LEWISBURG, Tenn. (WKRN) — Twenty-eight cats and kittens dying of dehydration and malnutrition were found abandoned Tuesday morning on the side of a busy road in Marshall County.
The nonprofit Lucky’s Cat House in Lewisburg, a cat-only shelter, took them in and said one kitten died and the others are still being treated.
“Anger was my first emotion, just disbelief that anyone would think everything was OK,” said Brandy Fox, a board member at Lucky’s Cat House.
Fox said he received a 911 call saying there were metal boxes and plastic bags full of felines. She drove straight there and found a cat running across the road, a dead kitten and 27 other people who needed immediate medical attention.
“All of the kittens were in poor health and dehydrated,” Fox said. “We don’t know which mother cats belong to these kittens. All the adults appear to be quite healthy.”
Volunteers rushed to welcome the 11 underweight kittens.
“We see them so small and so tiny and we want them to survive,” Fox said. “So we’re giving them extra attention. In fact, I’m going to take home with me one of the groups that are the poorest of the groups we divide, so that I can provide medical care to that group.”
The rescued cats and kittens are recovering in isolation rooms at a shelter already full of 155 cats.
“We are the only resource for cats in several counties,” explained Fox. “We work in Marshall, Guiles, Lincoln and Lawrence counties. We’re overwhelmed, like I said, with fosters and volunteers, and so we take on a lot of bad luck cases, so like if a cat had been hit by a car over the weekend, that cat wouldn’t have cared if it hadn’t been brought to us .”
Fox told News 2 that as cats continue to arrive at the shelter seeking care, they are in desperate need of cat food and medical supplies.
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The shelter took to Facebook on Tuesday, asking for help from the community. Since then, they have received more than $3,000.
“Donations have arrived, but this is just one situation in the year we have addressed and we know many more will come, so we always need that support,” Fox added.
