The four black and white shorthairs were perhaps 10 days old when they were found in a cardboard box under the city’s Darrell Priede Bridge in late September, according to Anne Hawes, now fostering the kittens on behalf of the Boundary Helping Hands Feline Rescue Society .
Whoever abandoned the little ones could have brought them to Helping Hands’ shelter in nearby Johnson Flats, where Feeny said 18 cats were awaiting forever homes as of Thursday, Oct.
Their situation must’ve been quite severe, indeed, with Hawes recalling how they came out of their box hungry, “smelly” and slow to move, their matted fur flecked with tiny white bumps that turned out to be fly eggs.
Where someone had gone out of their way to make sure they’d be forgotten, the Hawes family took them in and gave them names.