10/08/2026
😮💨 Some days, this is what rescue looks like…
Tonight, we came home to something that absolutely broke our hearts.
One of our younger rescues, Lolo, who we suspected might be pregnant, had given birth to three premature kittens. One had already passed away, but the other two were still very much alive.
Lolo is only 10 months old. She’s still a baby herself. She didn’t understand what was happening. She just stared at her tiny kittens, confused and unsure of what to do. She wanted nothing to do with them, and we couldn’t blame her. She was far too young to be experiencing any of this.
We immediately stepped in, placing the two surviving kittens into an incubator to warm their fragile little bodies. Once they were warm enough, we attempted to feed them, but neither had developed a sucking reflex. Before I could even get the feeding tube ready, both babies had passed away. Three tiny lives gone before they ever really had a chance.
Then Mama Lolo, wanted nothing more than to be held. She didn’t want to play. She didn’t want to explore. She just wanted someone to cuddle her, love her, and make her feel safe.
This is why we talk so much about the importance of spaying and neutering.
Cats can become pregnant as young as four months old, long before they’re fully grown themselves. While some young mothers successfully raise their kittens, others experience complications, premature deliveries, stillbirths, or kittens too fragile to survive.
These tragedies happen in feral colonies, abandoned buildings, barns, and neighborhoods far more often than most people realize. We simply don’t see them.
For every litter of adorable kittens someone discovers, there are 10 others who never survive long enough to be found.
Spaying and neutering isn’t just about preventing unwanted litters, It’s about preventing suffering, and protecting young females like Lolo from becoming mothers before they’ve even had a chance to grow up. Every one of these heartbreaking losses could have been avoided.
Rescue isn’t just cuddling adorable kittens, bottle feeding fluffy babies, taking cute pictures, and watching them find their forever homes.
Unfortunately, too often Rescue is coming home after a long day and immediately jumping into an emergency. It’s incubators, medications, sleepless nights, and desperately trying to save lives that sometimes cannot be saved.
It’s holding a tiny, lifeless body in your hands, knowing you did everything you could. It’s cleaning up afterward, fighting back tears, and then turning your attention to the animals who still need you. It’s comforting a frightened 10 month old mama who has no idea what just happened to her.
It’s heartbreaking. It’s exhausting. And sometimes, it’s incredibly unfair. We don’t get to save them all. And that’s one of the hardest realities of rescue.
Tonight, we couldn’t save Lolo’s three babies, but we can love their mama. We can make sure she’s safe, receives the care she needs, and never has to go through this again.
We will continue advocating for spay, neuter, and community cat population control so fewer animals have to experience what Lolo did tonight.
Rescue isn’t always about saving a life. Sometimes, it’s about being there when a life is lost….. and sometimes, it’s about holding a kitten named Lolo, who should still be someone’s baby instead of having babies of her own.
