When my friend Emily called me on Tuesday and commanded me to meet her by the small staircase between the M.A.C. Center and Bowman Hall, I was a little worried.

We had just parted ways after our ballet class, and I had no idea why she would call me with such urgency.

I hurried there to find her standing next to a cardboard box. The second that I looked inside the box my heart melted.

Inside were five tiny kittens, left on the staircase with no food or water. A sign taped to the side of the box read “Homeless Kittens. Please Help.”

We both looked at each other clueless before deciding to take them back to my dorm room to give them some water.

After talking to our parents, playing with them for awhile and giving them all temporary names, Emily decided that she was going to take them home with her despite her allergy to cats.

What I can’t figure out is why someone would abandon these adorable little furballs on a college campus.

Abandoned animals face tough circumstances. Some people think that leaving a kitten, cat, puppy, or a dog in a cardboard box near a populated area is OK.

They assume that someone will find them, rescue them or keep them as a pet. Many times these animals don’t end up in a good place, are not found or die of dehydration or exposure to cold or hot weather.

Not only is it illegal to do this, but it’s cruel. It breaks my heart to think about what could have happened to these helpless kittens had they not been found, or been found by the wrong person.

Now I’m not really a fan of violence, but whoever did this should be slapped. How hard is it to find someone willing to take in a free kitten?

Within 24 hours of finding them, we were able to find three of them homes.

If you are too lazy to do that then drop them off at the humane society or one of the other many places that take in animals and try to find them homes.

Why would it ever seem like a good idea to just leave a box full of kittens outside on a hot day with no water?

I will never understand how a decent human being can just dump any animal, especially ones that are as helpless as these five kittens.

I can understand if you have kittens that you can’t afford to take care of, but I’m pretty sure there are better options than putting them in a box and dumping them somewhere.

?Rabab Al-Sharif is a sophomore magazine journalism major and columnist for the Daily Kent Stater. Contact her at [email protected].