Bowling Green Humane Society receives lifesaving kitten grant

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WNKY) – The Bowling Green-Warren County Humane Society is receiving national recognition and new resources to help save some of its smallest animals.

The shelter was recently named a Mightycat partner through Orphan Kitten Club, a nonprofit organization focused on advancing care for neonatal kittens in shelters across the country. The partnership includes grant funding and supplies aimed at helping the humane society care for vulnerable kittens that are only days or weeks old.

Michelle Epley, humane society operations manager and foster manager, said the grant has already made a major impact.

“We have never had the incubators,” Epley said. “The grant that we received supplied three of them, so we are very happy to have this one. This one has actually saved many babies over the last two weeks that we have had it in this room.”

The grant provides incubators, formula, crates, playpens, foster kits and other lifesaving supplies for kittens that require around-the-clock care. Humane society officials say they took in 665 kittens under four weeks old in the last year, with an average intake age of just two-and-a-half weeks.

Epley said the incubators help maintain proper temperature and humidity for fragile kittens and can also be used for oxygen and breathing treatments.

“We’ve seen a huge difference,” Epley said. “When we put a tiny kitten in there, it immediately just gets comfortable and goes to sleep.”

Shelter leaders say the funding will also help expand their neonatal foster network by providing supplies to foster families who take care of bottle-fed kittens in their homes.

Orphan Kitten Club founder Hannah “Kitten Lady” Shaw launched the Mightycat program to support shelters and rescues caring for kittens from birth to eight weeks old. Since 2016, the organization has awarded more than $4 million in kitten-focused grants nationwide.

The Bowling Green Warren County Humane Society says community members interested in fostering kittens can learn more at bgshelterpets.com/foster.