A cause I care about needs help

We all love wonderful stories of successful rescues, especially around the Holidays, and Neponset Valley Humane Society is lucky to have so many. There are times when one breaks a little piece of our hearts though. NVHS volunteers make decisions every day that help save the life of a cat. The funds donated are very carefully managed to insure we can provide much needed medical care, spay/neuter and continue to sustain our many programs. However, in some circumstances, such as this one, the expense comes on quickly, is much greater and impacts our finances greatly. After reading this story, we are hoping that you will donate to help us raise the money to offset as much of this $4,000+ expense as possible. About a week ago, this beautiful girl, RGB aka Ruthie, was rescued wandering the streets starving. She was “hugely” pregnant but once settled and nourished, was doing well. Ruthie is very sweet, friendly and loves attention. Knowing she was ready to give birth soon, it was no surprise that by 8 a.m. this past Sunday morning 4 kittens arrived. Sadly, one didn’t make it. She was clearly trying to give birth to more with no success. RGB was immediately brought to the vet emergency hospital. On the way, another kitten passed away. Ruthie was rushed into emergency and during her exam, the doctor could hear two heart beats for sure and maybe one or even two faint ones. They had to perform an immediate C-section. Sure enough, there were 3 more kittens, however, one was not alive and blocking the birth canal which prevented the other two kittens from being born. Mom made it through surgery and while in recovery, she wasn’t able to nurse her babies as much as needed and the kittens were struggling. Hoping that they could all be saved, the hospital staff provided supplemental feeding every 2-3 hours. Not knowing if mom or the kittens would survive, they remained under the watchful eyes of the doctors and technicians who were amazing in their care over the last 4 days. Unfortunately though, we lost one of the two kittens born via C-section on Christmas morning and the other kitten today. The doctors told us that Ruthie is a very young cat, and this was probably her first litter. There are so many things that could have caused this, it’s difficult to know what really happened. But one thing is for sure, had she not been rescued, then rushed to emergency when she was, none of them would have survived. She and her kittens would have suffered miserable deaths alone. As you can imagine, our hearts are broken for the kittens who didn’t survive. But we are forever grateful that Ruthie and 2 of her kittens have a fighting chance at a wonderful, healthy life. Thank you for your help.

More information about Neponset Valley Humane Society Inc: Provides veterinary care, spay/neuter, foster, adoption and seniors-for-seniors programs, food, shelter and trap-neuter-return (TNR) for feral-community cats. Learn more about our 25 years of service at www.neponsethumane.org. Follow and Like us on FB too!