Hope Returns

Normally having hope return to your home is a good thing. Every body needs hope right? I would agree - except for when Hope is a foster cat that you sent on her way to a forever home. That is right folks...Hope is now back in my foster room.

She went to her forever home and for some reason stopped eating - at all. At first we thought it was because she was accidentally sent home with the wrong type of food. (And I learned not to use certain abbreviations). But I got a call from the shelter foster coordinator yesterday to say that Hope had been returned to the shelter the day before because she would not eat anything and had not eaten anything in the 24 hours she was at the shelter either. We were all kind of mystified.

So I said that I would come in and visit with her and see if I could interest her in food. When I got there she was terrified and curled up in my arms, stuck her head in my sweatshirt and shivered. I decided to take her back into foster to see if I could get her to eat again in the hopes that it was a reaction to stress. She was also started on some antibiotics in case there was an illness brewing that we could not yet see.

After about an hour at my home she started eating. Not well, but at least she did at least try to eat something which is more than she had done since she went to her forever home. We are all still a little mystified because she went home with wonderful people, but we will just keep her here with us and try to get her to eat more regularly so she can return to her forever home who is anxious to have her back. I will keep you posted on her progress.

Of course, because she is back and does not care for other cats, I now have five 6 week old kittens running around my house like crazy. More on them later.

A Return to Home

I am happy to say that as I type this Hope is probably on her way to her forever home. I took her in for a check up with the shelter recently and although she was doing well health wise, she still looked funny with her skinny legs and missing hair. So we decided to keep her in foster for a little while longer. While I was there, the people who rescued her emailed one of the supervisors to see if they could visit her.

These people were very nice people who found Hope hiding under their porch who, even though they were dealing with a terminally ill cat of their own and it was a few days before a holiday, took the time to catch her and bring her to us for the care she needed. So, I was happy to say that they could pick a time and I would bring Hope in to the shelter so they could see how she was doing. I know that if I had brought a sick cat some where I would want to see how she was doing.

They came to see her last Saturday and were thrilled with how well she was doing. Hope seemed to love them right away. And since they saw her at her worst, they did not think she looked bad at all. I mentioned to them that Hope occasionally poops over the side of the litter box and they said that their cat had done that most of its life and it was no big deal. By the time the visit was over, they had decided to bring Hope back into their home permanently. It seemed like Fate had a hand in Hope's life.

So, Hope was spayed yesterday and will go home with her new forever parents sometime today and I am thrilled for them all.