$2,000 Reward Offered For Stolen NorCal Kitten

REDWOOD CITY, CA — A 4-week-old kitten was taken from his cage at Whis-Purr Rescue in Redwood City last Friday. The shelter is offering a $2,000 "no questions asked" reward to reunite the kitten with his mother and siblings.

Lucy Brock, co-founder and director of Whis-Purr — a 501c3 not-for-profit cat rescue— has been working around the clock to find him.

"It's just so important for him to come back because he needs his mama still, he's just he's little," Brock said. "And a lot of times rescue cats don't get that opportunity to have their mama with them — and it's just really sad if that got taken away from him."

The rescue kitten, born April 16, is barely old enough to eat on his own. He was in a cage with his siblings when someone walked in and stole him on May 14, she said.

His three siblings — Ollie, Olea and Oscar — began the process of weaning off their mother, Olivia, this week. They only just took their first bites of hard food on Friday night, Brock told Patch on Saturday. As for Olaf, Brock isn't sure how he's faring.

"I think about that, and I think about that a lot. [Olaf is] probably eating easier now but he probably was forced to eat younger," she said. "I have transitioned babies when they were pretty young, like three and a half weeks old, but it's rough on their bodies."

Olivia and the four kittens were rescued from a shelter just one day after the babies were born.

Brock helped open Whis-Purr in 2012, but she's been rescuing cats since 2007. In all of her years in the business, she's only ever had to deal with one other kitten-theft incident. In 2009, a kitten was stolen from the previous rescue she worked for and was finally returned two years later after the microchipped cat was dropped off at an animal shelter.

Anyone who has any information about Olaf's whereabouts can call 650-787-4505.