“[S]he moved them right to me …
For about a year, Kate and her fiancé had been keeping an eye on a stray cat in their Los Angeles neighborhood. Kate often fosters kittens, puppies and nursing mothers with their babies, so she is used to noticing animals who might need help.
This particular cat was different. Kate named the stray The Mayor.
The Mayor was shy and avoided people, but Kate, her fiancé and a neighbor all grew attached to her from a distance. At the time, everyone believed The Mayor was a male cat — until one surprising message changed everything.
Kate’s neighbor, who had been feeding the cat, texted to say that The Mayor had given birth to kittens on his roof.
Kate immediately worried about the tiny babies. They were exposed to the sun, heat and weather, and she knew they needed to be moved somewhere safer as soon as possible.
Before Kate and her neighbor could fully step in, The Mayor began relocating the kittens herself.
Kate watched as the mama cat carried one baby away from the roof and balanced along the fence. Then Kate heard a kitten crying in her backyard. She spotted The Mayor looking down at a pile of cinder blocks, where one of the kittens had apparently fallen during the move.
Kate quickly rescued the tiny kitten from under the blocks and brought him to her neighbor, who was checking the roof for the rest of the litter. But the other kittens were already gone, and no one knew where The Mayor had taken them.
They realized the kitten they had just rescued might be their only clue.
So they gave the baby back to The Mayor and carefully followed her from a distance. As they hoped, she picked him up and carried him over Kate’s fence into the backyard.
Then The Mayor slipped underneath a shed.
That was where she had hidden all three of her kittens.
Kate was relieved the babies were close by, but she knew they still weren’t safe outside. With help from her neighbor, she gently pulled the kittens out from under the shed and brought the whole family indoors.
The Mayor adjusted surprisingly well to life inside. She soon became affectionate with Kate, but she remained extremely protective of her kittens and would not let anyone touch them for the first few weeks.
With food, shelter and medical care, the little family began to thrive. The kittens faced a few health problems early on, including swimmer syndrome in one baby and an eye infection in another, but they were finally in the right place to recover.
Now the three kittens — Rigby, Mordecai and Margaret — are 8 weeks old and doing much better.
Soon, they will be ready for forever homes. Kate is working to find the right families for them, while her neighbor has offered to adopt The Mayor and continues to check on her lovingly.
Kate and her fiancé may keep one of the kittens, but their biggest hope is that each baby ends up in a safe, loving home.
After everything, Kate is grateful that The Mayor trusted her enough to bring her kittens nearby when they needed help most.