A New Brunswick woman who spent decades caring for foster children has yet again opened up her home and her heart to care for newborns. Only this time, she’s looking after ones with four legs.
Nancy Vanderhorst of Shediac River, N.B., started Whispurring Whiskers Kitten Rescue about a year ago and was once the head of Cat Rescue Maritimes.
“Theses are the babies that if you don’t have the equipment and you don’t have the knowledge of how to do it they will die,” said Vanderhorst.
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Tucked away in a back room in her home along Shediac River, Vanderhorst has opened a kitten neonatal unit fully equipped with kitten incubators.
She takes in tiny orphans clinging to life and works wonders nursing them back to health.
The kittens, mostly weighing in at only a few ounces require 24 hour care, each have to be hand fed using the tiniest of nipples according to Vanderhorst.
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“Their little tummies can only hold so much, so you are feeding every hour on the hour” and just like an infant after their bellies are full she says she burps each of the kittens to release any air they may have swallowed during nursing.
“They are so much like an infant, it’s crazy.” she said.
A self-proclaimed cat lady, Vanderhorst said that she does this for the love of animals, and often pays for medications out of her own pocket.
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She at times spends 24 hours at her neonatal unit.
“Sometimes I forget to eat. I feed everybody else, but then I forget to eat.”
Vanderhorst said the kittens stay with her until they are the right size to get sprayed and neutered and once they are, they go for adoption.
But when the kittens come to her as small as a mouse, the fur babies are totally dependent on their human mom. She even has to rub their bellies to coax them to pee.
“Just like a baby they don’t like having their bums done,” she laughed.
With her foster kids all grown and moved away, Vanderhorst said that her need to nurture is still strong.
While she knows she can’t save all the kittens, she said “if you can save one it was all worth the efforts”
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