I was on highway 20 headed home (slowly because of black ice) when I noticed an orange kitten running across the highway! I pulled over and watched just praying, but it got hit- bounced off a tire and vanished into the ditch. I put my emergencies on- grabbed my flashlight and was out the door. It went up to this house that smelled like high heaven. Our local landfill smells better than this house, when I called to it- it looked at me, it was bleeding from the mouth and nose and appeared to be blind because it started off to go back across the highway until I stepped in front of it and stopped it. Then it bolted and went into the ditch again. I followed it and this time it went under this broken down shed/ I got down and looked underneath and could see the tail just shaking but it was lying in a puddle of water! It was 18 degress outside and the kitten was just out of my reach. I ran back to the truck, grabbed a can of food, went down and opened the food it didn’t even move, so I tried to reach in to grab it- and then it took off again across another ditch and under another shed…sigh..It looked really out of it- running almost sideways and the whole body in shock and trembling. The only thing I could do was leave a note on the door- I saw between all the trash and crud on the porch multiple cat carriers all closed but inside were open bags of meow mix- so pretty sure this kitten belonged to these people.

I can’t get the image of the kitten lying in the water and shaking and I want to go back to the home and see if my note is even there- or if they even care. The kitten almost looked a lot like kittens who survive distemper look- they have mobility problems and neurological damage so not sure if that bump with the tire did all of that- the kitten didn’t get flung or rolled- it just ran off the road. But the house is not one you should visit in the nighttime. Let’s just say the welcome mat isn’t exactly laid out for visitors. I will have to wait for in the morning to go back and see if I can talk to someone and get this kitten some much-needed vet help. It was just so sad. When I was calling him, there was another kitten about the same age- black and white crawling out through the trash. Super pathetic. I thought about grabbing the kitten and taking it away from there- but I can’t do that by law. They would have to give me permission to take the kittens from their property no matter how bad a pet owner they might be.

Sleep will not come easily for me tonight- it is supposed to be another brutally cold night and this kitten is now wet and bleeding as well.