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My husband watched a mother cat give birth to four babies under our bay window and then run off. Three were living and one was stillborn. We waited for her to come back all day and finally decided we had to take them because it was supposed to be very cold that night.

KITTENS. PHOTO: PIXABAY/DAE-IL SEO

I called a local rescue who told me they would take them if we could keep them alive for three weeks, and we thought, "Ok, now what do we do?!!" We had never had a pet in 35 years of marriage, let alone newborn kittens. I got all kinds of advice from them and then they said, "You know, they probably won't make it." We decided to go for it anyway.

On day two, one kitten died. We felt terrible. Somehow, with dropper feeding and then bottle feeding and trying to keep them as warm as possible, we managed to keep two of them alive. At three weeks, when the rescue said they would take them, we were so in love that we never called.

When they were old enough to run around the house, our youngest son picked them up one day and dropped them on the couch and said "There! That's over with!" I guess they were going to be allowed on furniture!

They are now over four-years-old, and they are still our babies. Besides having my own children, this is hands down the best decision we ever made, and we love them more than we thought possible. I was not a pet person before this, but having them has changed the way I look at all animals and I will never regret the decision we made that day.

PHOTO: TERESA SAGE

They are constant entertainment and constant comfort and now we don't know what we would do without them. And regardless of what we were told by the naysayers, they do not tie us down. They go camping with us!

Story submitted by Teresa Sage from Ortonville, Michigan.

This story was originally shared on The Animal Rescue Site. Share your very own rescue story here!