Back in the spring of 2017, four tiny kittens appeared out of nowhere at Kentucky’s Jeptha Creed Distillery. The distillery’s staff had been distributing straw around the property when they discovered the tiny babies tucked inside one of the bales.
“As we were spreading straw and picking up hay bales, they just came tumbling out of one of them,” Autumn Nethery, Jeptha Creed Distillery’s co-owner and vice president of operations, told The Dodo.
The distillery staff members looked everywhere for the kittens’ mom, but she was nowhere to be found. It quickly became clear that the sisters had been alone for quite some time and weren’t going to survive much longer without help.
“They were tiny,” Nethery said. “They were clearly starving.”
For the distillery staff, the decision to take in the kittens was simple. They’d already been thinking about getting a cat to live on the property, so why not just take in four? They decided to name the kittens after distillery ingredients: Malt, Wheat, Barley and
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“The staff all took turns bottle-feeding them because they had barely opened their eyes when we found them,” Nethery said.
In the years since their rescue, all four of the kittens have grown into healthy, happy adult cats. They thrive in the distillery environment, enjoying lounging in their catio and hanging out with the staff and guests.
