Grandpa Finds Kittens in His Barn – Then the Vet Looks Up at the Hayloft and Turns Pale

They slid her out on a feed sack, as gently as moving someone asleep. Up close she was smaller than Walt had thought, and so light he could have carried her in one arm.

The first wire was the loop around her front leg. The second was worse. A second snare had caught her around the shoulder and chest, and she had pulled so hard against it that it was buried deep in her fur. "She hit two snares," the vet said. "One right after the other. Whoever set these put out a whole line."

They carried her into the barn, out of the snow, and laid her on a bale under the work light. The kitten went into Walt's cap, against his chest. Dr. Okafor took a pair of wire cutters from his bag and set the jaws against the first cable. He squeezed. Then he squeezed harder, his face going red. The cutters slipped off. "It's braided steel," he said. "These won't cut it."