Wednesday September 16, 2009, 2:00 am
IF you love cats, kitten heaven is the old-fashioned bathroom in Tammy Cross’s apartment in a Beaux-Arts building on the Upper West Side. In this small space, five balls of fluff, none bigger than a fist and some just two days old, are napping, reclining or rolling about in various states of adorableness.

As many of the city’s cat fanciers know, Ms. Cross is the guiding spirit behind Kitten Little Rescue, an organization that does exactly what its name implies — rescues sick, abused or abandoned kittens and shows them off on summer weekends at 72nd Street and Columbus Avenue. The hope is that by being so enchanting, they will attract adoptive families or at least foster parents willing to house them temporarily.

In many respects, the sunny one-bedroom apartment on Broadway, near 86th Street, where Ms. Cross has lived for 15 years and for which she pays about $1,000 in rent, represents the mother ship of Kitten Little Rescue. Here, some 6 to 18 baby kittens — and once as many as 22 — are bottle fed and nursed back to health.

Ms. Cross, 51, a vivacious woman who often wears her dark blond hair in a casually tied-back ponytail (extra hair clips are attached to the brass headboard of her bed), has been living a life defined by cats ever since she came to New York at 22. Early on, she began supporting herself by working as a manager and booker at jazz clubs, all the while bouncing from one apartment to another.

Please visit the site to read the rest and to see the wonderful slide show in the lefthand side column-

Wednesday September 16, 2009, 2:06 am
Thanks Raffi - Meow!

Wednesday September 16, 2009, 4:46 am
Oh Rafael thank you so much for this story, heartbreaking at times and sweet at other.
Thanks again!

Wednesday September 16, 2009, 4:20 pm
What a wonderful lady!

Wednesday September 16, 2009, 5:47 pm
Thanks Rafael. What a sweet story!

Wednesday September 16, 2009, 7:33 pm
This is so cute Thanks Raffi

Wednesday September 16, 2009, 9:36 pm
"mew purr purr mew purrrrrr" - translation: thanks from the kittens.

wonder if the kitties like the salmon-colored walls.

Wednesday September 16, 2009, 9:51 pm
"Meow Mew Mew Purr Mew Mew Purr"...translation-that's for your comments everyone-;-)

Wednesday September 16, 2009, 9:53 pm
Kitties, and the people who love them, ROCK!

Thursday September 17, 2009, 4:58 am
Thannnxxx - cats are definitely my favorite... I have loads of furballs and they are the best of friends