Assisted Living Facility Partnered With Animal Rescue Center To Save Orphaned Kittens

Rescuers at the Pima Animal Care Center in Arizona have joined forces with Catalina Springs Memory Care facility to ensure that their most vulnerable kittens get the 24-hour care they need. Newborn kittens who become separated from their mothers before being weaned, have a very low rate of survival.

 

The first feline cuties, Peaches and Turtle, arrived at PACC in mid-October weighing just 7 ounces each. They needed round-the-clock feedings as well as lots of affection and socialization in order to grow and thrive.

Peaches and Turtle have received nothing less, since the moment they arrived at the memory care facility.

Catalina Springs health service director, Rebecca Hamilton, is a kitten foster mom herself. She was the one who proposed the idea of uniting the memory care patients with the kitties as a way to benefit everyone involved.

The kittens get the physical love and nurturing they need, but what the seniors at Catalina Springs receive in return is something far greater – they get to feel needed again. Most of them have been parents, grandparents and/or pet owners throughout their lives, so caring for the kitties comes naturally.

According to Catalina Springs Executive Director Sharon Mercer, the simple pleasure of caring for another living being is something that even dementia and Alzheimers can’t rob from a person.

“The desire to give love and receive love remains. The kittens have given us the opportunity to nurture this human condition that lies in each and every one of our residents.”

The PACC and the Board of Directors for Catalina Springs Memory Care were excited about the new program, but no one could have predicted just how successful it would turn out to be.

Peaches and Turtle have nearly doubled in weight, and thanks to a constant supply of cuddles from their caretakers, they have become well-socialized and outgoing!

Soon the kittens will be returned to Pima Animal Care to be spayed and adopted out. For one of the kitties, the issue of an adoptive home has already been solved. A nurse at Catalina Springs fell in love and has already submitted an adoption application.

It looks like it won’t be long before the he other cutie is adopted too!

Karen Hollish, a spokesperson for Catalina Springs Memory Care, expressed her desire to see the program continue. She feels that it has been incredibly beneficial to the patients, vital to the kittens, and rewarding for the staff. With PACC taking in more than 2,100 kittens in 2015 alone, that wish shouldn’t be hard to fulfill!

“This partnership is an amazing way to enrich the lives of the memory care center’s residents while saving the lives of our community’s most vulnerable pets.”

Thanks to programs such as this, more kittens will now have the chance to grow up and become loving family pets.

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