Sisters resident rescues abandoned kitten

Imagine driving into a snowstorm late at night on a highway in a rural area with no cell service. Then after you pull your vehicle over in a wooded area to put chains on your tires, you notice something on the side of the road that does not belong - something so inappropriate it's surreal.

A few weeks before Christmas, Sisters resident Peggy Frye was driving back from Portland and had just passed the Detroit Lake area when the weather took a turn for the worse and it started to snow. The roads were getting icy, so she pulled over to get the chains on her tires as quickly as possible.

"I saw a cardboard box over to the side of the road," she recalled. "It was hard to believe, but inside the box were lots of kittens, about eight or nine. At first I thought they were all dead, so I tipped the box and one stayed on the bottom of the box and one took off running. Only those two were alive. I picked up the one in the box who was barely alive and put it in the car. It was so awful, it didn't seem real. Even though it was late at night and snowing, I stayed to find the one that ran away."

Frye finally found the very cold and frightened kitten almost an hour later.

"I finally coaxed her over to me. I got back in the car and put both of them into my sweatshirt and zipped them in so they would warm up. The drive back to Sisters was slow. By the time I got home one kitten had passed away but the one I had to search for was still alive."

And, she noted, "My husband, Chris, had been very worried about me."

But Frye didn't stay home. She drove to Bend to bring the little female kitten to the emergency hospital where a veterinarian examined her.

"She was very thin, but in pretty good shape after they cleaned all the mud off her," said Frye. "She seemed to have been weaned and was maybe six weeks old more or less."

"I figured we'd keep her for the weekend and then try to re-home her, since we already have three dogs and one cat.

"But once she was home we decided to keep her and incorporate her into our family. Chris and I have taught our two older kids about how to be a responsible pet-owner, and so they have had pets growing up."

The Frye's 4-year-old daughter, Nayeli, really warmed up to the kitten and decided to call her Michelangelo, after her favorite character from the Ninja Turtles. Nayeli is now learning how to be a responsible pet-parent by caring for her kitten and cleaning out the litter box.

"She's a really sweet kitty and loves to be held like a baby," Frye said. "She's happy, well-adjusted and fitting into the family."

But Frye will never forget how she came to find Michelangelo, abandoned in a box on a snowy night, probably kept alive by the warmth of the other small bodies.

Abandoning or dumping a cat or kittens is a significant issue in Central Oregon. Abandoned pet cats become confused, frightened, and likely will die of starvation. It doesn't have to happen. If you find a stray cat or kittens, or have a cat that you can no longer care for, there are many options available for you to find that cat a home.

If you find a stray cat or kitten, the first thing you need to do is determine that no one is looking for this pet. Ask around. Check with friends, family and coworkers, post on social media, contact the newspaper. Those same venues also work for finding a cat or kitten a new home.

Cat Rescue Adoption & Foster Team (CRAFT) has a Facebook page, and they will post a picture of your cat on their page. Go to www.

facebook.com/CraftCats.

"We ask people to try and keep the cat themselves as long as possible and that CRAFT can post a photo on our website to help find it a home," said CRAFT volunteer Janice Sershen. "We are a no-kill rescue group, and if they want to surrender the cat to us, I may have a waiting list of cats to help depending on urgency, sick, or

injured."

Call your local animal shelter for guidance. When Oregon Humane Society receives young kittens, they first go into foster care. Once they are old enough, they go back to the shelter to be spayed/neutered and then placed for adoption.