Members of the West 104th Street Garden closed out Memorial Day weekend with a sweet surprise. Four kittens were rescued from a yard adjacent to the garden along with the mother cat who had eluded rescue efforts last winter.

The kittens and their mom are currently being fostered by Sara Lewkowicz, a garden member and cat-rescue advocate, in a playpen in her living room.

Lewkowicz named the litter, which includes three boys and one girl, after characters from the television show Seinfeld: Jerry, George, Kramer, and Elaine. The mama cat she named Estelle in honor of the late Estelle Harris, the actress who played George’s mother, Estelle Costanza, on the show. “The cats are Upper West Siders after all,” Lewkowicz said.

Back in December 2021, with the help of Harlem Cats, Lewkowicz had rescued a litter of kittens from the same yard bordering the garden, and arranged for their foster and adoption. However, she had been unable to trap and rescue the mother cat. She had named the kittens from that  litter after characters from the television show The Simpsons.

Over this past holiday weekend, on May 30th, Lewkowicz received a phone call from another garden member who had spotted a very young kitten in an alley adjacent to the garden. Lewkowicz immediately went to the alley and found the kitten, who she believed to be just four weeks old. “This kitten was the spitting image of one from the last litter, so I knew it was the same mom,” Lewkowicz told the Rag in a phone interview.  “I took him home and syringe fed him. I went out that night to see if I could track down mama and the new litter.”

Upon returning to the yard where the previous litter had been found, Lewkowicz found and was able to “hand grab” three more kittens, but she wasn’t going to stop there. She felt more confident in her ability to find the mother cat as she had recently become certified in TNR (Trap, Neuter, Release.)

“This time, when I hand grabbed the kittens, I placed them in a carrier and saw the mom watching the whole time. I placed the carrier alongside of a trap with food, so she wouldn’t see it as threatening, but just part of the scenery. The mom went to investigate the crying kittens and into the trap.”

Estelle with two of her kittens.

Once the mother cat, Estelle, was trapped, Lewkowicz brought her to be assessed by Little Wanderers, a New York City nonprofit cat-rescue organization. She wanted to determine if Estelle was friendly or feral (a feral cat is unsocialized, undomesticated, lives outdoors, and is fearful of people.) Upon evaluation, Estelle was found to be “incredibly friendly, sweet and probably a dumped house cat,” Lewkowicz said.

West Side Rag asked Lewkowicz about the father of the kittens. “I’m curious about the dad. I want to know who and where he is,” she replied. “I wonder if he is the cat that lives in a bodega nearby.” Members of the garden have installed a camera, which they hope might help in finding him.

If the father cat is found, he, too, will be evaluated to see if he is friendly or feral. If he is found to be friendly, he will be neutered and put up for adoption as well.

“If he is feral, he’ll be neutered, treated for any parasites and then released back into the garden where I will put food and water out for him and maintain a cat house for shelter in the winter,” Lewkowicz said.

She has set up an Amazon wish list for neighborhood cat lovers who might be interested in helping her with foster care needs. Estelle is still nursing the kittens, but once they are weaned, all will be available for adoption through Little Wanderers.

Photographs courtesy of Sara Lewkowicz and the West 104th Street Garden.

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How can we find the wish list on Amazon? I would like to chip in!

I tried to send something, but no address is given.

We updated the link. Thanks!

Hey! This is Sara, so sorry, link is updated with my address now! Thanks so much for your support! <3

How wonderful that you are doing this. God bless.

Congrats on bringing momma home! Love that Maggie and Ralphie have step siblings. Hope they all find good loving homes.

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