The South End of Halifax is pretty well known as being the centre of the university district in Halifax as Dalhousie University, Saint Mary’s University and King’s College are all located in this area. Unfortunately though, it’s also known as an area with A LOT of stray and abandoned cats, who are far too often, left to fend for themselves once their student owners are done for the school term.

There are a number of residents in the area who do their best to try to care for these animals in need. Kellie and her husband Jason, were two of these residents. Living in the South End, they saw a lot of stray cats in and around their house on a pretty frequent basis. Not only have they taken in three rescue cats of their own, but they continued to leave out food and water for the cats that would frequent their backyard. Kellie had noticed a thin black and white tuxedo cat that she lovingly called “Saucy Face” approaching her home more and more frequently. Although Saucy Face was hesitant about approaching Kellie, she would come back for food and fresh water. This past January, they installed a heated cat condo in their backyard to provide a little bit of comfort, shelter and warmth for the stray cats in the area. This was certainly needed as this has been one of the more brutal of winters that Nova Scotia has experienced in a long time. We’ve pretty much experienced one major snow storm per week since the beginning of 2014, including two pretty serious blizzards.

Then on the morning of January 31st, they noticed fresh cat tracks leading up to the outdoor cat condo. About an hour later, Jason went outside to take a quick peek to see who was inhabiting the condo, when he saw a stillborn kitten outside of the door, with Momma and her four remaining kittens seeking shelter inside. Although panicked and unsure what exactly to do, they did what we would hope anyone in their situation would do – they gathered up momma and her babies and brought them indoors and contacted us immediately.

Two of our volunteers arrived at Kellie & Jason’s home as soon as they could to pick up the little family and to take them into our care. We were not only shocked at how small and thin she was but also at how young she was. But she was indoors and in a warm and safe environment with proper nutrition and the vet care that she and her babies so desperately needed. And as cute of a name as Saucy Face is, we opted to rename her Sheridan.



Unfortunately shortly after Sheridan and her kittens came into our care, one of the kittens was rejected by Sheridan. It’s often believed that a mother cat knows when one of her kittens are unwell and will reject the kitten so that she can focus on her healthy kittens. Trying to force her to take care of the unwell kitten could cause her to reject the remaining healthy kittens so we rushed little Athena, as she would be named, to Inge at the Pick of the Litter Society, a rescue group in Halifax that focuses solely on newborn and orphan kittens, in hopes of giving her the best chance of survival. Kittens that require bottle feeding essentially need around the clock care, which we just are unable to provide.

As much as Inge tried, Athena’s little body just couldn’t handle what it was up against. It’s believed she had pneumonia and her tiny body shut down. She put up a good fight but it was just too much. Sad, yes, but considering three kittens that were born outside in the middle of a Canadian winter, had managed to survive, we are counting our lucky stars. It could have been worse. Much worse.

We let Sheridan and the three remaining kittens rest up during the weekend before they made their move to their foster home – my home! Sheridan was checked out by the vet that Monday morning to make sure she was healthy and didn’t care any diseases that could jeopardize her own health, the health of the kittens or my own cats. She tested negative for all the usual feline diseases that we test for and the doctor figured she was no more than about a year old and this was probably her first litter. She was given the green light to be moved to my place! It was quite exciting for me as I tend to care for older, feral kittens and not itty bitty newborns! I set up my “nursery” (aka. spare bedroom/craft room) for them and even got to work crocheting them a little kitten nest for them to relax in once they got a bit bigger. They arrived on Monday evening while I was at a dodgeball game and I couldn’t wait to get home to see my new little fur family. As soon as I got home, I went in to see them. They were so small and tiny!



The family is now safe, happy and healthy and the kittens are growing like weeds! Momma Sheridan has settled into her indoor life quite well and is a very protective and caring mother. I also want to give a big thank you to Kellie & Jason for being compassionate enough to keep a heated cat condo on their property and for providing food to the stray and feral cats in their neighbourhood. If the heated cat condo wasn’t available to Sheridan to seek refuge in, I honestly don’t think any of the kittens would have survived the harsh winter weather we have experienced this season. A little compassion can go a long way in saving a few innocent lives.

The remaining three kittens have been named in honour of my former state of Alaska and where my little sister, Rebecca and her husband Robby, still reside. They are Juneau, Denali & Kenai 🙂



