On a sunny day in March, experienced cat-trapper Paul Nadler showed up at a suburban Maryland home to catch some strays. The homeowner said she’d seen several pregnant cats in the area who needed help.
But Nadler had no idea what waited for him as he pulled up to the light blue house and set up traps.
Nadler, vice president of Bowie Citizens for Local Animal Welfare (Bowie CLAW), successfully trapped two pregnant cats fairly quickly. Then, the homeowner said she heard cries coming from the concrete steps leading to her door.
Grabbing a flashlight, Nadler got down in the dirt and peered into a shallow opening under the concrete.
A tiny kitten stared back at him, wobbling among the leaves. Nadler could hear more crying out.
“It was really difficult [to] access, because it was so narrow,” Nadler told The Dodo. He donned a headlamp and tried using his phone to see how many babies he was dealing with.
“They were too young to race out,” Nadler said. “I think if they were a week older, then they could have scattered, but they were still fairly young.”
Gently, one by one, Nadler pulled the kittens from their concrete den.
“The last two were the most difficult,” he said. “I mean, each time I'm thinking, ‘OK, I think there's three.’”
In total, Nadler rescued seven kittens that morning.
“Seven is not an unheard of number,” he said, “but I was pretty surprised that there were that many … They were little cream puffs. They weren't biting or scratching or anything.”
Initially, Nadler thought the kittens were about 2 weeks old, because many of their eyes were still closed. It turned out that those babies just had goop around the eyes, which was later treated by a vet. They were closer to 3 or 4 weeks when Nadler pulled them from under the steps.
Sadly, he also saw Mom escape as he was working on the babies. After returning to the site for several days, there was still no sign of her, but Nadler hasn’t given up on her yet.
“She won't go in a trap,” he said. “She is just pretty sharp. I have to come up with some other plan.”
In the meantime, the seven kittens are thriving with Amy Collins, a foster who is experienced with bottle-feeding.
“I cleaned them up when I first received them,” Collins told The Dodo.
She medicated their eyes to keep infection away and set them up in an incubator. Because they were so young, they couldn’t regulate their body temperatures yet.
“They are now 6 weeks old and starting to eat soft food,” Collins said. “They just started really exploring and playing.”
This is likely just the beginning of kitten season for Bowie CLAW and rescues around the country. In fact, a few days after pulling these seven babies from below the stairs, Nadler rescued another five kittens in the same area and two more in another neighborhood.
"Now they're coming at us like crazy," Nadler said of newborn kittens.
As for the seven colorful siblings who got their start under some concrete, their personalities have begun to bloom. Collins will make sure they are fed and warm, while Nadler continues his mission to rescue Mama — and any other kittens who might come his way.
