They didn’t find a Bearcat, but a morning walk led to an unexpected discovery for two Lander University staff – and a heartfelt twist of fate for four kittens in need.
While walking across campus, Brandon Felder, Lander’s registrar, and Taylor Johnston, the University’s decision support systems manager, noticed that two kittens were following them. Believing that a mother cat had to be close by, they began searching. And this led to another surprise – two more kittens and still no mother.
By now, Felder and Johnston had four kittens in tow. “They followed us to Horne Arena. It became obvious that they were tired. They sat down and were meowing,” said Felder.
They took the kittens, estimated to be about seven weeks old, to the Registrar’s Office and found a box and food for them. “We don’t know what happened to the mother,” Felder said.
Because the Humane Society of Greenwood was “at its peak season for cats,” Felder said, “We had to do something. They were too small to be on their own.”
Word quickly spread around Lander’s campus that several cats – not to be confused with Lander’s mascot Bearcat -- had no place to go. By day’s end, three kittens were adopted, and Felder is fostering the remaining kitten while it waits for a new home.
Kendra Rodgers, of Lander’s Information Technology Services, adopted “the only kitten in the litter with striking gray eyes.”
Now named Gray, “she was the one of the last – scared, hungry and so small. I planned to give her to my father as a companion. Within a day, she stole my husband’s heart with her intelligence and gentle affection,” Rodgers said. “It didn’t take long to realize she’d already found her forever home – with us.”
Perhaps one short of a cat’s nine lives, the kittens at least have eight more to go. No matter – they’re only counting on love, and that is the “purrfect” end to the story.