A man got more than he bargained for while dumpster-diving behind a local shopping plaza.
Finn Lambouris, from Michigan, told Newsweek he was “hoping to find some DVDs or video games” that could have been discarded by a store in the plaza when he began opening boxes in the bins located at the far end of the parking lot.
However, Lambouris stopped in his tracks after opening one box and saw five sets of eyes looking up out of the darkness. “The kittens had been totally quiet, so I wasn’t aware they were there until I physically opened up the box they were in and saw them looking up at me,” he said.
Lambouris couldn’t understand why a box of kittens had been left there. The dumpster he was rooting through was located near some clothing donation bins. “Presumably, whoever put them there thought that employees would come to pick up the items in the donation bin and then the kittens would be discovered,” Lambouris said. “But I can’t imagine that those bins are emptied that frequently.”
The sad reality is that feral kittens born into the urban wild face a fight to survive. Research published by the Journal of American Veterinary Medical Association estimates just 25 percent of feral kittens survive.
These kittens could easily have suffered the same fate. “They had no food or water, and it was past 8 p.m. on a cold November night in Michigan,” Lambouris said. “They could have died there if I hadn’t stumbled upon them and done something.”
After a few minutes of trying to comfort the scared kittens, Lambouris called out to his girlfriend, Olivia Gundrum, who was waiting in the car, for help. “She started looking on her phone for shelters that would be able to take them, but it was late into the evening and we couldn’t find any place that was open,” Lambouris said.
“There was absolutely no way I was going to leave them there, so I loaded the box into the warm car, and we called some of our friends who are cat owners to figure out what we should do.”
The group dropped by a nearby Walmart, picking up food, treats and other cat litter. Once they were home, Lambouris and Gundrum put food and water in the box with the kittens.
“They had been scared when we found them, but after they had eaten, they started to calm down,” Lambouris said. “I was able to stick my hand in the box and touch them without them hissing at me like they had been before.”
All of the kittens were bathed before Lambouris and Gundrum, who didn’t have an animal crate, turned their bathtub into a “little habitat” complete with food, water, bedding and a litter box. “They slept in there overnight and I got up a few times to check on them to make sure they were still OK,” Lambouris said. “I then brought them to work with me the next day so they wouldn’t be alone.”
Over the next two days, Lambouris continued to care for the kittens, bringing them to work were they were “loved on all day” by his co-workers, before taking them home at night to sleep in a dog crate he had borrowed from his parents.
Eventually, with help from the wider family, Lambouris was able to connect with an animal rescue, which agreed to take the kittens in. The kittens were taken in by Los Gatos Foster Animals, a nonprofit, foster home-based cat rescue
“My mom’s friend let me know that their shelter could take the kittens, so I loaded them back into the crate in the afternoon and met her halfway so she could take them,” Lambouris said. “She is personally fostering three of them, and the other two are being fostered by someone else involved with the rescue.”
Once the kittens are back to full health, they will be made available for adoption. Lambouris hasn’t yet ruled out taking one in himself. “We’re going to take some time to think it over, and if we do decide that we want one, we can end up adopting one of the kittens back from the rescue after they have all their vet care done,” he said.
For now, Lambouris said he’s just happy to have been in the right place at the right time and done the right thing. His dumpster diving paid off that night, just not in the way he expected.