Teens save abandoned kitten over holidays
Published on January 3rd, 2011 By Amy Woolvett
Molly, an abandoned kitten, was rescued off the 103 Highway last week. Thousands of cats are cruelly abandoned throughout the county. Contributed photo
It was both luck and a kind heart that saved a kitten only weeks old from a cruel death of starvation, after being abandoned near Clyde River.
Heaven Symonds was traveling to Yarmouth with her sister Tory Symonds and some friends to see a movie when they spotted the little kitten off of the 103 Hwy. “We stopped and pulled over and was able to pick her up said Heaven Symonds. “I could feel every bone in her body…she was so thin.”
The kittens face was scuffed up with marks, telling a story of the survival the animal went through.
Realizing right away that the kitten was abandoned Symonds brought her into the car and cuddled the animal throughout the movie.
She contacted Pet Projects, a local group dedicated to rescuing and helping needy animals in the area.
They helped by donating money for the kitten to receive medical tests and an examination to make sure that it was well.
“I wasn’t going to keep her,” said Symonds explaining that she had just gotten a puppy for Christmas. “But I couldn’t just leave her and now I’ve gotten attached.”
She said that the kitten, she named Molly, must have been abandoned for at least a week.
“You can’t get that skinny in a couple of days,” she explained.
The same day a friend found a dead kitten in the vicinity and with the snowstorm that hit the night she found Molly, Symonds is certain the kitten would have met the same fate.
“I don’t think it is right at all (to abandon animals),” she said. Just take them to Pet Projects for free if you can’t take care of them.
Pet Projects runs a free, volunteer run program where they will help you to locate unwanted pets, post photos and descriptions of kittens on their website, www.petprojects.ca and on Kijiji, make posters or find a temporary home until a permanent home is found.
They also have a program to help have your animal spayed or neutered and will assist through tough times to temporarily offer pet food.
Each year, hundreds of people in the Shelburne area dump kittens at wharves, down dirt roads or at a public place to rid themselves of unwanted pets. Pet Projects would like this to stop.
“It is wrong and cruel to dump kittens,” said Shelly Hipson a volunteer for Pet Projects. “I’m very proud of Heaven. “Cruelty to animals is a symptom of bigger issues in our community. How are the people who dumped these kittens treating their children, or the seniors in their family. For a person to pick up a helpless young kitten and toss it out of a vehicle without empathy or understanding makes us wonder, who would do such a thing.”
She estimates that there are thousands of unreported and homeless animals in the area.
She added that if a resident sees a cat being abandoned to take down their license plate number and report it to the SPCA at 1-888-703-7722 as an act of cruelty to animals, a criminal offence.
“It takes a team to make the world a better place for animals in need,” said Hipson. “Together we can make a difference.”
Well then. Still think I'm over to top to natter on and on about abandoned cats? At the same time this was happening .. another kind heart is working with PET Projects to find a more reliable home for the cat she found by the highway, in a taped up cardboard box.
I've seen cat rescuers save chained dogs, german shepherd rescue saving little dogs, small dog rescue saving the super sized pooches and everything in between.
What do I like best about PET Projects? Partnership! Throughout their site, they stress their willingness to partner with pet owners and rescuers in the area. From providing short term emergency vet care and providing emergency pet food ... to helping with spay neuter to helping rehome pets by advertising private adoptions ... to working to make a better life for chained dogs and beyond ... this is a group that is determined to create a better community for the animals and the humans who care for them.
So its no surprise that they have been making flyers to help educate folks in their community. The one pictured below is aimed at pet abandonment .. and there is another one I'll feature soon about chained dogs.
What time is it? Its always time to applaud the folks who say "what can we do" instead of saying that "its not our job"
Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail Ralph Waldo Emerson
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