GEORGIA – On snowy and cold days, most 13-year-olds would be doing exactly what Kemp Edge was doing Saturday — he was sledding and exploring the woods near his house with his dad and just having fun.
However, Kemp’s day of fun took an unexpected turn.
“We were in the woods, having fun, looking at the snow,” Kemp stated. “Then we heard a cat crying. We went looking and tracked the sounds to a storm drain.”
He spotted a kitten who was just sitting on the edge of the drain in the snow and ice and tried to approach, but the kitten was quite scared. Kemp looked down into the drain and noticed four other kittens and what he assumed was the mother cat.
He decided to see if he could get the kittens and cat out of the drain and the bitter cold, Kemp ran home, grabbed some kitty food and ran back.
“I set the food at the edge of the drain and tried to get them to come to me,” he went on to explain. “Two came out pretty quickly, but the other two would not. The mother cat ran away.”
The two kittens that approached Kemp were quickly given over to his family and dried and cleaned up. Kemp then went to work to rescue the more stubborn pair or fur-babies.
“It took him a good three or four hours,” stated Trista Edge, Kemp’s mom. “He basically worked all day to get them out.”
The Edge family kept the kittens at their home for a night and even managed to find a home for one with a neighbor. They decided to call Floyd Felines, which is a local group of volunteers that greatly helps rescue cats and kittens, to get additional help with the other three.
Mary Kate McCaffrey, who is a volunteer with the organization, explained that after pictures of the kittens and a video of Kemp rescuing them, which were taken by his father, Wright Edge, were all posted up on the ‘Floyd Felines and Friends’ Facebook page, donations to help the kittens started rolling on
“Everyone was sending money to help the ‘Ice Kittens’ as they were being called,” McCaffrey stated. “The video just made me cry.”
In the video included here, Kemp can be seen, lying on the snowy ground, with his arm heading down the storm drain, trying to coax the kittens out. At the end when he rescues the last, most frightened one, he curls up with the kitten in his arms, holds it, and reassures it that it is going to be OK.
“It was so scared and that spot I had to pull it through was so hard,” he added. “I was afraid I’d hurt it. I just kept saying ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry.’”
“He’s a hero,” McCaffrey stated. “I have no problem calling him that.”
This kind act was nothing new for Kemp, according to his principal at Pepperell Middle School, Becky McCoy.
“When I saw the video, I was not surprised,” she stated. “That is just Kemp. He has a compassionate heart.”
The three kittens that are still in need homes have been christened Kemper, after their hero, and after Elsa and Hans, who are characters from “Frozen,” which was deemed appropriate because of the snowy, icy conditions they were found in.
McCaffrey stated that anyone who might be interested in helping or perhaps adopting one of the “Ice Kittens,” may contact Floyd Felines through their Facebook page, Floyd Felines And Friends, or by email at floydfelines@gmail.com.
What a terrific kid! Will surely make a fine man one day!
