"I know I can’t save them all, but I saved one": After a feral kitten appeared by the dumpsters, this first-time cat rescuer risked her finances, her patience, and her peace to keep one tiny life alive

Author image for Laurent Shinar
Laurent Shinar • Writer and Editor
Jul 29, 2025 5:00 PM EDT

Cat rescues are a seriously complicated business. First you have the cat itself, which depending on how feral it is, might not even want to be rescued, especially not by hoomans. If you can overcome that hurdle without too many scratches on your arms and face, then comes phase two, the vet. By which we really mean the vet bills, which are astronomical when a poor catto has been camping out in the cold for a prolonged period. If your bank account can survive that hurdle, then you come to a major one. What to do with the now clean kitty?

Shelters will likely be full or put them on a bad list. If you saved the cat, you likely have cat children of your own at home who might not take too kindly to a feral visitor joining their spoiled ranks. It is a conundrum almost unlike any other. But when all is said and done, you have to make a move. And the heroic couple who decided to bring the feral kitten they found into their home with two spoiled cat children sure had big stones about them to do so. 
 

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  • 01
    I live in a condo community. Back in the end of May, I saw a kitten running around the dumpsters. I asked around, no one seemed to know where she came from or really cared. She
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    was extremely feral. I left water and food out for her because LV unfortunately gets hot as hell.
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    I called multiple rescues/shelters. No one seemed to want to help. They asked me if she was super friendly. I didn't know if she was or wasn't since at the time she hissed and puff up her
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  • Jheez, what a tough start to this story. We have come to somehow know animal shelters as being places of kindness and caring that take on any kind of animal who needs help. But it seems that even their golden hearts have become heavy with the weight of neglect, and are now basing decisions on pawsonality. Where have we come to as human beings?

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    body at me so they turned her down or they told me they may just have to put her down. I found out it was hard to find a no k shelter. The worst of all, though? A lot
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    of these rescues/shelters were at max capacity. I wasn't sure what to do. My husband recommended we just watch her and try to socialize her.
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    It took us a whole month to gain her trust. She knew we were a food source, but was still extremely cautious. She'd stare at us from afar, and then she finally got bold
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    enough to just wait for us to come out on the patio with food and water. She finally let us touch her one day thanks to the magic of the Churu stick.
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    She just meowed so happily at us. She started following me around the neighborhood. A lot of my neighbors just told me they were hoping she'd leave or d e by now and it broke my heart.
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    My husband looked at me one day and said "Alright, let's do it. Let's bring her in and take care of her." I was terrified. I have an 8 year old boy cat and a 5 year old girl cat. I didn't
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    know what to do or how to do it, but I knew if we left her outside, she was probably not going to live any longer. My 8 and 5 year olds know of her existence, but they've never seen her. She knows they exist too.
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  • Wow, talk about a whole new dynamic to the story. If you are a pawrent and you have tired to introduce your cat child to another, you will know of the hissing and intense scrapes that they usually get straight into. Its a tense environment. But these brave souls did not let that stop them from saving a feline life.

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    She's been living in our bathroom far away from them since.
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    I looked up videos on what to do for socializing and for tests she needed. I made an appointment for a spay and vaccines on July 22nd.
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    Unfortunately, when we first brought her in, I found her paw and arm to be cut open. I tried cleaning it the best I could, but the next day it swelled to double the size due to her trying to lick it.
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    I took her to an emergency vet as my usual vet wasn't open. It was $649.74... I was mortified at the price, but I knew if I let it go, her arm would've gotten worse. This is where
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    Cheezburger Image 10535231744
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    people started yelling at me. "You should've just given her to a shelter! Why would you waste your money on this thing?" I tried my best to ignore them. Yes, my
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    wallet took a hit but I couldn't just let her get infected or sick.
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    As I said before, I tried reaching out to multiple rescues/shelters. No one was willing to take her. I'm sure there was other places I could've checked, but I had already gone through 5 or 6 of them.
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    We were able to heal her arm just in time for her spay and vaccines. 3 hours into her appointment, I get the worst news.... She was pregnant. 4 fetuses. She had been pregnant for a week. A WEEK. I just
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    wanted to cry; she's only 4 months old right now. They told me I did the right thing bringing her in, that if we had let it get too far along she might not have actually made it. I was still heartbroken. I
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    tried my best to protect her and she still somehow got pregnant. But, thankfully they took care of it and vaccinated her as well as spayed her. I thought everything was okay.
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    I get her back from her surgery to find out they never did a SNAP test on her. I had expressed that she was a stray and had been strictly living outside. She needed that
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    test so we could have peace of mind knowing she was okay to integrate with other cats. I was so upset, and once again got hit with the typical comments, this time from the vets.. "Well, you should've just found a rescue to take her. Why
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    didn't you mention the testing to us?" I did. "This would've been easier if we just dealt with a rescue instead of you."
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    I'm not going to lie, these comments have really gotten me down. I just want this little girl to experience her best life, indoors. She deserves to be loved. She deserves to
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    have a soft blanket and a cool space to hang out in. I did not realize that taking in a stray would be such a a polarizing topic. I decided not to go back to the spay and neuter center for her testing, and decided to take her to
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    another place that does low cost wellness check- ups and SNAP testing. They were incredibly upset to find out she had just gone through vaccines and the surgery without getting any further testing done. They
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    apologized to me and said they would get her take care of in another two weeks.
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    It's been a tumultuous rollercoaster of a couple of months. With all of her visits I'm $856.17 in and I still need to do her SNAP testing with a wellness check, another $85 to add on.
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    My neighbors still give met for "helping." My coworkers think I'm crazy and wasting my money. Other people have told me I'm a loser for not just minding my business and not getting a rescue involved, even after I explained to them what I
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    had found out in my research. But I don't regret it. I don't regret saving her life. I don't regret taking care of her health and neither does my husband. I know I can't save them all, but at least I can be at
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    ease knowing I helped at least one. Even if she doesn't end up staying with us, I want her to know she is loved.
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dumpster risk peace after life tiny cat stories patience kitten reddit story saved save finances first time cat rescue alive feral cant
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