Late last month, a volunteer animal rescuer in eastern North Carolina returned home to find something unusual waiting at the end of her driveway.
At first, she assumed it was an Amazon or Walmart delivery. But as she got closer, she realized it wasn’t a cardboard package at all. Instead, someone had left a grocery basket with a note and a bottle of water taped to the top.
Unsure of what she might find inside, the rescuer approached cautiously.
“[She was] just stunned and fearful of what she would find,” Shelley Mayfield, cat team liaison with RescueConnect, told The Dodo.
When she looked inside, she discovered several terrified cats huddled together, panting in the heat.
“Found these cuties under my new place,” read the note attached to the basket.
The rescuer’s home was already full of animals in need, so she immediately contacted Mayfield for help. She moved the basket into her car and began driving the cats to Mayfield’s home, where they could be safely assessed and cared for.
But halfway there, the situation took an unexpected turn.
“Halfway to my house, she called, very alarmed that the cat had broken out of the hole in the top of the box,” Mayfield said. “She could see in her rearview mirror that there were at least two kittens that came after mom.”
Once they arrived safely at Mayfield’s garage, the rescuers carefully removed the mother cat from the car and searched for her three kittens. After reuniting the little family, they gave them food, checked them for injuries and began making plans for their recovery.
The mama cat, now named Maxie, is currently being cared for at a cat café in Alexandria, Virginia. She has finished nursing her babies and is awaiting spay surgery before moving on to a permanent home.
Her three kittens are also thriving. They are being cared for at The Sound Cat Veterinary Hospital and are expected to become available for adoption in late September.
After being left frightened and overheated in a basket at the side of a driveway, Maxie and her babies are finally safe.
Now, all that remains is for each member of this little family to find a loving home of their own.