Animal 411

PHOTOS: These Kittens Are Now Adoptable through New Canaan Animal Control

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The two kittens born to a feral mamma cat soon to be re-released to her Beech Road neighborhood are up for adoption, according to the New Canaan Police Department Animal Control unit. The kittens are about 10 to 12 weeks old and will be vaccinated prior to being adopted out, Officer Maryann Kleinschmitt said. Together with their mom, the kittens were picked up from Beech Road last month. The mom is “in excellent health,” Kleinschmitt said and will be placed back in the neighborhood from which police removed her. New Canaan has a handful of feral cat colonies, the biggest one being on Summer Street near Lakeview Avenue, officials have said.

Animal 411

Bobcat Kitten Seen in New Canaan: ‘We Are Probably Going to Have More’

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The sighting of a bobcat kitten in northern New Canaan, followed this past weekend by three sightings of adult bobcats in the same part of town, have local Animal Control officials thinking that “we are probably going to have more.”

Animal Control Officer Maryann Kleinschmitt—based on past sightings in New Canaan—has believed the town has at least two and possibly three of the animals living here. With the reported appearance of the kitten, “We are probably going to have more, because we know we have at least one kitten and so we have at least one male and one female.”

The kitten was seen at about 12:19 p.m. on Aug. 25 on Deep Valley Road, on the edge of the St. Luke’s School campus. Three adult bobcat sightings were reported this past Saturday and Sunday, all of them on upper Smith Ridge Road, near the Vista, N.Y. line, Kleinschmitt said.

Animal 411

Kittens from Beech Road Feral Cat To Be Adopted Out

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New Canaan Animal Control soon will have two kittens to adopt out, after taking the animals from a feral mother that they will have spayed, microchipped, ear-notched and vaccinated for rabies prior to returning her to the Beech Road area where they found her. The kittens are three months or younger, Animal Control Officer Maryann Kleinschmitt said. “They’re very young and very adoptable—they can be picked up and held,” Kleinschmitt said. Animal Control generally doesn’t mobilize in cases of feral cats “but it seems like there are some issues around town.”

“There are a whole lot of colonies in town and if we didn’t take the kittens and get her spayed, we could have another colony over there,” Kleinschmitt said. The largest such colony in New Canaan is on Summer Street near Lakeview Avenue, she said.

Animal 411

Bat Flies through Window of SUV Traveling Down South Avenue, Hits Driver in the Neck

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A bat that flew into the open window of a SUV tooling along South Avenue, hitting the driver in the neck, has tested negative for rabies, officials say. At about 9:54 p.m. on Aug. 22 (a week ago Friday), a 24-year-old New Canaan man was driving along South Avenue near Grace Street when a bat flew in through the open window of his ’07 Acura MDX and struck him in the neck, according to a police report. The motorist picked it up, alive, before he realized just what it was, and threw it back out the window, according to Animal Control Officer Maryann Kleinschmitt. Police located the bat on the side of the road, put it into a coffee can, made sure it was dead and then sent it to a state lab for testing.

Animal 411

Police: Young Black Lab Found Roaming at Kiwanis Park

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Police picked up a roaming black Labrador retriever with a red collar and no other identifying information at about 12:30 p.m. Friday. The young female was picked up at Kiwanis after the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control unit received a call from the nursery school there, according to Officer Maryann Kleinschmitt. “I would say she is close to a year old, very sweet,” Kleinschmitt said. “She obviously has been socialized a lot, so someone just doesn’t know she got out.”

The dog was not microchipped and has no tags on the collar, Kleinschmitt said. Animal Control can be reached at 203-594-3510.