Woman Finds Strange Box Outside Her Apartment With An Entire Family Inside

The woman pulled into her driveway in eastern North Carolina and spotted what looked like a delivery waiting at the end. She walked closer and saw it was not a package from a store but a grocery basket with a note and a bottle of water taped to the lid. Her steps slowed as she reached the basket and looked inside to meet the eyes of several frightened cats huddled together in the heat. She realized right away that she could not keep more animals at her own place since it was already full. She reached out to Shelley Mayfield, the cat team liaison with RescueConnect, and asked for help taking them in. Mayfield agreed at once, so the woman lifted the basket into her car and drove toward Mayfield’s home. Halfway there the mother cat pushed through a hole in the top of the basket and climbed out. Two kittens followed her into the back seat. The woman watched them in her mirror and kept driving carefully until she reached the garage where Mayfield was waiting. Together they lifted the mother cat out first and then searched the car until every kitten was accounted for. They gave the cats food and water, checked them for any signs of injury, and made sure they were settled for the night. The mother cat, later named Maxie, finished nursing her young and moved to a cat cafe in Alexandria, Virginia. She is scheduled for spay surgery before she goes to a permanent home. The three kittens stayed at The Sound Cat Veterinary Hospital. Staff there are preparing them for adoption, which is set to begin in late September. RescueConnect continues to take in other cats that need the same kind of help, and donations to the group support that work.