Photos: Kayleen VanderRee
So you’ve heard of the cat lady down the street that collects thousands of strays and lets them live in every crevice of her home. Well, this is next level cat rescuing. Without the smell. Kayleen VanderRee and Danielle Gumbley of Victoria, British Columbia found two kittens roaming around trash cans in their town and new that foxes, mountain lions and other predators like to roam the area at night, too.
“They were clearly abandoned,” VanderRee said. “There’s lot of cougars and bears and eagles in the area, so we decided to take them with us because we didn’t want them to get eaten.”
The local shelter was closed. So the two ended up keeping the kittens, VanderRee’s cat is now named “Keel” and Gumbley took in “Bolt.” Those are some lucky felines. They hit the outdoor adventure jackpot as VanderRee and Gumbley are two badass women who take the kittens on all their wandering adventures, from kayaking and snowshoeing to camping and backpacking.
And get this, the two women have outfitted these cats the right way. They have their own sleeping bags (although they’d rather sleep on top of their owners), harnesses for climbing and life jackets for the water.
“Danielle and I go out adventuring pretty much every weekend or every other, so it was important to us that the cats could fit in with our lifestyle,” VanderRee said.
When Gumbley tore a couple of ligaments in her ankle, the cats hung out with her and helped her attitude while she recovered. “They’ve helped us as much as we’ve helped them,” VanderRee said.
