A local graduate student is taking a traumatic experience and using it to help animals in need. Nevada Humane Society volunteer Kaelin Leavitt started fostering kittens two and a half years ago.

"I'm a survivor of the Route 91 Las Vegas shooting and I had a really hard time with survivor's guilt and trying to figure out kind of how to put my life back together," she said. "And I decided I wanted to foster 58 animals in memory of the people that lost their lives that day."

And she's well on her way to that goal.

"Thirty-one so far, so it's a full house," she said.

Kaelin and her roommate Jade Theobald are both graduate students, both have jobs, but there's always time to care for these little ones.

"I was also at the Route 91 Las Vegas shooting four years ago now, and when we got back, Kaelin was really adamant," she said. "She wanted to start fostering these kittens and after we brought home the first momma cat and all those babies, I couldn't stop. We were forever going to have kittens around."

There are so many little ones in need.

"Especially in the summer," Theobald said. "And all different need levels. Some are sick and need to be bottle-fed, others just need help gaining some weight and getting to the point where they can be adopted out."

It's never easy to say goodbye.

"I cry every single time still when I drop them off at the clinic to say goodbye," Leavitt said. "Whether or not they're going to someone I know or they don't have a home lined up, I still cry. It's really hard. But I've seen pictures of animals six months to a year later loving their homes, so it makes it all worth it. I know I did my job."

A job that brings so much joy.

"It definitely fills your heart," Theobald said. "There's tough days dealing with little sick babies, but then you see them grow, and it fills your heart. And then they snuggle and it just makes you happy."

And when they reach that goal of 58?

"I'll keep going," Leavitt said. "I'm not stopping any time soon."

Theobald agrees.

"There will forever be cats in our home," she said.

The Nevada Humane Society is always looking for foster parents and volunteers: https://nevadahumanesociety.org/