An AirTag placed around the neck of a cat who had recently given birth led Good Samaritans in B.C. to the secluded spot where she had been raising a littler of kittens.
But it was the patience and perseverance of two rescuers with the Regional Animal Protection Society that led to a happy ending for the feline family.
Last month, Ken Friesen and his wife Lisa—described as the organization’s master trappers—got a call about a lactating cat found roaming a Surrey street who had been scooped up by concerned residents and outfitted with the location tracker.
“They could be anywhere from two days to two months old,” Ken told CTV news, referring to the kittens. “We had no clue, and it was really essential that we find these babies.”
The first night, despite following the mother cat’s movements for over an hour, the kittens weren’t found and Ken and Lisa headed home.
“They called the next day and said they found the babies,” Ken said, adding that the AirTag had tracked the mother to the rafters inside the roof of a shed blocks away from where she was initially spotted.
Finding the kittens, however, turned out to be the easy part.
After getting permission to cut a hole in the roof, Ken got a peek inside and saw six kittens.
“They were in there for quite a while because they just tore apart all the insulation and everything up in there,” he said.
Maneuvering a net into the small space, he managed to trap one kitten. Although he managed to get one, but the rest were just “too frightened, too scared,” he said.
Determining a transfer cage might be a better approach, Ken lowered one into the makeshift kitten nursery.
“It was dark out, cold, wet and windy. Believe me, I was freezing up there on that roof. There’s no protection from the wind or the rain up there, and half the time I’m laying on the roof in the water with a flashlight,” he said.
His persistence paid off and after a few more hours, three additional kittens had been retrieved and Ken and Lisa called it a night.
The next day brought more of the same weather, but Ken climbed onto the roof again—where he would spend the next six hours trying to coax the last two kittens out.
“It was quite windy, raining – and I tell you, my fingers were numb from the cold. But we stuck with it,” he said, adding the sixth kitten was the most stubborn.
“It always takes a long time to get the last kitten.”
The mother cat was the last to leave but she was easily coaxed out with a tin of food.
While the use of an AirTag was something new to the Friesens, rescuing cats and kittens for the Regional Animal Protection Society is not.
“If we know something’s wrong, we try to fix it with the kittens and the cats. That’s why we’re so devoted to doing this. It’s saving lives,” Ken said, noting not every attempted rescue has a happy ending.
“Anything we can do, I will do.”
Ken and Lisa are fostering the kittens in addition to the the dozens they were already caring for. Their mother is now called Beam, and the babies have also been given names befitting their origin: Rafter, Slate, Concrete, Cement, Tar, and Shingle. The kittens are estimated to be about 12 weeks old, and the whole family will be available for adoption soon.
The Regional Animal Protection Society, in addition to operating an adoption centre, an animal hospital and several non-profit thrift stores, runs a cat sanctuary that provides a forever home for hundreds of feral, surrendered or abandoned cats.
More information about how to support RAPS is available online.
