Man Praised As 'Hero' After Posting Viral Video Of Himself Saving 13 Kittens

Jul 04, 2022

A thirty-seven-year-old Louisiana man found an unexpected family addition on a back road in June 2022. Robert Brantley had been driving to a local shooting range when something in the tall grass caught his eye. Brantley turned his truck around, holding his phone up to record whatever he discovered. As he rounded the front of his truck, the animal appeared. As he suspected, a tiny, wobbly kitten walked into the road toward him. "Look," Brantley said as the scrawny white body scrambled forward. Sounding shocked but also delighted, Brantley called to the tiny cat, "Kitty, kitty..." Brantley then scooped it up and held the kitten up to the camera. He narrated as the small animal mewed in his palm, "He's on the side of the road. Gonna get killed for sure."

Brantley then began to relay whatever fate he suspected befell the kitten. He started solemnly, "Someone just--" but Brantley was abruptly cut-off when again something moved in the nearby grass. A few more tiny faces popped out. "Oh no. It's a whole-" Brantley exclaimed as four more kittens poured out onto the road. "Oh my gosh!" He exclaimed again as an additional half dozen charged out of the grass towards him. "I can't take you all." He said suddenly as his camouflage green Crocs were swarmed by tiny, clawed feet. Brantley then posted his roadside discovery to Instagram, showing kittens crawling all over the ammunition, gun cases and gear in his backseat, suggesting he would, in fact, be taking all the kittens with him.

Read on to learn more about the viral video that documented Brantley's kitten rescue mission.

Before begrudgingly loading the litter into the back of his truck, Brantley had stood amazed and perhaps a little stupefied. "Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh, there's more! We got a kitten problem," He joked before adding on a more serious note. "Who would do this?" The kitten encircled Brantley's feet, having successfully ambushed him. "I thought I was saving one. Hot diggity dog." 

Brantley then scooped up the dozen or so cats, placing them in his truck. That task alone proved to be more difficult than he expected. "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." He wrote, captioning an Instagram video featuring his new passengers climbing all over his shooting gear. He continued, "I wish I would have been in my truck, but I was stuck on the gas saver. This model didn't come with a kitten box either."

Soon, Brantley got the kittens home to his family. "The wife has been wanting a cat for the farm," Brantley had written in the original post. Unexpectedly, he turned up with not one but thirteen. Of course, the kittens were more than welcome, and the Brantley's got right to work cleaning and beefing the litter up. The family posted updates showing the kittens being bathed and photographed. 

Since taking on the little ones, Brantley and his family were contacted by fellow animal lovers in the area about other needy strays. They ended up helping foster a litter of puppies and additional kittens as well as feeding a wayward beagle. His actions prove the old saying that animals always tend to find the people willing to help them. 

What would you have done with a dozen kittens? Let us know — and be sure to pass this article on to friends, family, and animal lovers!