Upstate SC Kitten Mom is Building a Kitten Nursery

Today I’d like to tell you about a young woman who’s determined to make a difference in the kitten world. Greenville County Animal Care Services, a high-intake, high-kill shelter located in upstate South Carolina is known for killing small kittens they determine wouldn’t survive. Now a foster cat mom with Foster Paws Rescue has set out to change that.

Kitten nursery
Kitten nursery
Two useful tags. Click either to see the articles: Toxic to cats | Dangers to cats

Kezia Osborne is busy converting a room in her home into a kitten nursery. She’s made a lot of progress, as she had to get rid of a mold problem. Keiza has replaced the carpet in her kitten room with vinyl flooring on half the room. Unfortunately, Keiza has run out of funds to continue her dream. If you’d like to help, a donation link, along with progress photos, can be found here.

Keiza never planned to spend her life rescuing the very young kittens dumped at the shelter. Like many, she decided to help them in any way she could. Keiza specializes in kittens under two pounds in weight. Keiza takes them in, bottle feeds them if they’re not old enough to eat, and at eight weeks the kittens are spayed or neutered and adopted out.

I realize a lot of you think that’s a young age to undergo surgery, but with the high number of kittens taken to the shelter, it’s necessary. Most fosters can’t take in but so many, and you certainly don’t want to adopt out an intact kitten. Having them done this young means more can be saved sooner than if a foster had to wait until the kittens hit four or five months old.

Keiza says of her part in saving the vulnerable kittens in the Greenville area

“My goal is to just give these little lives a fighting chance instead of being disposed of like yesterday’s garbage.”

Right now, Keiza has an 8×10 square foot area completed, and is hoping to expand it to 10×24. The finished project will require Kezia to finish the vinyl floor, then purchase more litter boxes, water and food bowls, a cat tree, cages, and put in a line for running water so she can install a sink. It’s difficult for her to go to the kitchen or bathroom for running water.

Presently, there are nine kittens in the kitten room, with 13 others in quarantine. Kezia has a goal of being able to care for around 20 kittens at one time. Little lives saved who would have died, had they remained in the shelter.

I admire Kezia for what she’s accomplished. It’s hard to find cat lovers who also have the determination to get projects like this accomplished. Please leave a comment praising Kezia for her project. She’s truly a heroine in the cat world.

Elisa

The articles listed below go into great detail as to what Keiza, and many others like her, are trying to put an end to.

Please search using the search box at the top of the site. You are bound to find what you are looking for.

19 thoughts on “Upstate SC Kitten Mom is Building a Kitten Nursery”

      • I did look at your pinterest board for furbyhouse again. And if I could adopt one of them, I believe that this time I would have to take in both a lonely, mistreated pitbull and a lonely, mistreated cat. They all need our love, and thank goodness that you persevere because we need you. They do.

        Reply
  1. What a wonderful idea to help such a wonderful girl 🙂 I would donate money myself but I’m saving as much as I can for the CPL and I’m backwards and forwards to the vets with Mr Jinks which is extra petrol and food and litter all adds up and I haven’t any spare 🙁

    Good luck to her though it is hard work but its even harder finding good homes

    Reply
    • How is Mr Jinks? It’s every way we turn isn’t it, donations needed and as much as we’d like to we can’t help all the good causes, we give as much as we can but it’s never enough. We have people in financial crisis in our town but even so they still think about the animals in our local shelters and take cat food into Babz office. CP had a large amount a couple of weeks back and now we have a nice lot for Kays Hill cats, it’s their turn. I think it’s wonderful that people care so much.

      Reply
  2. I think she ran out because putting down a floor is expensive. The glue that holds good tile can easily make a room that size $500 even do it yourself. And running plumbing is expensive if you can’t do it yourself. Once the shelter started killing kitten so young everyone had to jump into action, money or not. As for being overwhelmed, some days I wouldn’t doubt if the shelter gets in several dozen litters. People drop them off at the shelter like they’re going to a dump. Most of the time mama is with them.

    I wish more would do what Kezia is doing. My dream is for the shelter to have a 24/7 kitten room where rescues can pick up day or night. Too many in rescue are working moms who don’t have a chance to get to the shelter until after 7pm.

    I do articles trying to help people raise money for things like this or for covering vet bills. The vet expenses are killing everyone in rescue. Way too many dogs come into the shelter heartworm positive.

    Take a look at my shelter board. http://www.pinterest.com/furbyshouse/greenville-county-pet-rescue-urgent-cats/

    Reply
    • Thanks for this article, Elisa.
      These beautiful people, so often, go unnoticed.
      I know what that flooring costs and what work it entails.
      And, the plumbing… good grief!
      I hope she knows some handymen qnd doesn’t have to rely on a company.

      Reply
  3. I admire Keiza very much, it’s hard work hand rearing kittens and heart breaking if one dies but there she is giving them the chance of a good life.
    8 weeks is very young to be neutered, the testicles of the toms and uterus of the queens very small at that age, do they all survive the anaesthetic and surgery? I can understand why it’s done though and truly thankful that they are not declawed at the same time as some rescues do thinking it makes them more adoptable.

    Reply
  4. I have a lot of admiration for this woman.

    She has to be working her butt off to take care of kittens so tiny that they aren’t even close to weaning age. There have to be special skills that the right special people possess to be able to keep them alive. I have none of those skills.

    I hope she isn’t bombarded with unwanted litters as word spreads that she care for kittens.

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Barbara Cancel reply

follow it link and logo