Kittens Saved From Nor'easter Flood At Passaic Co. Vet Group

Correction: The kittens are now with 911 Dog and Cat Rescue, based in Morristown.

CLIFTON, NJ — Had a good samaritan not taken action, five kittens caught in a flash flood wouldn't have had much time left. Now, the kitty quintet has a new lease on life.

A Clifton resident found five lumps floating Oct. 26 on her inundated street, following the nor'easter. She realized they were kittens, so she and her boyfriend ran out to grab them and drove them straight to the city's Veterinary Emergency Group.

Their feline mother and one of their siblings had drowned. But VEG was able to save the five 20-week-old kittens.

"It really required getting them dried off and getting their temperatures back up to normal," said Emily Thomas, a certified veterinary technician. Their temperatures were so low that the thermometers weren’t even able to read their temps."

Once their temperatures reached about 100 degrees, they stopped actively warming them and gave the hungry felines some food. They began to play and act like normal kittens again.

The VEG team named the kittens Jalapeno, Cajun, Aioli, Lettuce and Tomato. They were given to Smitten by Kittens, a Morristown cat rescue, who then gave them to 911 Dog and Cat Rescue, which is based in the same town.

The kittens will become available for adoption in about seven weeks. For more information, email 911dogrescue@gmail.com.

"We get updates all the time from the rescue," Thomas told Patch. "They sent us a bunch of pictures. They’re doing really well."

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