Fairfield crews save kittens in abandoned car
FAIRFIELD — An abandoned car in the parking lot of a local pub recently became the scene of a two-day, six-person rescue mission that saved a litter of kittens from the December cold, officials said.
Officials said emergency medical services personnel found four kittens and a stray mother cat in a red Hyundai parked at the Gaelic-American Club on Beach Road, describing the car as filled with garbage “from bottom to top.” Emergency responders decided the kittens, who were tucked underneath the dashboard, were in “immediate distress” with cold temperatures soon to set in.
“When we started with this, the weather was relatively warm, but the weather was getting colder and colder until it was below freezing at night,” Animal Control officer Paul Miller said. “And we felt that there was a chance that if the kittens were left there for any more time, that they could be in jeopardy.”
Fairfield Animal Control received the report about the found cats from the American Medical Response EMS company, which was already on scene with police by the time Miller arrived. A case report states police traced the license plate of the car to a man they realized to be unhoused who had received permission from the Gaelic-American Club to leave his car in the parking lot.
Police Lt. Ed Nook said the man was not responsible for the cats, which he said later took shelter in the vehicle. The report notes the mother cat had been “going in and out of the driver-side window.”
He said police were unable to contact the man and are not charging him for any crime.
After receiving permission from the Police Department and Office of the State’s Attorney, fire and animal control personnel moved forward with the rescue. Miller said the team had to take off part of the dashboard to get the kittens and their mother from underneath. He said they had to move with caution to handle the “weary” and “protective” mother cat, who seemed like she had been undernourished as the group gave her food and water.
“I fed the mother cat, and it ate as if it had not eaten in a while,” Miller said in the case report about the incident.
Miller said the team completed the rescue Thursday, two days after the initial report, and brought the animals to the town’s animal shelter on Richard White Way before a volunteer from The Alliance In Limiting Strays, a nonprofit volunteer group in Westport that fosters stray animals, picked them up that same day.
He said the kittens seemed about four to five weeks old. They’ve found a new home in Westport following the show of teamwork that played out in the parking lot.
“Of course there’s a sense of satisfaction after you do that, but remember now, we’ve got a job to do,” Miller said. “So you try to deal with not too emotionally when you’re doing it on scene. Afterwards you can stand back and say ‘Wow, that was cool.’ ”
Dorrie Harris, the president of TAILS, said the kittens and the mother cats are in good condition in foster care, where the organization will keep the animals until they are about 12 weeks old. She said that is meant to give them time to socialize and receive any necessary medical attention as they develop.
“We do have the mama and kittens in foster care, and they are doing well,” Harris said.
Harris said the TAILS team will neuter, blood test distemper and microchip each kitten it adopts and vaccinate them against rabies. She said the litter includes two black and two brown tabby kittens.