An exceptionally high number of kittens, particularly newborns, rescued this year by Piece of Heaven Kitten Shelter in Hamburg, N.Y., have taken a toll on primary caregiver Marcia Gerwitz. Orphaned newborn kittens entail bottle-feeding every two hours, late at night, all night, early in the morning, all day long.

Besides bottle-feeding neonates, duties such as giving medications to sick cats and keeping up with older kittens and adult cats lead to tiredness that fades to numbness. “Right now I’m overwhelmed,” says Gerwitz, a veteran with more than 60 years’ experience rescuing kittens and cats.

The rough edges of rescue work are smoothed over when Gerwitz sees the tiny, helpless, fuzzy newborns. “It’s like Christmas morning walking into the kitten room,” she says. “I get excited caring for these kittens.”

Piece of Heaven Kitten Shelter currently is caring for 75 felines — 60 kittens and 15 adult cats. Gerwitz cares for 50 cats, including 35 kittens, at her spacious home, a two-story 1800-era converted barn. Foster parents have the other 15 cats at their homes. The cats range in age from 2 weeks to 16 years. The elderly cat is “Nick,” Gerwitz’s beloved black-and-tan tiger-striped male, one of four cats she simply couldn’t let go.

Desperate calls from emergency veterinary clinics and people in the community, some whose unspayed females have had litters, alert Gerwitz to kittens and cats needing care. She knows from experience that housing too many cats in one location may result in the spread of disease. Feline upper respiratory infection (URI), one commonly spread disease caused by herpes virus or calicivirus, is stimulated by overcrowding and stressful environments.

No Names for Cats
Mother cats sometimes go to extremes to protect their kittens. One mother had carried her kittens to a safe place in a garage and gone to search for food, but her rear leg had gotten caught in a trap. “The owners of the house called me when they discovered the kittens. Then the mother returned. She had dragged the trap over a five-foot fence and gotten into the garage to retrieve her kittens. When she jumped down from the window through which she entered the garage, she jumped through the shoulder strap of a golf bag.”

When Gerwitz arrived the black-and-tan striped mother cat was dangling upside down from the golf bag with the trap still attached to her leg. Eventually the back leg was amputated. Knowing that potential adopters might hesitate to adopt a three-legged cat, Gerwitz told of the mother cat’s heroics at adoption events. Her efforts paid off: A loving family adopted the mother cat.

Gerwitz can tell you intimate details about a cat’s rescue. She can recount specific medical needs for each cat while in her care, but she can’t tell you the cat’s name. “I don’t name them,” she says. “I get too attached when I name them. Each litter gets a number and each cat gets a letter. But believe me, I get to know their personalities.”

Nick, the 16-year-old resident male cat, was one who did get a name. Found in a woman’s unlocked car when she returned from shopping, Nick ended up at Gerwitz’s house, but she had no room. “I sent him to a kennel for a week, then I brought him home and he just stayed,” she says. “He is so laidback that nothing seems to stress him out. He’ll calmly sit right in the middle of my grandchildren.”

Six-year-old “Franklin,” a gray-and-white longhair, is the second resident male cat. He was found as a newborn. “When you bottle-feed, it’s hard to let them go,” Gerwitz says.

A 2-year-old black Siamese female named “Lilly” came from a feral cat rescue. “We took her in when she was 2 months old. She got friendly while she was here,” Gerwitz says.

One-year-old “Dickens,” Gerwitz’s third resident male cat, is a miracle. “When he came to me, he was very sick,” she says. “I kept wondering how in the world this kitten was surviving. Many nights I didn’t know if he would make it through. He is here right now because I couldn’t let him go.” Now, Dickens is a healthy cat whose only residual from being ill is being on a prescription high-fiber diet.

A bouncy, little Yorkshire Terrier-Chihuahua mix named “Pedro” is the lone canine at the Gerwitz home. Gerwitz discovered his littermate sister while working an adoption event at PetSmart and later went to get him.

Though only five animals make Piece of Heaven Kitten Rescue their permanent home, Gerwitz cares for all cats as if they were her own. Each is spayed or neutered and receives vaccinations before adoption. All potential adopters are screened and must take part in an interview process before they can adopt a cat.

Little Ones Again
Gerwitz first rescued kittens as a girl. “My mother said that as long as she could remember I would bring the neighborhood kittens home,” she says. “I would tell her that they were lost. Often they weren’t lost, and my mother had to return them to the neighbors.”

Many years later Gerwitz’s official start in cat rescue began when a neighbor found a box of kittens on his front porch. It was Gerwitz who called a local pet rescue organization for help. She was hooked.

A stay-at-home mother raising four children, Gerwitz and her husband, John, a manager for Fisher-Price, lived on four acres on the outskirts of Hamburg, N.Y. Animals always played an important part in their lives. In 1983, she and a partner formed a rescue organization called Heart Hamburg/Eden Animal Rescue Team. Gerwitz focused on rescuing kittens and cats, while her partner took in dogs.

Twenty years later — after working as a team in rescuing thousands of animals — Gerwitz decided to work independently. She founded Piece of Heaven Kitten Shelter in 2003. Fifteen volunteers help with fostering, fundraising and traveling to adoption events. More than 300 cats a year are placed in homes. The group services Erie County, N.Y., which includes Buffalo. Occasionally cats from neighboring counties are taken in as well. “I try to help anyone who calls if I have an opening,” Gerwitz says.

Although Gerwitz cares for cats of all ages, kittens are her specialty. “I really enjoy kittens,” she says. “They are a lot more work. You have to massage their muscles to simulate them to use the litter box and bottle-feed every two hours. It’s like having little ones all over again, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

The high number of kittens needing care this year is unusual. “I don’t know why we’ve had so many kittens this year,” Gerwitz says. “In February I took in seven cats that were either pregnant or just had babies. February is early for new litters. The typical busy season is spring to early fall. These seven cats and their kittens were found at a camping site. A woman who lived nearby had been trying to feed them, but she couldn’t take them into her home.”

Gerwitz took them all. “The kittens were in pretty good shape considering the circumstances. I am still trying to get these moms healthy. Four had to have an eye removed due to complications from the feline herpes virus.”

In the process of caring for the cats, Gerwitz sought the expertise of a board-certified veterinary ophthalmologist. “Ninety-eight percent of the problems that I see in kittens or stray cats are herpes virus infections,” says Kimberly Stanz, D.V.M., DACVO, founder of Animal Eye Care of Western New York in Lancaster. “The virus affects the respiratory tract and the eyes. If the cats aren’t put on medication right away, the virus can cause ulcers in their eyes that rupture.”

Stanz helped Gerwitz by donating her time to examine the cats and providing medications at cost to help make it affordable. Stanz also provided a medical report on each cat to help potential adopters understand the cats are healthy and can live a quality life. “Families often overlook a cat that has lost his or her eye in favor of another cat with both eyes,” Gerwitz says. “We do everything we can to make people aware of the wonderful pets these cats can be.”

Piece of Heaven Kitten Shelter has strict adoption rules. A potential adopter must own his or her home or have written permission from the landlord to have a cat. Gerwitz requires owners to keep cats safe indoors, but not to declaw them in case they would go outdoors. Rather, she teaches new owners how to carefully trim nails close to the quick so cats cannot tear furniture. She also teaches them how to encourage the cat to use a scratching post. “Few cats are returned,” she says.

‘Call Me in Another Week’
One adoptive cat owner, Julie Maxwell Allen, recalls meeting Gerwitz at an adoption event. “When my cat ‘PJ’ passed away, I was devastated,” Maxwell Allen says. “Two weeks later, I drove to PetSmart. I don’t know why I drove to PetSmart, but it was meant to be. Marcia was there doing adoptions. She had me fill out an application and while we were talking, I picked up ‘Murphy.’ He fell asleep on my shoulder.”

Two days later, Maxwell Allen visited Piece of Heaven Kitten Shelter and met Murphy’s brother “Pepper.” Their litter was found in a flowerpot in a man’s garage, but the mother cat had run away after the man chased her off. The 2-day-old kittens whose eyes were still closed had been without food.

“Murphy was thought to be dead,” Maxwell Allen recounts the story. “Marcia put him aside. As he warmed up, they found out that he was actually alive. He had frostbite and lost the end of his tail.”

Murphy, Pepper and another littermate survived, and with Gerwitz’s care became thriving kittens. Attesting to their comeback, Maxwell Allen says, “Murphy got his name because he jumped into a bucket of Murphy’s Oil Soap. Pepper ate a hot pepper from my plate and wasn’t fazed at all. You’d never know they had such a rough start in life.”

Though Gerwitz currently is overwhelmed caring for about 20 more cats than usual, she is committed to helping to decrease the number of unwanted kittens and cats in the world. When people call and she has no more room, she always ends by saying, “Call me in another week. I may have room.”

Tips on Caring for Kittens
Marcia Gerwitz, founder of Piece of Heaven Kitten Shelter, offers these tips on caring for orphaned newborn kittens:

• Keep neonates warm by placing them in a box or basket lined with a soft, warm covering such as a fleece blanket. Since kittens do not produce sufficient body heat until they are 3 to 4 weeks old, it helps to use a hot water bottle or heating pad under the bed covering to help keep them warm. Be careful that the hot water bottle is not so hot it could burn the kittens.
• Newborns should be bottle-fed a kitten formula every two hours for the first week, and every three to four hours thereafter.
• After feeding, be sure to massage a kitten’s lower abdominal area to encourage elimination. Usually a mother cat will lick kittens to stimulate elimination.
• Be attentive for crying or other abnormal behavior. Crying is a kitten’s distress signal, although kittens naturally yowl when they are hungry. A quiet kitten could be a sign of sickness and should not be ignored.
• Kittens should stay clean. Wipe away runny eyes or any crusty deposits.