Kittens rescued! It takes a village!

Ever heard the saying, "It takes a village?"

When it comes to animals, it truly does take a community working together to rescue, protect and care for these vulnerable, precious souls.

The Humane Society of Mason County is honored to serve in an area where people have a heart for animals.

A sad goodbye. A new beginning.

We were saddened to learned of a mama cat who was found deceased in the middle of the road in Belfair, presumably having been struck by a car.

This cat belonged to an outdoor colony that was being cared for by a compassionate community member. One of our volunteers, Torrie, was recently approached about trapping the cats at this location so they can be spayed/neutered and vaccinated and then returned.

Torrie was alerted about a mom with babies living in the colony, but when she went out to assess, she found the babies hidden in a completely inaccessible spot under a porch. 

When we heard the news of poor mom's demise, we knew that time was critical to find and provide care for her babies. Without mom, these kittens wouldn't survive!

The babies were not at their last location; their mom had moved them! But where?

Torrie, and HSMC staffer Lisa, quickly mobilized in the rain to search possible hiding spots. And wouldn't you know they guessed right on their first try! The four babies were now hiding under a shed. But how to get to them???

As you can see in these first two photos, there is almost no gap between the shed and the ground. Time to start digging!

Armed with shovels, flashlights and a cat carrier, Lisa and Torrie set to work.

It took almost three hours, but finally, they were able to create an opening large enough to access the babies (third photo).

Torrie shared with us, "One came out of the side and tried to hide in the boards, so I grabbed him. The other three were a challenge. We dug a tunnel just barely big enough for me to crawl into and grabbed them one by one."

They were soaked and muddy by the end of it but...

They did it!

The kittens were scooped into the carrier and on their way to Lisa's for food and lots of love!

Estimated at four weeks old, these babies were still nursing and will need to be bottle fed until they're old enough to start on a slurry of wet food.

Thankfully, we had an experienced bottle baby foster ready to say yes to accepting these little ones into her home.

The kittens - Trey, Spider, Erica and Atari - are growing healthy and strong in foster!

What happened to the mom who was killed? A compassionate community member graciously retrieved mama cat's body and respectfully buried her.

This is what true community looks like - all of us coming together to improve the lives of animals and their people! Thank you to everyone who is part of this "village."

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Volunteers in action, unloading pet food for our food bank partners!

Want to be part of the village?

When we work together, we can have a significant impact on our community's pets.

If you're passionate about animals and want to be part of the "village" working to improve the lives of pets and their people, we'd love to have you join our team!

There are many opportunities to get involved.

Foster: As a foster-based organization, we rely on fosters to house and care for our animals until they are adopted. The larger our foster network, the more animals we can accept into our program. Our team provides you with supplies and training; you provide the love and care. 

Adopt: One of the greatest ways you can support animals in our community is to adopt! HSMC has a team of volunteer adoption counselors who will work with you to find a pet who is a great match. We're here to help you every step of the way - before, during and even after adoption!

Volunteer: There are lots of ways to volunteer with HSMC! We can always use help around the office doing a myriad of things that change day to day. Want to work directly with animals? Join our PetSmart care and adoptions team. Have skills writing or with photography or video editing? Enjoy planning events? Organizing? So many opportunities! Complete a volunteer application and we'll chat with you about all the options.

Donate: Every dollar matters! Donating to HSMC helps provide food, vaccines, spay/neuter surgery and basic supplies, such as litter, for animals in our care. Your contributions help pets and the people who love them stay together when times are tough, through low-cost or free vet services and much-needed food and supplies. Your gift enables us to continue offering low-cost spay/neuter for our community, which prevents unwanted births and improves the health of that animal.

Because of you we can trap, neuter/spay, vaccinate and return community outdoor cats, thereby ending the cycle of continued litters. Your compassion is extended to your community through HSMC's work in accepting animals found as strays or when family members can no longer provide care. The list of ways your funding through HSMC supports our community goes on and on! 

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Get Started Today

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Celebrating Volunteer Appreciation Week

Every day is volunteer appreciation at HSMC, because volunteers are the heart of all we do!

They play a vital role in rescuing animals, providing care, and partnering with adopters to ensure a supportive adoption process. 

Volunteers make our office run smoothly by preparing surgical kits, entering important data into our system, assisting with printing and mailing, doing loads and loads of laundry, and serving as a resource for community members.

Our dedicated team of volunteers transports donations to HSMC and partnering food banks. They bring rescued pets from shelter partners coming into our care, and transport animals to specialty vet visits. They deliver cats to PetSmart where they help socialize the kitties and help adopters find their match. 

Volunteers help organize our fundraising events, keep our facility in good repair, photograph our animals, and so much more!

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you to all our volunteers. We appreciate you and all you do!