Police in Quincy, Massachusetts, are investigating the death of an emaciated kitten that was abandoned in a carrier and found on Christmas Eve.
The Quincy Animal Shelter said a woman found the frail kitten in a beat-up carrier on the side of the road in Marina Bay. She took the animal home, but he would not eat, and she brought him to the shelter Wednesday morning.
In a post shared by the animal shelter Thursday evening, its president and executive director, Sandra Sines, said the kitten had died of pneumonia at VCA South Shore Hospital.
"I am very sad to report that our little Miracle passed away this afternoon, " she wrote. "There was nothing that could be done. My husband and I did everything we could to keep him comfortable. We really hoped that he would make it."
The woman who found the kitten posted about it online after bringing him home. The Quincy Animal shelter saw the post and reached out.
"I agreed to meet her at the shelter yesterday morning," Sines told NBC10 Boston. "She brought the kitten to us, he was very young."
Sines says the kitten was about 3 to 4 weeks old and weighed about 13 ounces. It is not clear when he was abandoned.
"It was clear that he was skinny and frail, and one of the challenges was finding a vet that was open on Christmas Day," said Sines.
With no luck finding one, Sines took the kitten home.
"He was really starting to do better," said Sines. "He started to eat. Kittens are very fragile at that age, no matter what."
But by Thursday morning, the kitten, whom the shelter named Miracle, was failing.
"When I went to feed him this morning at 5:30, he had taken a turn for the worse," she said.
She raced him to a vet.
"Sadly this afternoon, he succumbed to pneumonia and we lost him," she said.
Sines says people should know there's always a place to take an unwanted pet.
"Leaving an animal on the side of the road at any time of year, but especially during extreme cold temperatures, is absolutely cruel," she said.
The Quincy Police Department said it is investigating.
In an earlier Facebook post, the shelter shared a link to donate, saying the kitten needed help.
"Thank you to everyone who generously donated money towards his vet care," Sines wrote in her post Thursday. "Rest in peace little Miracle."
