Five four-week-old kittens are safe and being cared for after being left in a cardboard box at the front door of the B.C. SPCA’s Victoria animal centre on Napier Lane.
A staff member found them this month just a few minutes after they had been dropped off, security video footage shows.
The person who dropped them off was out-of-frame and couldn’t be identified.
“The staff member could hear mewing and opened the box to see five beautiful kittens — two orange tabbies, a flame point, a calico and a black-and-white runt,” said centre manager Emma Hamill. “Thankfully, they were all healthy but too young to be away from their mom.”
She said the SPCA wants people to feel that they can come to the organization whenever they are dealing with issues involving animals.
Care for the kittens at the SPCA included syringe feeding them a kitten-milk replacement every four hours. Since they had already started to eat wet food, the weaning process could begin.
All have been placed in foster homes, where they will stay through Christmas until ready for adoption in two weeks.
“The kittens continue to need syringe feeding until they are about eight weeks old, when they can eat all they need on their own,” Hamill said.
She said they were very interested in people as soon as they were taken out of the box, and began to climb all over the staff and snuggle up for attention.
“Sadly, they were looking for mom, mewing the whole day while we waited to get them into a foster home,” she said.
Hamill said the kittens are starting to pick up on behaviours that ordinarily would have come sooner.
“Being separated from mom so early, they are still getting the hang of litter-box training and other things their mom would have taught them,” she said. “We have been getting updates from the fosters and apparently the calico we named Comfort has a lot of personality.
“She likes to boss her siblings around and doesn’t hesitate to vocalize her needs.”
Hamill said the flame point kitten, who has been dubbed Stuart Little, has “a very sweet personality,” while the runt of the litter, named Bobbin, is slowly catching up to the others in her development.
Anyone who wants to make a holiday donation to help the kittens and other animals can do so through the B.C. SPCA's website.
jbell@timescolonist.com
