from Uganda. This documentary details the extensive social media emotional pleas to donate to injured, sick and starvin dogs. But it happens to cats as well. This commercialization of misery and pet misery porn is meant to get people, such as yourselves to donate. Through out the documentary you'll see that these "shelters" are rented facilities that come with a bunch of sufferin animals so that social media users can pose next to and shill fer your donations.

Donatin to these social media, pet misery pimps never helps the animals to get the vet care or food they need; it only encourages the scammers to continue to injure and prolong the sufferin of these animals.

r/CatRescue has been fendin off the Ugandian scam ring (and other scammers since the mod team took over 6 months ago). Some of these scam-ring accounts also steal media content from real rescues. We have been trackin this particular scam ring and (other individual scammers) and workin with other mod teams to help report and improve detection.

I encourage you all to watch or read the video/article to learn more on how to spot these accounts and also when you do, to report scam and sham posts on Reddit as you see them pop up.

BBC Article: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g9l74wvd7o

BBC Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFnXT8PJfhk

Six months after the last known animal gas chamber in the United States closed, a city in Montana sat down and tried to build a new one.

It's called Hardin. Big Horn County. Three thousand seven hundred people. On the edge of the Crow Reservation.

On April 7, 2026, the City Council's Law Enforcement Committee took up the question of one thousand free-roaming cats. Alderman George Toyne brought the proposal: build a CO₂ gas chamber. In-house. By city staff. One thousand dollars.

"I think for a thousand bucks, we can set up a gas facility and do it." "The training for an officer to do it wouldn't be that hard." "Feral cats need to be just put down."

And the cost held it together: "So we have got to figure out a cheaper way to do it in house."

Montana law lists exactly one approved euthanasia agent: sodium pentobarbital. CO₂ is not on the list. The statute stopped it.

I read the records. No gas chamber needed. The case against the cats is already on the books.

The cascade closes itself.

A cat off its owner's property is at large under Section 6-2-1. A cat without a collar is a stray. A stray that won't let itself be touched is feral — undefined, undefended. A cat with watering eyes is sick: "You go to the trailer parks, their eyes are mattering. They're sick. They need to be put down. They're not doing our community any justice. They're bad. They're bad." Sick is exempt from the five-day hold. Killed on intake under 6-2-6(C). A cat someone feeds is owned under 6-2-1, and the feeder is in violation of 6-2-12. A cat in Big Horn County, by the city's logic, is a presumed disease vector.

The county's confirmed rabies cases in recent years: a stray cat, a skunk, a puppy. Not a feral colony.

What is left, when it closes, is a cat with a current collar, a paid license, an indoor address, and an owner who finds it within five days with cash for fines.

Everything else falls through. The colony cats. The tame strays whose owners died or moved. The kittens born in the trailer parks. The cat the woman three doors down has fed for two years.

And a cat named Pebbles. He was thirteen. He had a porch, an owner, a vet record. Two dogs killed him in front of her autistic son.

On April 21 his owner stood before the council and said: He may have been a cat, but he was my cat. My cat Pebbles deserve justice.

While the gas chamber stands alone, the structure beneath does not.

The codes are on the books. Read yours.