After discovering that a black cat they removed from a Henrico County, Va., feral colony a day earlier had recently delivered a litter, two women knowing the kittens would not survive long without their mother managed to track the kittens down.
A day after the cat was spayed at the Richmond, Va., SPCA earlier this month, the women, Maureen Buehrer and Pat Miller, were worried about the newborns, so they took the black tabby back to the colony and released her.
For three hours, Buehrer and Miller followed the mother through bushes and fields, hoping that she would lead them to her kittens.
They got on their bellies and searched with flashlights under a dilapidated barn, they said. They even crawled around rotted tree stumps and rusted tractors and listened for signs of life.
Finally, near a decaying refrigerator, Miller saw something move. Buehrer approached from the opposite side, reached into a brier patch and pulled out a shivering kitten. About 4 weeks old, it was so weak it could barely move.
A few minutes later, they found a second kitten, this one solid black and much stronger. It scratched and clawed, before being subdued.
After a trip to the veterinarian, both kittens are recovering from upper-respiratory infections, worms and malnutrition, but are ready for permanent homes. For information, contact the Richmond SPCA, http://www.richmondspca.org/site/PageServer.
Posted: May 29, 2006, 5:00 a.m. EST