[dropcap size=small]s[/dropcap]ophomore Amelia Schell spends her free time helping feral kittens find their forever homes.

Cute pictures of cats is an infestation on the internet, but the depicted felines are usually under the care and ownership of families or individuals who want a pet. Yet in the outside world, beyond silly gifs and videos, there is an abundance of these fuzzy critters who don’t have homes or a consistent way of getting food besides their instinctual hunting methods. That’s why good samaritans like Amelia Schell, with the help of her family, took it upon herself to provide a better way of living as well as make an attempt to decrease the overpopulation of undomesticated kitty-cats. To do so, getting the cats “fixed” is Schell’s leading method, and then relocate them to the county’s humane society or adopting out the various kittens she finds. First she has to figure out ways to capture the creatures and prefers to catch the young ones by hand since the trap she uses for adults could potentially malfunction by closing too soon and braking the backs of the weaker young. Once secured, Schell brings home the kittens who are often unaccompanied by their mother due to abandonment in the event of the mother moving her litter or from sickness. At her house she tends to the kittens needs, defleaing and feeding as well as getting them proper medicinal care in case of injury or said sickness. She hosts the cats for as long as she can until they are old enough to be adopted.

Schell has been rescuing cats since she was 12 and plans to continue her practice well into the future.