Starbucks customer, John, rescues the fifth kitten

Rescued Just In The Nick Of Time

When cat rescuer Juli Verrier set out to save a feral cat at the Bradlick Shopping Center parking lot, she had no idea it would lead to a heroic rescue of five newborn kittens by Starbucks employees and their customer, a Wounded Warrior named John.

Juli saw a lone cat roaming around the shopping center, so for its health and protection, she trapped it and took it home. Juli is one of the Good Samaritans who help control the community cat population by trapping cats and taking them to a veterinarian to be spay/neutered, then releasing them in a community cat colony. If a cat can be socialized enough to be adopted, Juli reaches out to one of her many rescue resources for help in finding the cat a home. Pets Bring Joy is one such resource.

Once home, Juli realized that the cat she had just trapped was a nursing mother, which meant there were kittens hidden somewhere near the shopping center. “I rushed back to the busy parking lot and searched the area near where I trapped the mother cat,” Verrier says. “I was worried I would not find the kittens alive, but there they were, huddled together in a storm drain near the entrance to the shopping center.” The Starbucks manager sent four employees over to Juli to see if she needed help. They pulled four of the kittens out from the sewer, but couldn't reach the last one. A Starbucks customer and Wounded Warrior, John, was able to pull the fifth kitten to safety.

The kittens were reunited with their mother, who provided them a long awaited meal. All five kittens are safe, healthy and doing well and are being taken care of wonderfully by their mom, Nugget. The full exciting story was recounted in the Annandale Today article entitled, "Starbucks heroes rescue kittens from a sewer".

UPDATE: November 21, 2024 - Little Bean, the fifth remaining kitten from the Starbucks Litter, has landed an amazing home with previous adopters Gurvina and Akshay and "big sister" Violet. It took a few weeks of fostering first before they became best friends, but patience on the part of the adopters with coaching from PBJ's executive director Jacquie Barker paid off.