This grant added a part-time Kitten Care Specialist who cared for neonates in the nursery and taught fosters advanced skills like tube feeding and giving subcutaneous fluids. She launched the Babysitter Club, which gave fosters backup care when they needed to step away, so kittens got uninterrupted feedings and fosters avoided burnout.
The grant also funded 43 upgraded foster kits and an incubator for checkout, so fosters had what they needed at home.
But we weren’t done yet. We learned that unsocial cats who came into the shelter with kittens had nowhere to go, so we funded a new kennel bank. Nine feral moms and their 42 kittens were housed together until weaning. Then the kittens joined the adoption program, and the moms were spayed, vaccinated, and returned to their outdoor homes.
A team member, supplies, and a kennel bank made a huge impact: 585 kittens helped, 332 of them under four weeks old, and active neonate foster homes grew from 106 to 122. With reusable kits and equipment built to last, there are many more kittens helped in the future!
