In New Jersey, when coronavirus cases were high and most of the state was sheltering at home, a little one-room NICU Kitten Nursery that has saved hundreds of little kittens had to close its doors.
nj.com reports that, since "[t]he space was too small to safely social distance," a veterinary technician with St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center named Friedman who was also the manager of the nursery and a vet tech called Nick Eckert "took the animals into their own homes to care for them." Dozens of kittens, many of them badly injured and desperately in need of help.
"It was very depressing that when we should have been celebrating our one-year anniversary, we were moving our nursery into our homes," said Friedman. "I was terrified that we would lose the program because of COVID-19. And I knew that because of COVID-19, it was critical to keep the program going." No one was popping in to help, and there was no team of volunteers coming in and out to help the kittens.
"I literally had kittens being dropped off at my house at midnight almost every night," Friedman tells nj.com "It was the hardest work I ever had to do because I was by myself."
Now, not only was their operation in their homes successful and they are able to keep helping the kittens, their nursery is expanding, so much so that they had to move the make-shift nursery out of their homes and into a bigger location - "three times the size - complete with 28 cages and multiple rooms to provide separate spaces for healthy, sick, and critical kittens."
The problem is that, even with more space, the nursery can't take in many more new kittens since they do not have the volunteer support that they need. "We can't run this program without volunteers," explained Friedman. So, now, they are looking for volunteers, and we hope that if you are in the area and are able to help, you would lend a helping hand to this wonderful operation and help them help these incredible kittens.
Read about some of the rescued kittens and their stories below! And if you're in need of more positive, happy-ending rescue stories, read about this feisty little owl that got its wings singed off in a fire.
