On two separate days, two newborn kittens were rescued - one from a garbage dump and the other from a storage compartment. Herbie was discovered in the garbage dump a day before Pippi was found in the storage compartment of a pickup. Luckily, they are now being taken care of and are keeping each other warm in a Mending Spirits Rescue foster home.
As The Free Press reports, 5-ounce orange and white kitten was discovered "under a loading dock at a garbage transfer station outside of Le Sueur" on Friday. The rescuers watched out for the kitten's mother all day, and after not finding her, they took the kitten and brought it to the president of Mending Spirits, Kristy Olson. Olson was the one who spent the "mostly sleepless night" taking care of the kitten. Now, the kitten is with the caregiver Angie Kimes who has named it Herbie.
Less than 24 hours after Herbie was brought into Mending Spirits, the foster home got yet another call about an orphaned kitten. "A rural Nicollet farmer heard meowing and found a 6-ounce tabby in a storage compartment of a pickup." Kimes was more than happy to take the second kitten as well, naming it Pippi.
"They are doing fantastic. They are lucky kitties," said Kimes, adding that "[k]ittens do better when they have a sibling." She now has two newborn mouths to feed every couple hours with formula, and though it's more work, she said that it's easier to take care of multiple kittens at once. That's because it's difficult for baby kittens to "maintain body heat on their own, so preventing hypothermia is one of the greatest challenges for rescuers," and when kittens are together, they snuggle up and help keep each other warm.
"I just get to babysit for a bit," Kimes explained. "I get them ready to find their perfect family." She is incredibly positive about the kittens getting better as she's an expert caregiver with almost a decade of experience as a volunteer foster. And we are so, so happy to hear that these kittens are in good hands. It'll "be at least seven weeks before Herbie and Pippi are ready to be adopted," but when they are, we wish them luck finding their perfect forever home. For more heartwarming rescue stories, read about this kitten whose jaw was broken and then repaired using buttons.
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