Doyle is doing really well now. He is huge! He is now just a few days over 7 weeks and he is already 2 lbs. (A kitten has to be at least two pounds and 8 weeks old in order to be placed up for adoption). I will be turning him in to the shelter in just about a week. It does not seem possible. I am going to miss him terribly. I have seriously considered keeping him because I got so attached to him helping him go from a sick little kitten to a happy healthy (kinda chubby) young cat. My main reason for NOT keeping him is that right now, the 4 year old in my house does not know that keeping a foster animal is an option and I like it that way. Doyle is also very attached to me. Whenever I let him and his mother out of the foster room for some exercise he comes and finds me and goes to sleep on me for a while before he goes to play.
His brother Domino is doing just as well in his bottle fed home. They are both on target to be put up for adoption at 8 weeks as scheduled. I felt bad for Doyle because since Dominio was moved to a bottle fed home, Doyle essentially turned into an only child. I asked the people at the shelter for some suggestions on how to let him get the rough and tumble play that he needs to grow into a social cat which he would normally get from interacting with his litter mates. When I tried to play that way with him he would end up chewing and jumping on my hand which is exactly what we don't want him to learn.
Thankfully, the shelter had a great suggestion - a playmate! Turns out that they had a kitten from another foster home that was significantly smaller than its brother and sister. The litter mates were ready to be adopted out but the small kitten, named Dora, was old enough but not big enough. Rather than keep the mom and all three kittens with their foster family and tie up that house for another few weeks, they put the litter mates and the mom up for adoption and sent Dora home with me - thereby freeing up that foster home to take in another litter.
I took Dora home, introduced her to Doyle and his mom, Muffin and after a few minutes of hesitation, both kittens were running around playing and Muffin was acting like Dora had been with us all along. It is working out great because Dora gets to put on the weight she needs and Doyle has someone to play with. They will both go up for adoption when Doyle hits 8 weeks. Although I hear that Dora's original foster mother is also considering keeping her. It seems we foster mothers tend to get attached to the runts and sickly kittens because we have to help them so much. They are usually little fighters that just worm their way into your heart.
I am still trying to stay strong and not keep Doyle because I know that the more cats I have, the less I can foster, but we shall see what happens next week when they actually try and pry him out of my hands. I will try to make it back here to post some updated pictures of him and some of our visitor, Dora. That is providing my computer doesn't eat the pictures again and my Internet connection doesn't decide to go on vacation again. Gotta love technology. :o)
Wow. Sounds like a lot has happened. Good luck to you (and Doyle, and Muffin, and Dora) with the upcoming changes. =)
ReplyDeleteI don't know that I could ever foster and not adopt. When I was a kid, my family fostered once, only because we weren't allowed to adopt yet (he was only a couple days old and motherless). The moment he became 'of age' we officially adopted him.
Jo, it is hard not to want to adopt them. Right now due to limits of both physical energy and financial resources from being disabled due to my health I know that I would not be able to handle much more than the one senior cat I already have so I have a strong incentive not adopt any more.
ReplyDeleteThe hardest thing to keep in mind is that what you really want as a foster parent is for them to have a good home. When I decided to foster, I chose an organization that I knew had the same idea of what make a good home as I do. They also encourage new owners to let them know how the pet is doing in their new home so that they can let the foster parents know.