It’s not often we share the story of a kitten ambush.
Army veteran Robert Brantley says he stopped to save what he thought was one kitten on the side of the road. As it turns out, this must have been the scout kitten (later named Scout). As soon as the scout saw Brantley was a friend, an unbelievable platoon of kittens ambushed him from the grass in a viral Facebook, Reddit, and Instagram video.
“Left work to go to the range. Passed a baby kitten I knew wouldn’t make it through the night, and the wife has been wanting a cat for the farm; figured I’d stop and rescue the thing,” he posted to Facebook.
When he started taking the video, he only expected to capture the one kitten, but we’ve never seen anything quite like this! Everywhere you look, meowing kittens are bounding out across the road. It almost looks like a special video effect and we can’t quite believe our eyes.
“Oh my gosh, there’s more! We got a kitten problem,” says Brantley. “Oh my gosh, who would do this? I thought I was saving one. Hot diggity dog.”
Image screenshots and media via Facebook/Robert Brantley
A Kitten Ambush Led by Scout
“I backed up to get a short clip and got ambushed by the mob. Anyone wanting a kitten at a screaming price? I’ll cut you a deal!” he continued.
In two days, the video had over 5.1M views, and Branley asked anyone interested in updates to follow his page.
“Those kittens played you so hard,” commented one person on Instagram.
“No lie!” replied Brantley.
“That was perfect timing. They used the one as bait! “Ok, now go! He won’t be able to resist!” 😂
“They had a strategy. I gotta respect that!” Brantley said.
Kitten ambush
Brantley Herds Kittens, All 13 of Them
In another video, Brantley somehow managed to herd all 13 kittens into his vehicle. It baffles the mind how that is possible, but as you can see, these kittens are very friendly. Clearly, they were familiar with being around people, and all appeared to be healthy. In rescue situations, this would be the best-case scenario, but it’s uncommon.
We can only guess what happened, but it seems either somebody dumped them all on the roadside or they made a stunningly synchronized escape from a nearby home together, which would be highly unlikely.
“I couldn’t keep up with them as I would throw one in and 2 would jump out. So I had to close the door with the window down and funnel ’em in. That would have been good footage, actually. As soon as I got home, got them out!” Brantley wrote.
“Thank you to all those offering to help. Working on getting them all a good home! The kids are loving on them in the meantime and we’re fattening them up!”
Fostering the Kittens
In a further update, Brantley shows his kids riding in a cart with some of the kittens.
“Just a wagon full of kittens and babies,” says a woman’s voice.
Then, in another update, we see Brantley giving the kittens a bath in a blue wading pool. All are eating well and are healthy, he says.
“Thank you to all that reached out to give advice and help with supplies. Y’all are as much of a part of this as us! The kittens are doing great and are enjoying the warm breeze as they dry off. We’ve got some more things planned for these babies so stay tuned. I’m still learning a lot of this so go easy on me,” he says.
How wonderful that Brantley and his family have decided to provide foster care for these kittens. Currently, there’s much speculation about whether they will adopt Scout or a couple of these cute kittens. For more updates, you can follow along on Facebook, Reddit, and Instagram.
