A handwritten note taped to the front door of a Wichita, Kansas, home has broken hearts after it revealed people moving out of a home had left their cats behind.
On the door of the property, there was a note that read: “These tenants moved, left behind two cats. One male, while, one female, calico.” it warned, “Keep eyes out, call a rescue.”
Patricia Mitnaul of Point Guard Management, which oversees the property on the east side of Wichita, told Newsweek: “All of our properties are pet-friendly, but I can’t speak specifically to this situation on what animals we were aware of.”
“It was a previous tenant who left the cats, and the neighbor before they moved out who left the note,” Mitnaul said.
Thankfully, the management team was able to locate the cats, except the adult male cat who was never seen. When the mother cat and her kittens were found, they were struggling.
“They were not in good shape; fleas and a horrific case of round worms,” Mitnaul said. “They would not have survived much longer without help.”
After reaching out to multiple animal rescues, Mitnaul said most were at capacity or did not respond. One group, the Wichita Animal Action League (WAAL), stepped in to take the feline family.
“They are currently being fostered together and getting ready to be available for adoption,” Mitnaul said.
Mid-2025 data from Shelter Animals Count found that nearly 1.4 million cats entered U.S. shelters in the first half of the year—a 3 percent decrease from the same period in 2024. Of those, roughly 31 percent were surrendered by their owners, while about 59 percent arrived as strays.
Mitnaul said that sadly, animals being left behind in properties is not uncommon. “This happens more often than people realize,” she added. “Our typical process is to call animal control, but I’m hoping we can continue to partner with local rescues in the future.”
But there was one silver lining. A Point Guard Management employee who helped retrieve the kittens from under the house plans to adopt one of them.
“The coworker of mine who went under the house to try and get the kittens is going to be adopting at least one of them,” Mitnaul said.
This is not the first time an animal has been abandoned in a home. A feline was left shut inside a closet with no food or water, or the cat who was abandoned not just once but three times before finding a forever home.
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