The Animal House - Adventures in Fostering

Jude's Story

2011-02-17T20:00:00.003-05:00

So I have talked about Jude in a previous post in this blog, but I wanted to provide an update. Jude was a feral kitten I took into foster around October. When she was surrendered to the shelter all the cages were full which in many shelters might mean she would be euthanized. Bu the staff knew that they would be likely to find a place for her in the morning so they decided to put her in a wire dog crate for the night.

She has been found running in the traffic at a local shopping mall and the surrender brought her to us so she would not be hit by a car. She was bout 2 months old and wet and terrified. I saw her and decided she needed another blanket and a heating disk for the night. When I came back into the holding room to give them to her she was not in the cage. I checked with the staff to see if they had moved her and that was when we realized that she had managed to squeeze herself between the bars of the crate and was hiding somewhere in the holding room. After a long search, we found that she had climbed behind the fridge so I had to get up on the counter while a staff member tipped the fridge so I could scruff her and move her to a different style of crate. I told the staff person I would be back for her in the morning and she would be my foster. She was my type of kitty.

For while I was concerned that she would not be able to be socialized and we considered that she might need to be euthanized at one point, but we decided to give her more time. Then she developed odd health problems. Throughout the course of her foster she had a genital infection that almost caused her to be euthanized because she was too small for a catheter, concern that she might be a hermaphrodite and the fact that she just did not grow.

By the time she was 4 months old she was still only 2#7oz. At that point I knew there was something seriously wrong with her. She was social to me and me alone, but we were not concerned about her socialization because her lack of growing indicated a serious issue with her health. Unfortunately, there were no symptoms that our vets could use to pinpoint a diagnosis. Then the fever started. She had a temp of at least 103 for over a month that did not respond to any treatment we threw at it. And her official diagnosis because fever of unknown origin.

During all of this, she was the sweetest kitten I could ask for. She tolerated anything we did to her as long as she had me with her and I became more and more attached to her. The thought of giving her up was really hard to bear, but I pushed it aside because I knew in my heart that she was unlikely to ever be healthy enough for adoption.

Finally our vet decided to do an exploratory surgery on her, which was risky because of her temp, but was the only way we might get a answer as to what was wrong with her. And the results of the surgery was unfortunately what I expected for some time. She had FIP.

FIP is a condition that is untreatable, difficult to diagnose because there is not test for it and it is always fatal. If a kitten has the wet form, they will need to be euthanized at the time of diagnosis because they only have around a week before they begin to suffer. If it is the dry form of the condition, they can have a little more time. Jude had the dry form.

I asked the shelter for permission to not euthanize her right at diagnosis and instead keep her until her quality of life started to suffer. They were very supportive of this and I took her home. I had another three weeks with my baby before her kidneys started to fail and I knew it was time to let her go.

This was all very difficult for me and my family, but she was such a special kitten that I knew I had to give her as long a life and as good a life as I could. And as hard as it was, I do not regret it. I miss her terribly. Even though I only had her for a short time, she became a member of my family. And the wonderful foster coordinator I work with supported me throughout the process even understanding why it was important to me that I officially adopt her before she was euthanized.

Here is my baby Jude:

I have been taking a break since then so I will be back when I start fostering again which will probably be sometime in March or April. But I just want to say that if you ever get a chance to give an animal with a limited life span (either because of age or illness) a good home for however long they have - do it. It will break your heart and change your life in so many good ways.

Still Here - Part Four

2011-02-17T19:50:00.003-05:00

Well the other fosters we had for 2010 were many and varied. They came and went because many of them were sick and I can only handle just so much at one time. Two that did stay with me their entire foster time and go up for adoption were Zinni and Char.

Zinni and Char were surrendered along with their sister Savvi the night of a wine tasting fundraiser at the shelter. They were from a litter of six, but the litter somehow ended up in some one's garage and three of the litter did not survive the cold night. The person rushed the three remaining kittens to us as soon as they discovered this. The three remaining kittens spent the day in our incubator and I took over their care, syringe feeding them every hour or so, trying to help them pull through.

Since we had quiet a few visitors in for the wine tasting event, many people stopped by the office door to watch me care for these little guys and we had a lot of volunteers asking about them after I took them home that night. They became known as my wine tasting kittens.

In honor of the event, I named them after wines. Zinfandel (Zinni), Chardonnay (Char) and Savignoun (Savvi). Sadly Savvi only made it a few days before she passed away quiet suddenly and dramatically. We think she may have had a twisted intestine which puts means that if you feed them it can kill them, but if you do not feed them they will starve. So there was really not much that can be done about a birth defect about this. Her sisters Zinni and Char had a difficult road and grew much slower that normal kittens, but finally at about 5 months of age they were big enough to put up for adoption and are both in homes that are great for them.

I also had some additional feral fosters that went up for adoption including a sweet girl named Gwen and a half blind long haired cutie named Merlin who was afraid to be picked up. They both found people willing to work with their personalities and give them the home they needed.

Still Here - part three

2011-01-02T00:00:00.004-05:00

Next I brought home three feral kittens from various places. Two are still with me. One is now at the rainbow bridge.

Charlie
He is a sweet black and white boy who got very sick with an upper respiratory infection right after he came to us. I moved him into my room to better monitor him. He struggled with his URI, but very quickly became a very sweet and social boy. He was just about over his URI and living loose in my house with my two cats and we were all getting very attached to him. Then late one night he just stopped moving. I rushed him to the shelter the next day and he had a temp of 104 (very high) and still would not move. The vets were very concerned about his survival. They sent out blood work and his levels raised concern about a condition known as FIP. There is no known cause of FIP, other than that is it a mutation of a common cat virus, there is no real way to test to be sure if a cat has it and it is always fatal.

We decided to go ahead and try and injectible antibotic for a week and see it helped. He had no improvement for almost a week and I was preparing myself for the vets to recommended euthanasia when I brought him in for his vet check at the end of the week when he suddenly was fine. All his symptoms were just gone one afternoon. Everyone is baffled, but very pleased. He is now perfectly fine. In fact, he is sitting on me right now making typing this difficult because he chases the cursor. The vets have cleared him to go up for adoption, but we have no plans to bring him into the shelter to go on the adoption floor. He is not going anywhere. We were so devastated when we thought we would lose him, we realized that he had become a member of our family and decided that he needs to stay with us forever. So on Christmas morning we gave Paige a tag with his name and our phone number on it. That was one happy 5 year old. :o)

Glory
Glory was another feral girl I brought home at the same time as Charlie. She was a little tortie girl whose brother was hit by a car in front of her. One of our foster families saw this happen and scooped her up to bring her to the shelter. I am sad to say that I was not able to socialize her. After over three weeks in my home, I was still in danger on being bitten every day when I cleaned her cage and changed her food and litter. She became more dangerous the bigger she got and it was breaking my heart to watch her live in such terror. I brought her to the shelter to have the staff evaluate her to see if moving to another foster home might help her, but she was just as aggressive with them. It was really not safe for her to be in a foster home anymore and she was not likely to ever be an animal we could place in a home no matter how long we worked with her. We tried to find a feral rescue who could take her and let her live out her life in a feral cat colony, but given the time of year, there was no room. It was a horrible decision to make, and I felt like I had failed her, but she was so unhappy and flat out terrified, euthanasia was really our kindest option for her.

Jude
She is a feral that was actually in the same cage as Glory and came to me at the same time as Glory and Charlie. Jude was also acting aggressively and I brought her in to the shelter for evaluation at the same time as Glory. We almost decided to euthanize her too. But while I was heartbroken about Glory, I knew it was the right thing for her. I was not entirely sure about Jude, so I asked the staff to give me a few more days with her to see if she would be as aggressive once she was no longer with Glory. I was please to be able to report that after just two days alone, I was able to pick her up and she purred very quietly at me. Then the medical issues started. First she had a large mound a poop caked on her butt to the point that she could not go the bathroom. I had to soak her in the sink to clean her up which was not easy given how feral she was. The next morning I could tell that she had signs of infection coming from her genital area which is probably what caused the problem in the first place.

I rushed her to the shelter and the vet looked at her and told me "she" had an infection in her penis and might not be peeing at all. So it appeared that Jude was a boy. We started treatment for the infection, but "he" went downhill quick and a brought him back to the vet a few days later. The vet said that she felt he needed a catheter put in in order to survive, but was so small that might not be possible. We almost had to euthanize Jude that night, but it turned out that we had an emergency vet coming in to volunteer the next day so we decided to wait and see if that vet had any options for treatment that we did not have. The emergency vet said that Jude had to be leaking urine or he would already be dead and gave me strong pain meds and a different treatment plan and said to recheck in a week.

Jude was doing somewhat better at the recheck in a week and I was able to stop the pain meds, but the vet who did the recheck was confused because according to her Jude was a girl, not a boy. We were all confused. Well, it turns out that Jude visually appears to be a girl, but when the vets palpate her abdomen, they can feel undescended testicles. Yup - Jude might be a hermaphrodite. They told me to bring her back when she was two pounds and they would spay her and see what they found.

Unfortunately, she just did not grow normally and over a month passed with her still not being over two pounds. Then one morning two and a half weeks ago she felt heavier so I weighed her. She had gained 7 ounces in 3 days. That was way to much in such a short time and it was all in her belly. This is another sign of FIP. After another rushed trip to the shelter vets, it turned out that she had a temp of 103. And despite multiple different antibotics and treatments, she still has a temp two and a half weeks later and we do not know why. Her temp right now is 102.6 which is high normal and otherwise she appears fine. She is the sweetest little girl who has helped me socialize many other feral kittens and many people at the shelter have fallen in love with her, but her long term survival is not looking great right now. If her temp comes down anytime soon, we will attempt a spay surgery and see if we can figure out what is going on with her. Here is my baby Jude with the sweet soul.

I have had more fosters and lost another little baby, but I will post more on that later. I these three post are more than enough for now.

Still Here - part two

2011-01-01T23:31:00.007-05:00

Later in September, a very sick mother cat named Miracle gave birth to four tiny babies. She was in no condition to care for them, so the foster team at the shelter took over their care. This meant keeping them in an incubator and feeding them with a feeding tube every hour around the clock. It was my first introduction to tube feeding and they were so tiny and weak. We all knew it was unlikely they would survive, but had to try. We passed them back and forth between us until a foster home who could bottle feed them opened up. We lost one of the kittens very early in because he was just too small, but against all odds, not only did their mother survive her life threatening illness, the remaining three kittens also survived and found wonderful homes.

Here is my cat Doyle investigating his tiny new foster brother.

And here are the four of them snuggling with me for a bit to get that mom feeling before they went back into the incubator. They are so tiny, they kind of blend into my shirt design.

Since October, things have gotten rough in the Animal House. I had a little of three very sick compromised kittens that had already gone through two foster homes. They were constantly covered in food and poop. They could not keep themselves clean, were dehydrated and had diarrhea. They were adorable and when they came to me did not have names. We temporarily named them stinky, skanky and yuk because the smell that came off them daily was like nothing I had ever smelled before. I also did not want to name them because they were potentially going back to their previous foster person when she returned from vacation. She told me before she left that she did not know what to do with them because nothing she did was helping them improve. After just a few days with them, I went to the foster coordianator and told her that I felt like I was torturing these kittens. They needed multiple medications, force feeding, fluids and daily baths just to survive. They also had to be kept crated because I could not take the chance of whatever they had spreading to my other fosters. I do not mind doing this sort of treament as long as I am seeing some improvement, but I was seeing nothing out of them.

We consulted with our vets and they ran tests which did not tell us much. These kittens were not improving despite our best efforts and there quality of life was terrible. After talking with the vets, the foster coordinator and the shelter director, we all came to the hard decision that the kindest for them was to humanely euthanize them. It was devestating to lose an entire litter like that, but I truly felt that we were doing what was best for them by letting them go while they were still somewhat happy rather than forcing them to continue to go downhill and likely die a slow death. I was later comforted by the knowledge that our instincts were right. The vet did a necropsy (animal autospy) on them and they were all suffering from various birth defects and diseases that are fatal so they never had any chance of long term survival. We gave them the best life they could have while we had them and let them go before they began to suffer. Here is the only photo I have of one of the litter right after his bath.

Still Here - Part One

2011-01-01T22:42:00.010-05:00

It has been quite a while since I posted, so I thought I would check in to let you know that I am still here and still fostering. It has been a rough couple of months here in the Animal House and I have been so busy just trying to take care of my fosters, and just did not have time left over to post and update here. So here is a summary of what has been going on since August.

In late August, for the first time we foster some puppies. Just overnight until they could be reunited with their mother, but they were awfully cute and a nice experience for Paige. And reaffirmed to me that I prefer cats - puppies are much more high maintenance.

Then, I had a litter of kittens that were initially known as the "skanky kittens" at the shelter because they were in such bad shape. They were suffering from a very bad case of an internal parasite called coccidia. Initially there were 4 of them and then I brought home two more from another litter that had similar issues. They immediately got along like they had been separated at birth. We named them Lily, Rose, Violet, Briar, Bramble, and Bumble. It was a long fight to get them over the coccidia and adopted into forever homes, but worth it. They were all loving, snuggly kittens who would come running the minute they saw me so they could climb in my lap to snuggle. My whole family was very attached to the entire litter, but I was especially attached to my little long haired orange boy, Bumble. I had the hardest time letting him go up for adoption and almost cried the day he went to his forever home. I might have kept him, but it just was not the right time to add another member to our permanent family and he really would do better in a quiet home.

Here he is shortly after he came to us when he was still "skanky" but cute.

In September I brought home a little kitten who came in with the name Ace and who we thought was semi-feral. After a very short time in my house he was trying to sleep with me and cuddle with me and purring up a storm but would flinch and hide the minute I reached toward him. I began to suspect that he was not feral. He knew humans, he was just afraid of them. Which probably means that someone treated him unkindly in his young life. I decided that my noisy house full of active people, a young child and other cats was not the place for him. I transferred him to a much quieter foster home where he, at my request, he was given a new name (they chose Huckleberry) and a fresh start at learning that some humans would treat him kindly. I am happy to report that he did wonderfully in his new foster home and ended up not only getting adopted, but going home with a nice couple who also adopted another kitten from the same foster home who Huckleberry had become really attached to while in foster.

Daisy, who I mention is my last post in August, recovered completely and was adopted into a home with three little boys who actually had enough energy to keep up with her. She and my baby Doyle became fast friends while she was with us and actually looked a lot alike.

September was also when we also participated in Paige's first fundraiser for the shelter, the Walk for Animals. She had a great time and I am proud to say that this amazing 5 year old managed (with a little help from us) to raise over $800 to help the homeless animals we both care so much about. Here she is walking with me. We were so proud of her that day, and the next day when she started kindergarten.

Beth goes home

2010-08-30T21:30:00.008-04:00

On August 15th, the shelter I foster for had a kitten-adopt-a-thon event to try and adopt out some of the many kittens that were ready to come out of foster to find new homes. There were over 25 kittens ready to find new homes and I am happy to say that Beth was scheduled to be one of them. I was also supposed to bring 2 other foster kittens in with her, but that was not to be.

Daisy, I kitten I had for just a little while in order for her to gain weight, started showing signs of a bad form of upper respiratory infection that causes mouth ulcers. And Thin Mint, a kitten I was watching for our foster coordinator was having trouble with her lungs. Beth, however was doing well. Her eye was finally healed and she was over her upper respiratory infection. So to be safe, I sent Beth to the home of another of our foster homes who took wonderful care of her and brought her to the event for me. And I am glad to say that she found a wonderful home with a loving couple and is now happily settled into her forever home.

Here she is all grown up and ready to go!

Daisy is still with me. She is recovering and will hopefully be able to go up for adoption on Friday. Thin Mint, I am sad to say, has found her forever home at the Rainbow Bridge. A vet exam confirmed what we feared. She had a birth defect that would make it harder and harder for her to breathe as she got older and so we had to make the hard decision to euthanize her. We all wished for a different outcome for her, but at least we were able to give her five months of loving care and happiness.

The medical care that these three foster alone have recieved in the short time they have been in the shelter's care is amazing. The shelter does not give up on animals without a fight even though all their funding comes from private donations. It is because of this attitude and how much they truly care for animals that I am participating in their annual Walk for Animals.

And this year, I am making it a family event. My five year old niece Paige is our team captain and she is thrilled to be learning how to raise money for a cause she cares about. And my niece Katy who is 13 has also joined our team, along with some staff and foster people.

We are walking in honor of all the little fighters that come through our lives, both the success stories like Beth, and the sad outcomes like Thin Mint. Please consider making a donation to our team to help this wonderful shelter continue the essential work it does every day. You can make a donation to our team, or to individual team members. Thanks in advance for your generosity. Michelle.

http://support.mspca.org/site/TR/WalkforAnimals/General?team_id=11471&pg=team&fr_id=1300

Cones and Strep Throat

2010-06-28T16:48:00.005-04:00

Beth is still recovering well. She is doing well enough and the pain has settled down enough that the incision is getting itchy. Which means that she is trying to scratch at it. That meant an after hours trip to the shelter for a surgical cone. She was NOT happy about it. It was wat too big (because she is so small) and heavier than her.

Just overnight she got her foot caught in it about six times and then managed to pull it off, scraping it along her eye in the process. After that I just left it off and watched her for the rest of the night to try and stop her from messing with her eye. But since we were up all night with Paige (who is 5) because she has a mouth full of strep blisters, it was not that bad to be up with Beth too.

I went back to the shelter in the AM when the surgical team was in and they were able to make the cone small enough to fit her. It required cutting new holes in it and shortening it a lot because she was already wearing the smallest size. She still hates it, but at least it is safe now. Here is Beth a few days after surgery.

Bailey is also doing well recovering from his pneumonia. He is active and playing and being a typical 12 weeks old kitten. I am really hoping he will be well enough by his vet check next week to go back up for adoption.

Beth is Awake!

2010-06-26T21:45:00.002-04:00

Beth is awake! Well, actually she is asleep right now, but the important thing is that she woke up from her eye removal surgery. The very skilled vet and surgery team at the shelter were able to successfully remove her damaged eye.

There was concern that she might not wake up from the surgery because she was so little, but the damaged eye was bad enough that the surgery just could not wait and we had to take the chance.

It was a stressful day for me, especially since 5 of my other fosters were having routine spay / neuter surgeries the same day, but thankfully everyone came through surgery just fine. Buffy, Batty, Bubbles, Eric and Quinn stayed at the shelter and went up for adoption and Beth return home with me to recover. As of today, Batty, Eric and Quinn were already adopted!

Comings and Goings

2010-06-24T23:19:00.004-04:00

So it has been a bit since I posted. Things have just been a little crazy. But here is what has been going on. Bubbles and Quinn became well enough to come back home with us, but on that same day their brother Eric had to go to stay at the shelter because he was sick with a bad upper respiratory infection. Thankfully he only had to stay a few days.

However, all the kittens were exhibiting slightly odd symptoms. As a result I had Batty and Buffy (who seemed healthy) in my bedroom, Bailey and Eric (who had URI signs) in the spare bathroom and Bubbles and Quinn (dehydration) in the foster room. It was a little crazy.

Eventually, all the kittens but Bailey started having the same odd symptoms: lack of eating and dehydration for now known reason. So we decided to have Bailey go back to the shelter (they are all old enough) and go up for adoption so that he would not get sick being with the other kittens.

A few days later I was volunteering at the shelter manning an informational table on fostering when one of the volunteers came out of the cat adoption area to tell me that she thought Bailey was wheezing. So I went in to check him out. He was visiting with potential adopters and was active and playing so I was not initially too concerned. The potential adopters had some questions about him and decided that they wanted to adopt him so they gave him back to me to go fill out the adoption paperwork and talk with staff.

Unfortunately when I actually got my hands on Bailey I could tell that he was really struggling to breathe and that it was more than the mild URI symptoms that he had shown in my home. I immediately took him back to a staff member to be evaluated and more than one agreed that his breathing was not right and there was no way he could be adopted that day. I felt bad disappointing his potential adopters but we could not send them home with a sick kitten.

I took Bailey home hoping that he was breathing heavy because he had been visited with a lot that day and it was very hot in the shelter since the air system was being repaired and he spent his whole life in my air conditioned home. But after 24 hours back in my home his breathing had not improved so he went in to see the vet that Monday. The vet said that he either had pneumonia or a partially collapsed lung and he would need to stay in foster with me for a least a month to receive treatment. She also looked at his brother Quinn who I brought in for some fluids since he was still dehydrated. When she learned that the whole litter was having problems and that their mother had had mastitis, she put them all on medication for two weeks.

I am happy to report that the medications were just "what the doctor ordered" and everyone is doing well. Two weeks after being put on medications all the kittens except for Bailey are healthy enough to go up for adoption and will be leaving tomorrow. Bailey is improving well, but to be safe we are going to keep him on the medication for the full month since lung problems like this one can be really hard to beat.

So as of tomorrow morning I will be going from having 6 foster kittens to having just one. Although if fate is on my side and a special new little kitten named Beth manages to survive her life saving surgery I will have two. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Where are we now

2010-05-27T20:38:00.004-04:00

I am happy to report that Nemo has completely recovered and been adopted into a loving forever home. His name is now Darwin and he is being loved and spoiled as he deserves. We miss him, but are happy to see him doing so well.

April has also returned to the shelter to hopefully find her forever home real soon. She has developed mastitis which happens sometimes when a mom cat stops nursing her kittens. I am hopeful she will recover soon since this is a relatively common thing for a mom cat that was producing as much milk as she was to feed all six kittens.

As for her kittens, we have had our ups and downs. Unfortunately we are in a down swing right now. They are 8 weeks now and should be able to go up for adoption, but are not healthy enough. At first they were just showing mild signs of an upper respiratory infection which will just take time to pass. But on Monday night one of the kittens, Bubbles was very suddenly lethargic and very dehydrated. I quickly gave her some subcutaneous fluids to help her hydration. Subcutaneous fluids (or SubQ fluids) are give by using a needle placed under the skin at the scruff of the neck. The fluid is then quickly absorbed by the kitten.

Bubbles was dehydrated again in the morning when I brought her into the shelter for evaluation. She got more fluids to try to help her out since there did not seem to be any obvious reason for her to be feeling badly. By the time I got her home, she had started having liquid diarrhea almost non-stop and did not want to eat anymore. I force fed her through out the night and cuddled her to make her feel more comfortable. This continued the next day.

Right before bed, I gave Bubbles her SubQ fluids and then went downstairs to the foster room to feed her siblings and was dismayed to see that her brother Quinn was showing all the same signs that Bubbles had shown two days ago. I got him fluids as well and since I was going to be away from the house all day today, I brought the whole litter to the shelter to be observed by the staff because I was very concerned that Bubbles was no better and Quinn was now starting to be sick.

Bubbles and Quinn are now staying at the shelter because they need fluids twice a day and they are not easy to give fluids to. It is also the beginning of Summer Vacation for the 5 year old in my home, which makes it hard to find the time to give the kittens the fluids without her seeing it and potentially scaring her by how they meow and fight when it is being given. So we decided it was best for them to stay at the shelter for a few days.

The rest of the litter, Buffy, Batty, Bailey and Eric came back home with me. I will be watching them closely and crossing my finger that they do not start to feel sick as well. Wish us luck. I will post an update on all of them when I have one.

Nemo - a fighter

2010-05-10T20:44:00.007-04:00

Nemo is another foster that we took in right before I ended up with a Kidney stone. He was a failure to thrive kitten from another litter and he just needed more care than he could get in his current foster home. His wonderful foster mother was doing everything that she could for him, but he was still going down hill. He reached the point that he needed Sub-Q (IV) fluids multiple times a day, along with force feeding and multiple medications. She had already been driving him to the shelter once a day for fluids and had his mom and siblings to care for at home.

Since I can do the fluids at home, I offered to take him home and see if I could get him stabilized. We were all very worried that he was not going to make it for even 24 hours after I took him home because he was having massive diarrhea and pooping neon green bile. He was a fighter though and so we were not giving up.

I carried him around with me for days, wrapped up in various blankets that we changed constantly because he as always covered in poop. He got fluids 2 or 3 times a day and a high calorie food mixed with pedialyte to replace the electrolytes he was losing due to the diarrhea, that I was syringe feeding him. After about a week, he was doing a little better and had actually gained some weight, going from 15 oz to 1 lb. 5 oz.

By the time I was in the midst of my medical issues, he was much better, but I was concerned that he might go down hill without me being able to be so one on one with him. Since I was doing everything I could just to feed him, I decided that he needed to go back to the shelter for a while. Thankfully, the wonderful shelter staff and foster coordinators took him back and took wonderful care of him while I could not. And all my friends and other volunteers checked in with him and kept him company. In fact, he went home over a weekend with one volunteer and a friend fell in love with him and plans to adopt him!

I took him back at the beginning of last week and he is now healthy and happy and just about two pounds. He will be heading to a forever home, probably sometime next week!

Nemo day one (a very sick baby)

Kidney stones and force feedings

So Tiny

Cuddling with Sadie and Doyle

Feeling better

Nurse Nemo (right after my surgery)

Ready for a Forever Home

Kidney Stones and Growing Kittens

2010-05-10T20:10:00.001-04:00

Hello again from the animal house. Things have been a little crazy here lately because I ended up in the ER with a kidney stone. Just in case anyone was wondering, I do not recommend it, it is very painful. And me, being me, things did not go normally. 4 ER visits, 2 surgeries, 1 severe allergic reaction, 1 ambulance ride, 2 shots of epinephrine, and 2 stents later, I am finally kidney stone free and (knock on wood) on the mends.

Of course, during all of this, April's babies have been growing like weeds. They are now about five weeks old and finally all have names. We have the girls, Batty, Buffy and Bubbles and the boys, Bailey, Quinn and Eric.

We have also had a few health issues. April, the mom, had an upper respiratory infection and was dehydrated. I tried to supplement the kittens with formula to help her out, but they would not have it. Thankfully, April LOVED the formula and just drank it herself. So I started adding it to her food everyday and between that and the meds, she is doing fine. Batty and Bubbles were born with some sort of eye infections and each had one eye that would not open and had puss coming out of it. Bubbles' eye responded quickly to meds, but Batty's just finally cleared up. Bailey, looks like he might be coming down with something so I will have to keep an eye on him over the next few days, but over all they are growing and developing like normal. They are now starting to eat solid food - although mom is not that keen on sharing. Here are some photos of them growing:

Mom, April resting with Buffy

Quinn and Bailey at about a week

Sibling Love. I love how they are hugging each other

More Cute Kitten Photos

2010-05-10T20:00:00.000-04:00

Here are some more photos from the past month with April and her babies:

Batty with a half closed eye due to infection

Bubbles (her eye had healed by this point)

Bailey

Quinn

Buffy

Eric

The kittens one month birthday cake. With a 5 year old foster mom in the house, you celebrate a lot of birthdays.

Bucket of Kittens (first trip upstairs without Mom)

Meeting foster brother, Doyle. And no, they are not that tiny, he is that big.

Lucky Day

2010-04-04T20:46:00.004-04:00

April Fool's Day is usually a day for jokes and pranks but here in the Animal House it was one lucky day.

After days of setting humane traps in my yard in an attempt to recapture my missing pregnant foster cat, I was ready to give up. I had managed to capture 6 of the various neighborhood outdoor cats and scarily enough, one opossum. But on Thursday morning, I checked the trap in the front yard and there was my missing foster cat.

She appeared to still be pregnant, but I was not sure how to tell so I called the shelter. We decided that it was likely that she was still pregnant and that I should watch her. That night at around 10PM she went into labor and had her first kitten at 10:50PM!

Not only did I manage to be lucky enough to find her, I was lucky enough to get her inside to have her kittens! Throughout the course of the night she had six kittens. She was very tired after her days outside and going through labor when she was underweight. Because of this, after she delivered her third kitten, she stopped taking care of the cord cutting and other disgusting stuff.

After a late night (1AM) phone call to our wonderful always on call foster coordinator for some over the phone instructions on cutting an umbilical cord, I was able to help her safely deliver and get all six kittens settled in and nursing.

I have two orange tigers, one buff (lite orange), one brown tiger, one black and one orange and white kitten. Right now they are all happy, healthy and doing well. And thankfully so is Mom. She is a wonderful Mom. She is protective, but very tolerant of me handling the kittens to weigh them and check them over each day. This is an important thing to do to be sure the kittens are growing well and especially important with these little ones since she is a small underweight cat who is trying to feed six kittens. If they start not growing quickly enough, I will have to help her out by doing supplemental bottle feeding on the smaller kittens, but so far so good.

Here is the new family:

Missing in Action

2010-03-30T19:10:00.002-04:00

Well things are not going as planned in the Animal House. I brought home a pregnant female flame point Siamese cat on Sunday so she could give birth in foster rather than the shelter. Unfortunately, she was an outdoor cat before she was surrendered to the shelter and she got frightened on the way into the house. She managed to break open the carrier she was in and bolted into the neighborhood.

Somehow she was strong enough to actually bend the door latch away from the carrier so when I set it down to unlock the door to the house she bolted and was gone before I turned back to pick up the carrier. So I spent quite a bit of Sunday evening searching the neighborhood for her with no luck.

Yesterday I got some humane traps from the shelter and have been setting them in my front and back yard. So far I have caught (and released) one really annoyed neighborhood cat and had an intelligent animal eat the food out of the trap in the backyard twice without getting caught in it.

Wish me luck that my missing foster turns up real soon and is either still pregnant or has her babies in tow.

Four down one to go

2010-03-27T14:04:00.004-04:00

Of my recent litter of five, four are now in forever homes. Nora, Ranger, Riley and Panda have gone in to be spayed and neutered and have already been adopted. They went in on Wednesday for surgery. When I went back on Friday for a check up on my other fosters, everyone except Riley had already gone to forever homes. Riley was adopted thought and just not being picked up until Saturday. It was great news, but not surprising because there are no kittens in the shelter at this time of the year.

Their brother Neko, the kitten with a problem leg, was seen by the vet on Friday and is doing really well. He will need to stay on his medication for another two weeks and he has some muscle atrophy that he will have to work on. Muscle atrophy is muscle weakness that is caused when a muscle is not used for a while due to illness or injury. His muscle will get stronger the more he uses it, so it is just a matter of time. This is all great news because he was so sick and was in danger of not surviving when he first showed symptoms. Now he is full of life and personality. I do not know how much longer he will be with me in foster. The foster coordinator, vets and shelter manager will have to talk about him and decide if he will stay with me until he is completely better or if he will go up for adoption so that he can be living with his forever family while his leg gets stronger.

Monkey and Tiana are doing well too. Although I did confirm at their check-up on Friday that Tiana is a boy, not a girl, so we are going to have to talk about a name change for him. They are socializing well, but are very afraid of strangers and children, which is normal for kittens like them. They will probably go in for surgery in the next week of so, and come back to me to recover and then soon go up for adoption. I am very glad that everyone is doing well.

Time Flies - Happy Birthday Doyle

2010-03-23T10:24:00.007-04:00

My baby Doyle is one year old today. For those of you who are new to this blog, Doyle was a kitten from my second foster mom cat, Muffin. He is also my first (but probably not last) foster failure. I could not bear to let him go and he is still with me now and celebrating his first birthday.

It is somewhat unusual to know the exact birth date of a cat or kitten you rescue from the shelter, but Doyle's mom was surrendered pregnant and gave birth in the shelter so we know what day his birthday is. He and his brother Domino, along with their mom came home to me for foster when the boys were only three days old. It amazes me how much he has grown in the relatively short span of time that has passed. It also amazes me how much he has stayed the same. He is still the same sweet, loving, tolerant, beautiful boy he was when I decided to adopt him at 8 weeks.

Of course, he is not very happy with me at the moment because we just got back from his check up and he did NOT like driving in the rain. He also out grew his carrier in the six months since his last vet visit. Thankfully, he checked out OK and is nice and healthy. I told the vet that I wanted to be sure that I was not over feeding him so he would not get fat now that he was basically full grown. (He is a big boy). She said that since appears to be part Maine Coon, he might still grow a little bit more and that I was feeding him just fine since he was nice and lean.

Lean! Twelve pounds is lean! Just how big is he going to get? ;o)

Anyway, no matter his size, I love him to death. Even when he gets nervous at the vet and tries to curl up on my chest and hide like he did when he was a baby. Of course, breathing becomes an issue then, but hey, you do what you gotta do to make your baby feel safe right?

In honor of his first birthday, here are some of my favorite shots of him:

Limping Along

2010-03-15T21:05:00.004-04:00

Neko is improving slowly now that we know what is actually going on and he is on the right medication. He saw the vet again on Monday and the improvement in the swelling was promising.

He is now allowed to stay just in the bathroom rather than locked up in a crate all the time. He is also allowed outside the bathroom to roam the house in short intervals of time as long as there are no other kittens loose. If there are other kittens around he wants to jump and play with them and that is not good for him just yet.

He is trying to use the leg more and more each day. He puts it down and tries to walk on it, although it is still too weak to hold all his weight. But I have hopes that it will continue to improve as the days go one.

His siblings, Nora, Ranger, Riley and Panda are all almost big enough and old enough to go back to the shelter and be adopted out soon. Although Panda, being the runt is still the smallest and may have to stick around with us a little while longer than the rest of them. All of them miss Neko and meow at the door to the bathroom trying to get me to let him out, but I just can't let them play because Neko can not resist jumping and wrestling with them.

When ever they go up for adoption, they will all find homes in a heart beat. Not only are they adorable and really fun to play with, there are also not a lot of kittens to be found at this time of year.

Poor Neko :o(

2010-03-11T13:13:00.006-05:00

This is Neko. He is one of the 5 young kittens I brought home recently. Last Thursday I went down to the foster room around 5 pm to give the kittens their dinner and noticed that Neko seemed unsteady when he was in the litter box. When he crawled out of the litter box I saw that he was not using his right hind leg at all and that the leg was swollen to about two times its normal size. I immediately scooped him up and called the shelter foster coordinator to let her know I was on my way in with Neko. I was very concerned that he had somehow broken his leg.

The foster coordinator and the vet of staff and the time looked at his leg, but we were not really sure what had happened. It was obviously painful to the touch and to use even though he had been fine at about 2pm that same day. The vet prescribed pain medication for the next three days and told me to keep him confined to a cat carrier in the hopes that the swelling would go down. So I took him home with the instructions that if he got any worse at all, or the swelling did not improve over the next few days, to bring him right back in for an x-ray.

I brought him back the next day because it was Friday and there was no improvement. Both the foster coordinator and I were concerned about waiting any longer for x-rays. The vet on staff that day agreed and I took him to a local animal hospital for x-rays. As our vet had thought, the leg was not broken. She was concerned that what he had was a septic joint, so she sedated him and withdrew fluid from the swollen leg to send out for testing. He was also put on multiple antibiotics.

Saturday morning I woke up and got ready to head to the shelter to do an orientation for a new foster family. After checking on Neko, I called in to the shelter and said I was bringing him with me, because I was not comfortable leaving him home alone. His paw was now swollen three times its normal size and I wanted him where I could check on him throughout the day. And it was a good thing I did because midway through the day, he started shaking and breathing hard and stopped eating. We tried to drain the fluid from the foot, but nothing came out. We gave him fluids to help with the fever and the shelter manager called the vet on call who said to give him a shot of prednisone which thankfully seemed to help somewhat.

By Sunday morning the foot was no smaller, but he appeared to be feeling better and acting more normal and was eating again. He still needed to stay in his carrier though. (Just an FYI, a Siamese kitten unhappily confined to a small cat carrier equals sleepless meow filled nights for his foster mom). He went with me to the shelter again that day since I had another orientation to do. Everyone checked on him throughout the day. We repeated the fluids to control the temp again. He appeared in good spirits, but had no improvement in the swelling. The shelter manager told me to bring him back first thing in the morning on Monday to be re-examined by the vet even though they were doing a feral cat spay clinic that day and were not doing exam appointments. He felt that it could not wait until the next day.

The vet looked at him again on Monday and decided to repeat the prednisone shot since it seemed to be helping, at least until the results of the joint tap came back. He continued to feel good and want out of the crate for the next two days. The swelling even seemed to go down just a little bit. And I was so happy because I was really concerned I was going to lose him over the weekend.

Yesterday, the results of the joint tap came back and it turns out that he has a bacterial infection in his leg. His medication has been changed to a different antibiotic and he will be weaned off the prednisone over the next few days. The vet told me that we will probably not be able to figure out how he got this infection. The most likely reason is that he was bitten by one of his litter mates during play, but she had not found a puncture or bite wound when she examined him. So we may never know how this happened, but at least we know what is wrong and how to treat it.

He will been seen by the vet again tomorrow as a follow up to be sure that he is continuing to improve. And hopefully as time goes on he will start to move the leg and regain function. I am just glad that he is feeling well and wanting to run and jump and play even if I can not let him.

So that was my week. How was yours?

Oh, and somewhere during this stressful week, I brought home two new semi-social foster kittens (Yes I know I am crazy). They are named Spider Monkey (just Monkey in our house because Paige does not like spiders) and Tiana (after Tatiana from Disney's Princess and the Frog). They are cute but scared. I will have more on them later, but for now I think I need a nap.

The kittens are coming, the kittens are coming!

2010-03-04T00:13:00.009-05:00

That's right folks, kitten season is bearing down on us with alarming speed. If you haven't done so yet, please get your pets spayed or neutered right away since breeding season is upon us. Even though it is still cold out, the shelter is starting to take in quite a few pregnant cats and even some young kittens. I know of at least two foster homes that have just recently had a mother cat give birth, the shelter has a dog that just had puppies and I myself currently have 5 kittens that are about 7 weeks old right now. And boy are they cute!

I took these kittens home the first week in February. They were born to a feral mother and caught by a good Samaritan who brought them to us. That person also arranged for a feral cat rescue to trap, spay and release the mom cat to avoid any more kittens in the future. Since they were so young, they needed to learn to eat solid food which they have done, although they are quite messy about it. I have one girl and four boys and they are all part Siamese. There colorings are black, black and white, and cream colored with chocolate points. There names are Ranger, Riley, Panda, Neko, and Nora.

Of course, we apparently can't have a foster without at least some drama and this litter is no exception. This time it was our fault and an accident. Riley, one of the black and white kittens is very social and wants to be with you at all times. Unfortunately, this led to him jumping up underneath my roommate as she was sitting down. So Riley got sat on. I rushed him right to the shelter because he appeared to be bleeding from the mouth and I was concerned about internal injuries. Thankfully, it turns out it was most likely a bloody nose and other than being sore for a day or two he had no lasting effects from being sat on. (Except for getting the nickname of "Splat" from my roommate's husband).

So here are our current babies:

This is Riley right after he came back from the shelter to get checked out after being sat on. Doesn't he look so small? But don't let this picture fool you. Once he recovered from this incident, he became a high energy, feisty kitten who is in to every thing.

This is Neko. He climbed into Paige's dollhouse one day and sat down like he was coming over for tea. He is one of the most timid of the kittens. He tends to hang back and let the more outgoing ones check things out before he ventures near. He is also the most vocal, with the typical Siamese meow.

This is Nora. She is the only girl in the group and she likes to sit in my laundry basket. She may be the only girl, but she is a tough chick who definitely holds her own with her brothers. She, like Neko, has kept her blue eyes as she has gotten older and looks very Siamese.

This is Panda. He is the smallest of the group and very clingy. He is at the top of a cat climbing tower in my room in this picture. Even though he is the smallest, he was one of the first to figure out how to get down from the climbing tree because as soon as a person comes in the room, he wants to rush down to climb on the person and either sit on their lap or on their shoulder. He also needs lost of cuddles and foster "mom cat" attention.

The other kitten is named Ranger. He is often off on his own and is the bravest in the bunch. When the other four were just deciding if it was safe to step out of the room they spent the first week in, Ranger was already off exploring the bottom floor of the house. He seems to have no fear, gets into everything and seems to be able to handle himself in most situations. And for those of you who are fans, he is named after a character in Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum novels. The Ranger from the books is the mystery man, always dressed in black, often off on his own and eating healthy food while everyone else is eating junk. My Ranger is all black, often off on his own, does not sit still long enough to get a picture that is more than just a blur of long black hair and eats the healthy dry kibble while all the others chow on the high calorie wet food. He is a bit of a bad boy, but does like to cuddle from time to time and I must admit I have a bit of a soft spot for my little bad boy (and the Ranger from the books too)!

And for those of you who are wondering, so far so good with Hope's relaunch into her forever home. She is eating this time and slowly adjusting. I will keep my fingers crossed that her good luck continues. Here she is right before she left for her second attempt at moving to her forever home.

Hope Returns

2010-02-25T11:36:00.002-05:00

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

2010-02-20T13:09:00.004-05:00

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.

Hope is a big word (and a little cat)

2010-01-11T18:24:00.006-05:00

Hope is a big word in animal shelters and in fostering. We use it all the time in many different situations and for many reasons. I can't count the number of times I have heard that word while volunteering at a local shelter or when talking with other foster families. We hope for many things like:

We hope that no new cats will be surrendered that day
We hope that our many talks about spaying and neutering cuts down on unwanted litters of kittens
We hope that our words against declawing don't fall on deaf ears
We hope our fosters will not get sick.
We hope that the medicines we are forcing on them will get them through their illnesses.
We hope that they will know how to use the litter box.
We hope that the crate training will teach them how to use the litter box.
We hope that they will eat to gain back their lost weight.
We hope that their hair will grow back and that the hair loss is not permanent.
We hope that they will overcome the abuse or neglect they have suffered
We hope they will learn to trust us and long for our attention.
And most of all, we hope that they will find loving forever homes.

That is why I find it appropriate that my newest foster is named Hope. The staff at the shelter named her Hope when she was brought in on Christmas Eve, probably because she looked so bad. Normally we rename our fosters, but the name seemed so right that we have kept it. This is Hope.

She is a dilute tortoiseshell kitten who we are guessing is about a year old. I was actually volunteering on Christmas Eve when she was brought in to the shelter by a good samaritan who found her under a porch in the cold and I was the one to put her in her cage in holding. She was skin and bones and missing patches of fur. Being the sucker that I am, my heart went right out to her.

After about a week in the shelter she was doing better but really needed to be in a home to rest, recover from a mild cold and gain whole lot of weight. She was slightly less than four pounds when she was surrendered to us and should have been a whole lot more. Her hair was thin or missing in parts, most likely due to lack of nutrition. By this date I had been without a foster for slightly less than a week. But when she curled into a little ball in my arms, I just could not walk away from her. Thankfully, by that time, I had been without Simon just long enough to let him go and be emotionally ready for another foster.

Since Hope just needs TLC and to gain weight and I was looking for a slightly easier foster than last time, we were a good fit. And the staff was glad to send her home with someone who could give her lots of love, but would know what to do if she suddenly took a turn for the worse especially since I still had the supplies and knowledge on how to give her IV fluids if she suddenly needed it.

She is still doing well here with me. I brought her in today for a check up because she was scratching at her ears. Her ears are clean and mite free so we are trying her on a prescription allergy diet, just in case her hair loss and ear scratching is an allergy. Other than that, she is happy to be back at home with us and settled into the foster room again. And we are happy to have her.

Happy New Year

2009-12-31T19:14:00.003-05:00

I am pleased to be able to end my first year of fostering will all of our 35 fosters in loving forever homes. That is right, everyone is adopted. Simon, the last of my four feral kittens that I almost lost to two different bouts of pneumonia was adopted by a wonderful lady yesterday. That means that I am foster free for the first time since early March. I have really enjoyed fostering and after a short break in the new year, I will be back with more stories from the crazy animal house. Happy New Year.

Taking a Break

2009-12-14T21:52:00.004-05:00

It has been a while since I posted because things have been crazy and the weather has been changing. Cold weather means an increase in my pain and tiredness so I do not spend as much time online. I am actually just at the start of a break from fostering so I thought I would let everyone know and post an update on all my fosters for everyone that has been following before I went on my break. So here goes:

Marley, Cali, Sophie, Nugget, Pumpkin and Patch have all been adopted. Parker (the bottle baby and sibling to Dana) unfortunately caught a bad respiratory infection at about two weeks old while in another foster home and did not survive. Since Parker and Dana's mom was so sick when they were born and we lost Dana after a few days, we were kind of prepared to lose Parker if he got sick. We all would have preferred another outcome, but at least Dana and Parker were well cared for and loved for the short time they were here. And the good news is that their mother has pulled through and is available for adoption and is so sweet we expect her to find a home quickly.

Jaz, Simon, Sophie and Tink completely recovered. During the spay process I did learn that Jaz had only one kidney, Sophie has a heart murmur and Tink ended up with a hernia from the surgery that had to be treated for the week leading up to the annual kitten adopt-a-thon. They joined many of the other kittens that were in foster care for a two day adoption event. Since the foster parent stayed with the kittens to answer questions about them during the event, I figured that they were social enough to attend since they were calmer with me around. 61 kittens found new homes during the two day event. And I am please to say that Jaz, Sophie and Tink were among them. Simon was not adopted during the event because he was very nervous.

I actually went into the event hoping to find either Jaz or Sophie a home. Jaz was the most outgoing and Sophie was sweet when she was not scared. So I would have been happy to have one of the four find a home. Jaz captured the heart of a nice woman who did not mind that she could be feisty and had only one kidney. Sophie caught the eye of a wonderful couple with out kids looking for two kittens to be companions to their older cat. I told them all about their history and told them that since Sophie got along so well with her siblings, she would probably get along with any kitten they chose. I was thrilled when they looked around and ended up coming back and wanted no only Sophie, but Tink. Tink had been so frightened they had not even been able to hold her. They felt that since they were looking for two kittens so that the first one would have someone to play with, they did not mind if it took Tink a long time to learn to trust them. It was the best case scenario that I could have found for both of them, but especially Tink.

Simon did not find a home during the event and I decided to take him back home rather than leave him in the shelter that was now crowded with the "leftover" kittens. He would not do well in our kitten cage with other kittens and would likely get sick again from the stress. I am going to keep him in my home and continue to build his confidence until the shelter is less full of kittens. Until then, the shelter is going to list him on petfinder and have me bring in him if anyone calls about him.

Since Simon is just living lose in my home with my own cats, I do not really feel like I have any fosters at the moment. And that is a good thing. I am tired after pulling Silvermist, Simon, Tink and Sophie through their illness and losing other fosters. So I am taking a break for the time being. I am not sure how long it will be, possibly just until after the holiday. No matter what, I doubt it will be long because every time I volunteer at the shelter, I see a new cat or kittens that need a foster home. So far I have stayed strong to my decision to take a break, but we all know I will not last for long, because I love it too much. See you soon.

Muffin - Finally ADOPTED!

2009-11-12T20:10:00.002-05:00

I am happy to report that Muffin (my second foster mom and the mother of my foster failure Doyle) has finally been adopted! She has been at the shelter since I finished their foster time back in May. She was happy there, but was not finding anyone who was interested in taking her home. Thankfully, the shelter was able to recently transfer her to another shelter.

The shelters in our area often transfer cats back and forth if they are having trouble getting particular cats adopted. That way they cat gets a whole new group of people looking at them. And I am please to report that this was all Muffin needed. It only took about two weeks after her transfer for her to find her forever home! My family and I are so happy that she has a new forever home. I had considered taking her back into my home when she did not get adopted, but she did not get along with my current cats because the house was just not big enough two dominate female cats to get along. So I am very pleased!

Cautiously Optimistic

2009-10-24T23:19:00.002-04:00

The vet check for Jaz, Tink, Simon and Sophie went well. They are improving. In fact, they look so much better (and larger) that the vet and staff at the shelter were joking that they did not even recognize them as my kittens.

I have been able to stop giving them fluids by IV each day and just monitor their hydration instead. So far, they have been hydrated and active and eating. The vet said to continue their antibiotics for another week just as a precaution against a relapse, but that they were much better. She actually seemed surprised that they had all made it to this point and that they were the sickest kittens that she had seen in a while that pulled through the illness rather than needing to be euthanized. It has been a lot of hard work, worry and stress, but definitely worth it to see four mostly healthy kittens playing together in the foster room. The vet actually told me that I saved their lives. It was a great feeling and went a long way toward curing my burn out.

They are still not totally out of the woods yet because they could relapse now that they are only on one medication rather than 3-4 and fluids and they still need more socialization before they can be adopted out. But, as the title of this post says, I am now cautiously optimistic that they will all get their chance at a forever home.

Burnt Out

2009-10-19T15:53:00.002-04:00

Well, things have been crazy here at the animal house lately. I have had quite a few fosters in the past month or so and all of them have been very sick. I am currently down to four kittens that are struggling to recover from pneumonia for the second time in as many months. I love fostering very much, but after this last bunch, I am in need of a break so these will be my last fosters for at least a short while. I will update here as I learn of adoptions of the most recent fosters, but otherwise I will be on hiatus until I start fostering again. Don't get me wrong, I will still be doing fostering in the very near future because I know I will miss it as soon as my house is empty, but I think I need at least a week or so off. So here are the updates as of today:

Silvermist - is healthy and happy. She was spayed and went to her forever home on Saturday

Jewel - went to another foster home to finish recovering from her cold so that she could not catch pneumonia from my other guys. She has also recovered and was adopted on Sunday.

Marley, Nugget, Cali and Sophie - initially came to my home to be sure they were eating enough. They were old enough to be adopted, but the shelter manager suspected that they did not like the shelter food and needed something different. She was right. They were also transferred to another foster home to avoid pneumonia. They did have a slight cold so they will stay with their new foster mom while they are on meds.

Christopher - was a small black kitten that came home with me with some mild cold symptoms and then stopped eating and continued to get sick. Despite medications, force feeding and fluids he just continued to get worse. Last week I had to make the hard decision to bring him back to the shelter to be euthanized. He was in pain and too weak to stand up anymore. I was devastated by this because he was not one of the sickest ones that I was prepared to lose. He is also the first of my fosters that did not make it. I wish him the best as he plays with all the other pets at the rainbow bridge.

Pumpkin and Patch - are two orphaned baby kittens brought in my animal control. They were about 2 weeks old. One was orange and one was calico. I took them home to bottle feed them for the first 48 hours that they were with the shelter. I am an emergency bottle fed foster person. Kittens that young have to be fed every 2 hours around the clock. I can not do this long term, but since I do not currently work, I have the ability to go in on short notice to pick up a bottle fed kitten and take care of it until one of the regular bottle fed homes and come and get it. This was the case with pumpkin and patch. They are both doing well and growing in the new foster home.

Parker and Dana - These were two kittens born to a very very sick mother cat in the shelter. Her foster mother brought her in because she has gone into labor and already lost two kittens. We thought she was done delivery and set her up in a crate in an office to watch her. I left my drink in the office because I was distracted. When I went back a few hours later to get it, I could hear a kitten crying. I immediately searched for the kitten and found that the mother had managed to clean it and was keeping it warm, but it was not nursing. I grabbed a staff member who realized that the mother was so sick, she had no milk. We took the kitten, who I later named Parker, and I started bottle feeding it. I took it home that night and brought it back to the shelter the next day to continue bottle feeding while I was volunteering. Just as we were all getting ready to go home that night, I decided to check on the mom and tell her how her baby was doing. When I went it and went to pet mom, I saw a little tail sticking out from underneath her. It was another kitten. It was still wet and very cold. We managed to get it warm in the incubator and feed it a little. We all knew it was a long shot, but we had to try. That kitten I named Dana. Dana did survive the night with me since I took the incubator home, but I am sad to say that Dana did not make it once he/she was transferred to another foster home. Dana was just too sick and too little to survive outside an incubator. Parker however, is not only doing well, we were able to place him with a mother that just had a litter. The mother accepted him and treats him as one of her own which is the best thing for him. He and his new family is not with me, but I will update when I hear more. Parker and Dana's mom is also recovering slowly in one of the offices at the shelter.

Jaz, Simon, Sophie and Tink - these are the babies (who are over 8 weeks now) that have pneumonia for the second time in as many months. They are also the reason all of my other fosters were sent to other homes. We did not want the other to get pneumonia and could not take the chance that the babies would get exposed to even one more virus. They are slowly, very slowly, improving. It is still touch and go as to whether or not they will all pull through. They are on tons of medications and I am giving them IV fluids every day. Three of them are also still mostly feral and as you can imagine, all this medical care is not helping them learn to like humans. Sophie who was the runt of the litter is actually the healthiest and most social. I have high hopes that she will soon be well enough to go up for adoption. I think that Tink and Simon will pull through the illness, but am concerned about them being socialized the older they get. Jaz has lost a lot of weight and is very tiny. She is in the most danger of not making it through the pneumonia. They see the vet again this coming Friday. Depending on how they are doing, we will have to decide if we continue such intensive treatment, or if it is time to let them go. They have had intensive medical treatment for over a month now. Of course I want them to pull through and go to good homes, but at some point you have to think if we are treating them just to keep them alive because we do not want to lose them or if it is kinder to let them go. hey were actually looking a little better yesterday, so I am cautiously hopeful that we will have a positive outcome for them.

As I said - it has been crazy here in the animal house. I am sure you can see why I need a break. Although I have to say, even with everything that is going on lately, fostering is still one of the best, most rewarding things I have ever done. And I will be back with updates on these guys and information on new fosters once I start fostering again. I doubt I will be gone long. :)

Silvermst and the shelter

2009-09-27T04:43:00.007-04:00

Silvermist is a little white Angora kitten with chocolate point markings. She is beautiful and has had a hard life so far. She was found alone in a local state forest at about 4 weeks of age. She has always had trouble with eating and came home with me to learn how to eat solid food and gain weight. At first I was feeding her with a medicine syringe while she learned to eat the wet cat food.

She never really was all that interested in eating and pretty much just laid around and slept. She did not play or run around like the other kittens I have had. She mostly wanted to sit on my roommate's chest and sleep. And while watching a little tiny white kitten sleep on the chest of a big tough burly guy is amusing to see, it was not quite normal. Being less active is normal for her breed, but she seemed more worn out than just relaxed.

She was one pound four ounces when I brought her home and I managed to get her up to 1 pound 9 ounces before she started losing weight for no known reason. This continued for a few days even though I resumed force feeding her. When she got down to 1 pound 2 ounces, I brought her back to the shelter for help. They decided to keep her to give her fluids twice a day and treat her for worms in the hopes that this would make her feel better.

After a few days, she was doing a little better and since she was craving attention, she came back home with me with medicine and instructions to watch her carefully. Well after only a day or two, it was obvious to me that she needed to go back to see the vet. She was trying to eat, but she was fighting off whatever worms she was dealing with and now she was showing signs of an eye infection and upper respiratory infection. I brought her right in because I was really concerned about her well being.

The shelter vets, who are always incredibly busy doing spay and neuter surgeries, fit her into their schedules to check her out just like they did when the babies were not doing well. The vet and the staff were just as concerned about her as I was and decided she better stay with them again for more fluids and they would continue the medication and force feeding that I was doing at home. At that point it was really a waiting game to see if Silvermist was strong enough to fight off all the problems she was dealing with. And she really needed to eat to get strong enough to survive.

Since I was so worried about her, I came in most every day that week and volunteered in the shelter. That allowed me to help out the shelter when they were short on volunteers and I got to check on Silvermist multiple times throughout the day. After a day or so the staff and I noticed that Silvermist perked up when I sat near her cage and talked to her. Eventually she even started to eat anytime I sat there and petted her. Apparently, she is a social eater and only likes to eat when "mom" is around. So, I spent every day there sitting by her cage for a few minutes as often as I could. It might have been a little weird looking, but if that is what she needed to get well, then that is what she would get. And the staff fully agreed and was wonderful about just walking around me without complaint while I was sitting in the doorway of their busy cat holding room.

Silvermist actually got well enough to come home with me again on Tuesday. I was initially concerned because she had not done well last time she came home and I was afraid that she was too timid to eat with the other cats. But, I am glad to say, she has done fine. For the first time since she came into the shelter and my home over a month ago, she is playing and chasing toys. She comes running when I open the can of cat food just like the other cats and runs away when she sees me with the medicine bottles. It is wonderful. She is still sick and has a way to go before she can be adopted, but she is on the mend finally.

And she has develop quite a few fans at the shelter. The staff and volunteers that got to know her while she was there were thrilled to hear that she is doing well. And the vet that has been watching her was also thrilled. That is what amazes me about the vets and staff at the shelter. They truly care about each and every one of the animals that comes through their doors. Of course, I am thrilled that Silvermist is doing well. She has been in my house for a while and I am quite attatched to her. But everyone at the shelter was just as thrilled as my family to hear that she wants to play and act like a normal kitten.

I have also really enjoyed the time I have spent volunteering in the shelter. I have learned a lot and gained a better understanding of the joys and challenges of shelter life. I really encourage anyone that loves animals to seek out your local shelter or rescue group and sign up to donate some of your time as a volunteer. You will not regret it.

Where are we now?

2009-09-27T04:24:00.004-04:00

Sorry to have been away so long. Between caring for my sick foster kitties and volunteering in the shelter, I have not had the time to post. So here is an update on how everything and everyone is doing:

Walk for Animals - This went great! It was a beautiful day and there were tons of people and dogs there to enjoy it. Although having to get up at 6:30 to drive about an hour to get to the event at 8AM for set-up was not my favorite thing since I am so not a morning person, it was worth it. Everything went smoothly and the shelter was able to raise almost $64,000 to help all the wonderful animals in our care.

Jordan and Jack - Have both finished with their socialization and returned to the shelter for their neuter surgeries. The good news is that both of them were adopted the same day that they moved on to the adoption floor and are now happily in their forever homes!

Jewel and Midnight - these are two kittens that I took into foster since the last time I posted. Jewel is a little gray and white cutie and Midnight (as you can probably guess) is all black. They were basically waiting in a cage at the shelter until they could be spayed. Jewel was a little too light and Midnight was just not on the schedule until the end of the week. Since cage space is so tight, I offered to take them home and let them stay with me until their surgery dates. Both have been spayed by this time. Midnight was adopted right away. Jewel also has someone who is interested in adopting her, but after a day in the shelter, she started showing signs of an upper respiratory infection and so she needs medicine before she can go home. I saw her in the isolation room today and offered to take her back home until she is well. So she will stay with me a little longer and then go back to the shelter for adoption.

The Babies - a.k.a Simon, Tink, Sophie and Jaz. They are not really babies anymore. They are actually close to 8 weeks old which is normally the time they would go back to the shelter for adoption. However, Simon and Tink have been fighting pneumonia this whole time and Sophie and Jaz have been recovering from upper respiratory infections so they are not healthy enough or big enough to go up for adoption yet. Thankfully, they all seem to have gotten through the worst of their health problems and just need a little more time to get completely well. And since they were from a larger litter, they also need to gain more weight.

Christopher - He is also a new foster that came home with me to recover from an upper respiratory infection. Since all my other fosters have them, it is safe for him to be with me and I certainly know how to take care of a kitten with this condition. It is just much nicer for him to recover in a home with other kittens rather than stay in the shelter in a cage by himself so he does not give his cold to the other kittens.

And since this post is getting rather long, I will do another post to update you on Silvermist, my other foster that I have not talked about here. And I promise that I will be back soon with photos of all the new arrivals since we finally have a new digital camera. Now, I just have to figure out how to get the photos off the new camera and onto the computer. :)

Sneezing, Wheezing and Fundraising

2009-09-07T20:23:00.002-04:00

I just wanted to give an update on how things are with my fosters. The majority of them have been sick and I have been trying to raise funds for the shelter's charity walk so I have not had much time to post here.

Jordan and Jack are my 9-10 week old former feral fosters. Their socialization has come along pretty well. I think I will be able to bring Jack in this week to be neutered. They will see how he does with them. If he stays social, they will put him up for adoption. If he acts feral with them, he will come back home to stay with me for a little longer. I think he will be fine though. Jordan is a little bit behind his brother in socialization because he has a cold and I have to give him medication. He will not be truly ready for adoption until he gets over the cold and learns that humans do not always approach you to stick medicine in your mouth.

Silvermist is now about 7 weeks old but is not gaining any more weight. I am currently force feeding her with a medicine syringe to get her to put on some weight. She does not appear to have any health issues so we do not know why she is not interested in eating on her own. It will just be a wait and see sort of thing. Hopefully she will put on some weight and begin eating more soon.

The babies are about 5 weeks old now. I started out with 3 of them, went to 4 and am now down to 2. How does that work, you ask? They were a litter of 5 that needed to be syringe fed until they learned to eat solid food. This is a lot of work, so the shelter sent 3 home with me and 2 home with another foster family. After about a week, the other foster family lost one of their two kittens. She just faded away. Since the remaining kitten was now all alone, she came home with me. So then I had Simon, Tink, Sophie and Jaz. Well Simon started getting sick and the medicine was not helping him. On Friday, the vet said that he had pneumonia and had to stay at the shelter because he needs daily injections to try and get over the pneumonia. On Sunday when I checked on the remaining three, Tink was breathing badly like Simon had, so I brought her in. She also had to stay at the shelter for the same treatment. Now I just have Jaz and Sophie and I am really hoping that they do not end up with symptoms soon too. It could just be bad luck or there could have been something wrong with this whole litter when it was born. We just do not know.

On top of all this I am try to raise money for the shelter's charity walk because without donations they can not give babies like this such extensive medical care and would have to think about putting them to sleep for the expense rather than just considering the animals quality of life. I am not doing so great so far with fundraising because my disabilities make it tough to get out of the house all that much to try and find people to ask. I have only raised $70 so far and the walk is on the 13th. But every little bit helps and if I had to pick between succeeding in my fundraising efforts and succeeding in getting all my current fosters healthy and adopted, well then there is no contests. The fosters win every time. :o)

To donate to my fundraising efforts, click here. I will update on the babies conditions as I have time and/or information.

Walking in Spirit - Please Sponsor Me

2009-08-30T00:01:00.001-04:00

Anyone who reads this blog or who knows me in real life has learned by now how much I love being a foster mother to the various cats and kittens that have come through our home this year. But what many of you may not know is why I got into fostering in the first place.

Due to various health conditions, I have not been able to work since early 2005. Since I love animals and could not work, I wanted to volunteer. But I quickly found out that I was not physically up to going into the shelter even once a week because in order to drive I have to skip my medications and when I do that I am too sore and weak to be of much use at the shelter. Fostering was the perfect compromise because I could care for the foster cats at home without needing to drive very often. I was thrilled to find a way to help even with my limitations. There is just one thing that I have wanted to do for a long time and still can not do.

Many charities that I care about often have fundraising walks where people can sponsor you and then you go and walk. I am sure that you are all familiar with the concept, so I won't go into details. One walk that I really had hoped to be able to do is a walk for the shelter I foster for - The MSPCA Walk for Animals 2009. People will be walking with their dogs to raise money for the shelter.

I almost signed up to walk, but the reality is that even though it is a short walk, I am still just not physically capable of doing it. I am going to be there on the day of the walk as a volunteer because they have found me something I can do sitting down, but I was still disappointed that I could not join in the walking.

Then that made me think: I know that I am not the only one out there that can not do charity walks. There are others like me that are not up to the walking, or those who can not walk at all. People whose schedules are too busy, but wish they could find the time. And people who have cats, birds, hamsters and other pets that don't really go for a walk. So I have decide to reach out to my friends, family and cyber friends and ask you to sponsor me as I walk in spirit for this really good cause. With more and more animals being surrendered to the shelter every day due to the economy, they need help now more than ever.

To make a donation, no matter how small, please visit my participant page and donate online. The team I have joined is the Fabulous Foster Failures. Or to donate by mail, send a check to: MSPCA Walk for Animals350 S. Huntington Ave.Boston, MA, 02130 and put the team name of Fabulous Foster Failures in the note section. Thanks for your help.

Simon Says Hiss

2009-08-26T00:33:00.002-04:00

I have three more new foster kittens. Two girls and one boy. They are so adorable! They are feral kittens that are just three weeks old. At this age they are just terrified more than truly feral and aggressive. I am currently teaching them how to eat solid food. This requires feeding them the food through a medicine syringe until they understand that it is food and then slowly getting them used to eating from a plate. So far they are doing OK and gaining weight even though they also have colds like my other foster kittens. My older feral foster that was feeling so poorly is doing much better now though, so that is good.

So now I have six sneezing kitten ranging in age from three weeks to nine weeks. They are Jordan, Jack, Silvermist, Jaz, Sophie and Simon. Simon is the only boy out of the three young ones and he does tend to hiss whenever I come near him, but when he is only 15 oz., the hissing is so cute it just makes me laugh.

On a side note, we lost our camera recently so until we get the new one that we ordered, this blog will be pictureless. But I promise to post pictures of all the new arrivals once the new camera is in my hands.

Feeling Useless

2009-08-20T22:25:00.003-04:00

Well it is official - my feral kittens are boys. I was pretty sure that Jordan was a boy but could not really tell with the other one because it only has part of a tail and it kept the tail tucked down all the time. But I had to take them into the shelter today because Jordan was sick, so they helped me verify that they are both boys. I am pretty set on the name Jordan for the little brown tiger kitten, but have not really decided on a name for the black and white one. Now that I know it is a boy though, I will see if I can find a name that seems to fit.

Right now I am most concerned about Jordan's health. He has an upper respiratory infection that has gotten suddenly much worse. This is a common condition for shelter cats and feral cats in particular so it is nothing that I have not dealt with before, but Jordan was doing fine last night at this time and now he is struggling to breathe normally. I had him checked out at the shelter today when I picked up his medications and he just needs time to get better. I feel so bad for him and I wish that I could do more than I already have for him, but just like a person with a head cold, he just has to get through it.

He started on the medications tonight and I have been bringing him into the bathroom and filling the room with steam in order to help clear out his sinuses and help him breathe. (This works for people with a head cold too in case you were wondering). And if he keeps going the way he is, I will probably have to give him some food with a medicine syringe tomorrow because he is too worn out to eat like he should. I have held him to comfort him as much as he will tolerate, but since he is still mostly feral, I can't cuddle him as much as I have my other fosters that got sick. I will just have to keep an eye on him and help him through this, although it is hard because there is really not much I can do that I have not already done. I know he is getting all he needs, but somehow, when I look at him miserable and all huddled up in his cage, it just does not seem to be enough.

Purring is a wonderful thing

2009-08-19T20:43:00.002-04:00

I decided to name my two feral fosters Jordan and Stormy for the time being. Oddly enough, they are not real keen on me checking under their tails to see what sex they are - imagine that. :)

They really want to get out of the cage and run around so I have been using this to my advantage. They can see that Doyle, my kitten and Silvermist, the other foster are loose and they want to be with them. So in order to get out of the cage, they have to let me pick them up and pet them for a minute before they can run loose around the room. Today, I actually got both of them to let out a little bit of a purr while I was holding them, so I am seeing that as progress.

So far I have to trick them to get them back into the cage each time I let them out. I decided to just let them be tonight and have the run of the foster room for the night. If they are more skittish and won't let me handle them again in the morning then it will be back into the cage for them. Hopefully they will be too interested in breakfast to run from me and I will be petting them before they realize what happens.

Silvermist and friends

2009-08-17T21:15:00.002-04:00

I have three new fosters in my home right now. They are all too scared for photos at the moment. One is a 4 week old female who my niece named Silvermist after one of the fairies in the Tinkerbell movie. I was just happy it was not yet another one of Ariel's sisters. Silvermist is small, but beautiful. She appears to be either a pure Persian kitten or possibly a Persian Siamese mix.

She was found in a local state forest where someone had probably dumped her. She was too clean and unmatted to have been in the forest since birth. This makes no sense to me. Why would someone just dump a kitten that will be worth money when it is older. Of course, I do not understand why anyone would dump ANY kitten but even people who are not animal lovers seem to value animals that are worth some money. Oh well, I am just glad that she is now with us where she is valuable just because she is a sweet little girl. She is very timid from her time in the state park, but we are working on that.

My other two guys - at least I think they are guys - are feral kittens. They can not be handled at all yet which is why I am not sure yet what sex they are. They are the most feral kittens that I have had so far as fosters. In fact, the rest of their litter was sent to a feral cat rescue. These two were the only two the shelter felt had a chance of become social pets. The rest will probably end up in a feral cat colony that the feral cat rescue manages. They are around 8 weeks old and have been here for 5 days now but they are still terrified of me. I have had to move to the "tough love" method of socialization which I don't really like even though I know it does not hurt them and it works. What that means is that they have a comfortable cage, litter box, bed and water at all times, but they only get food, toys or a chance to get out of the cage when I am in the room. That way they soon realize that every time I come in the room, something good happens.

I did not want to try this method because I like to leave dry food down for my fosters at all times because so many are underweight or sick. But these guys are not sick or underweight and I was not making any progress just spending time with them. Since I started only putting food bowls in when I am in the room, they have actually let me pet their backs while they eat, so it is working. Of course, I am going down about every 20 minutes or so throughout the day and offering them the food, so they are not going hungry. Hopefully we will make more progress in the days to come.

Since I do not know their sex yet, they do not have names. I have never been very good at coming up with traditional either sex names for my cats. So right now they are just the brown tiger guy and the black and white guy. They are going to be a challenge, but if they come out of my home as social, adoptable kittens, then it will be worth it.

Meeting a New Mom

2009-08-15T21:22:00.002-04:00

I volunteered at the shelter that I foster for today. They were having a special event and were going to need the extra help so I went in. I am so glad that I did because I got to meet the woman who was taking Darcy home. Darcy and her brother Julius had a special place in my heart because they overcame a lot of odds to become the social adoptable kittens they are now. They also looked like my previous cat Maggie did when she was young. I still miss her and it was nice to have orange kittens around again. I missed both of them when I brought them into the shelter.

Of course, I miss all of my fosters, but some are harder than others. Since Darcy was one of the hard ones to give up, it was really great to get to meet the person she was going home with. Her new mom promised to send pictures and updates to the shelter so I could see how she grows. And I am happy that Darcy is in good hands. :)

Just For Fun

2009-08-12T22:53:00.013-04:00

This is Tiger. He is at the shelter now, looking for a home. Even though he is old enough to be adopted, he is still a tiny guy. Someone at the shelter found this hat and gave it to my 4 year old niece for him to wear. He is such a well tempered guy, he actually let us put it on. We had to take pictures because he was so cute. Everyone that saw him with the hat burst out laughing. :)

UPDATE: Tiger got adopted! I am so pleased because he had some problems that made it so he could only go to certain types of homes and we were concerned it would take a long time to find him a home, but he got adopted in less than a week. Yeah Tiger!

Cat Collar Safety

2009-08-08T22:27:00.006-04:00

Our newest foster kitten came home with me on Friday. He is a little gray and white tiger. His name is Taro, which apparently is a Japanese name meaning first born son or big boy. We did not name Taro. He got his name from the foster family he and his brothers stayed with before he came home to us.

Both of Taro's brothers went up for adoption on Friday and may have even already found their forever homes. Taro was not so lucky. He was supposed to go up for adoption with his brothers, but instead had to come home with me to be given pain medication and an antibiotic. His situation has led to this post on cat collar safety. The basic rule is - too tight is bad, but so is too loose and Taro is a perfect example of why.

I was at the shelter on Friday morning dropping off Tiger and Arista so they could (finally) go up for adoption. As I often do after dropping off a foster, I stayed around to help the regular volunteers get the cat area cleaned and ready for the public.

When a cat or kitten is ready to go on to the adoption floor, a staff member checks it out, gives it any vaccinations it needs and places it in a carrier with food and litter. If the animal came in late in the day, it will spend the night in the carrier and be placed into the appropriate cage when the volunteers get in the next day. Most of the cats and kittens are perfectly happy to spend the night in these large carriers and in my opinion it is always better to have people around watching when you introduce new kittens to the kitten cages to make sure there are no fights or other problems.

Well, Taro and his brothers were a group of these sort of kittens. I was hanging their hello cards on the cage while another volunteer opened their carrier and put them in the large kitten cage. As she was doing this she noticed that Taro's temporary collar was caught around his lower jaw. Sometime during the night, he must have worked it loose enough that he got it into his mouth and got stuck. He was unable to get his mouth shut and the collar had been digging into his jaw all night.

We immediately cut the collar off him and checked him out. His mouth was so swollen that he could not close it and the sides of his mouth were all cut up and smelled like infection. He was also obviously in pain. Although it was not an emergency situation, we knew he needed to be seen by a staff member and probably the vet as soon as possible. The vet was doing spay and neuter surgeries that day. The less people that enter the sterile environment the better, so I just sat with him in my arms until we found a staff member who could take him in to the surgery area to see the vet.

Now Taro will probably be just fine and ready to go up for adoption by Thursday. Until then he is my guest and I am happy to have him. He is a fun, spunky little guy. The point of this post is to let people know to please check your cat's collar regularly. Most people think of an embedded collar as being mainly a dog problem, but cats can get them too. And they can happen quickly, even overnight. If you adopt a cat from a shelter please remember that their shelter collars are temporary and should be replaced with a kitten collar or an adult safety collar as soon as you get them home.

The problem with Taro's collar was that it was too loose, thereby allowing him to get his jaw stuck in it. The shelter I foster for takes amazing care of its animals and everyone who heard what happened to Taro was horrified. Each cat in that shelter is checked out closely at least once a day and if this can happen in that type of environment, then it can certainly happen in even the most loving of pet owner's home.

You should be able to fit one or two finger between your cats neck and the collar - no more, no less. Having it too tight or too lose can be dangerous and cause problems for the cat. So if you are not already checking the fit of your cat's collar once a day or every other day, then please start. Especially if they are young and growing or senior aged and putting on weight due to decreased activity.

I know I will be checking Doyle's collar daily from now on. He has been growing in leaps and bounds ever since I adopted him.

Adoption Updates

2009-08-04T17:42:00.003-04:00

I am pleased to report that Magic, Duncan and Pixie have been adopted. I believe that Darcy has been adopted, but have to confirm it tomorrow. And while I was in the shelter getting Arista checked out, Chica was in with a family that wants to adopt her if the shelter can keep her for them until Saturday.

That means that of my latest crew, only Arista and Tiger still need homes. Arista has developed some complications from her spay and needs to stay with us a little longer. Tiger is still having some litter box issues, but they are getting better. He is going in to be neutered on Friday and then placed up for limited adoption which means he will only be allowed to go home with a family that is willing to take him home knowing he may have these issues for his whole life.

Muffin, the last mother cat I had is also still looking for a home, but all in all, I am pleased that so many of them have found their forever homes.

Griffin Goes Home

2009-07-31T20:32:00.002-04:00

I am very happy to report that Griffin, my little gray and white baby, got adopted! He was my first socialization foster and even though he is a kitten, he was sitting in the shelter waiting for a home.

He did not get adopted quickly because he did not get along with other cats and could not go into the kitten cage. We needed to go to a home where he could be the only pet. With all the other kittens around during kitten season, he kept getting overlooked. It did not help that he spent most of his time with his back to everyone because he was afraid of the other cats.

My creative roommate made him a larger, scrapbooked cage card that explained his situation and asked people to take the time to get to know him away from the other cats. He was adopted a few days later. I am very happy for him.

Almost Empty Nest

2009-07-30T16:45:00.002-04:00

Today I brought Arista, Darcy, Pixie, Duncan and Chica into the shelter. Pixie, Duncan and Chica have finished their medications and since they are already spayed and neutered, they will go right onto the adoption floor. Darcy and Arista are scheduled to be spayed and will go on the adoption floor as soon as they recover. That leaves me with just Tiger. (And our own three cats).

The place seems kind of empty right now because we have had so many fosters and almost all of them returned to the shelter at the same time. It is nice because it is a lot less work, but I miss them. Because of his litter box issues, Tiger is not allowed to roam the house, so we have no little ones underfoot right now.

Arista will be returning to us tonight and staying for a day or two while she recovers from her spay, but then she will go right back to go up for adoption. Both the foster people and I were concerned about Arista recovering on the adoption floor like most kittens do because she needs to be watched closely to make sure she does not have any eating issues. And of course, it is easier for the shelter if she recovers with me because then they do not have to deal with her recovering and eating a different food from everyone else at the same time.

I will not get any new fosters until we figure out what is the cause of Tiger's litter box issues. We think he might be afraid with so many other cats around, so we have been emptying my house of other fosters to see if that helps and they have also sent out a lab test on him to make sure it is not medical. Unfortunately, litter box issues like his - he has peed on my bed more than once - can prevent him from ever getting a forever home. So cross your fingers and send us good thoughts and hope that we can get this fixed.

I will update here as I hear about adoptions on my crew and will let everyone know when we do get a new kitty, but it will probably be quiet in the Animal House for a while so we can work on getting Tiger straightened out. Bye for now.

Julius - Update

2009-07-26T21:26:00.002-04:00

Well, I dropped Julius off at the shelter for his neuter surgery on Friday and when I went in today to pick up some supplies, he had already been placed up for adoption and gone home to his forever home. I am so happy for him. Yeah Julius!

Magic is now on the adoption floor. He will not find a home as quickly because of his litter box issues. He has had a few people interested in him because of his great personality that have changed their minds once they learn about his issue. So I will cross my fingers for him and hope that someone will see that he is worth the extra effort. I will keep you posted.

Two Down, Six to Go

2009-07-25T22:33:00.004-04:00

Two of my eight foster kitties went in to the shelter on Friday to be neutered and find their forever homes. Magic and Julius are now at the shelter and should be on the adoption floor by Monday. Darcy was supposed to go in with them, but the surgery schedule was full. I will miss them both, but had a soft spot for Julius because he had attitude. I wish my latest guys a good journey and good luck in finding their forever homes.

Looking for a Forever Home

2009-07-17T23:36:00.014-04:00

Here are a few of my foster cats. All of them are looking for their forever homes. Some are in the shelter and some are still in my home. The shelter that I foster for is located in Massachusetts. For detailed information about each cat or kitten, click on their link. It will take you to my foster profile page where you can find out about the cat and find links to email me or to send a post to a friend.

Muffin Griffin - Adopted
Julius - Adopted Darcy - Adopted
Tiger Arista

The adoption fee for any kitten under 4 months old (all of them but Muffin) is $200. While this seems like a lot for a kitten, it covers quite a few things. It covers the surgery to spay or neuter the kitten and the shots and tests that most vets would do the first time you bring your kitten in to visit them. I do not know about other areas of the country, but around here getting the kitten fixed alone can cost you close to the $200 adoption fee.

Many of the foster kittens I have are not yet fixed due to either weight or age. However, if you adopt a kitten that is not fixed from the shelter, they will make an appointment for you to bring the kitten back for surgery when it is big enough. You are not charged anything for the surgery when you bring it in because the cost was covered in the adoption fee.

I will add pictures and links for more of my fosters when I get a chance. It is actually kind of hard to get a nice shot of a kitten's face because they never stop moving. I have four more kittens that I have not listed in this post yet because I am still trying to get photos of them. They are Magic, Pixie, Duncan, and Chica. Magic has a profile on the foster profile page. The other do not because they just recently came to my house and are too sick with the cat version of the flu to even be considered for adoption. Once they are a little better, I will add their profiles.

Now I don't really expect to get a lot of people contacting me actually interested in adopting the cats I have as fosters. What this post and the profile page is more about it letting people know how many different types of cats and kittens are in your local shelters or foster programs just waiting for their forever home. If you are considering adding a pet to your family, please go to your local shelter or rescue group. The animal there really need someone like you.

Crazy Cat Lady

2009-07-13T01:23:00.005-04:00

It's official. I am now doomed to be known as a crazy cat lady. This is because I just turned 36, I'm single with no children and have 11 cats in my house. 11 cats? Did I just say 11 cats? Yes I did. I should have 12, but one is at the vet due to health problems.

I realize that I have lost my mind and need help but I am not sure there is any hope for me. :o)

Ok, here is the rundown of why I currently have 11 cats. My roommate has one cat (Fidget). I have two. Sadie, my 13 year old girl and Doyle, my former foster kitten. That makes three cats. The others are foster kittens.

First I have Arista. She is the kitten that stopped eating on me and had to be force fed for a while. Now, with a change in food, she is doing fine and just needs to gain some more weight. Next came Darcy and Julius. They are a socialization foster.

The Friday before the July 4th holiday I went into the shelter to get food and checked in with the foster people to let them know that I was actually going to be around for the holiday in case they got any "emergency fosters" that needed a place for the holiday weekend. Turns out they did. They asked me to take home Magic, Tiger and Dandelion. They had just that day come in from another foster home to be adopted out because they were 8 weeks. What was not mentioned until they were dropped off was that they had some issues with going outside the litter box. One kitten was also too small to be fixed yet. And the foster family they were with was leaving that day for vacation and could not take them back.

Well a kitten with litter box issues can not be adopted because they will just be returned. Since I have some LB issues around my senior cat due to her age, I have experience with problems like this and the supplies to deal with it. I agreed to take them home for the weekend and see if I could figure out what the litter box problem really was. It was a real good thing that I did. The most common reason for a cat going outside the litter box is a health problem. Withing 24 hours I realized that one of the kittens (Dandelion) had blood in his urine. I brought him back to the shelter as soon as they reopened after the holiday to be looked at by the vet. He has a bad UTI (urinary tract infection) which can be very dangerous for a kitten. He will stay at the shelter until this clears up and he stops having blood in his urine.

(For those of you keeping count we are now at 9 cats).

On the 9th, I took my niece to the shelter to visit. She likes to go in and visit with Muffin who was our foster when she was caring for her kittens. She is Doyle's mother. Mother cats do not get adopted out quickly so we visit her often. While I was there I saw that two of the foster kittens that I had recently returned to them to be adopted out were still there waiting for a home. I was not surprised that Griffin was still there because he does not like other cats. The fact the Lulu was still there was very surprising to me. She was adorable and great with kids. A kitten like that usually would go in less than 48 hours.

I went out back to check on Dandelion and could tell that they were packed to the rafters with cats, many of them kittens. I mentioned that I was surprised that Lulu was still there and they told me that people were not adopting kittens quickly like they had in the past and that they were running out of space for them.

Since I had just brought Lulu in from foster earlier in the week and still had her sister, Arista, at home, I offered to take her back home with me if they needed to free up space. They talked about it and asked me how many I currently had in the house. Lulu was already on the adoption floor and was likely to get adopted that weekend because she was so good with kids, but they had cages full of kittens in the holding area that were fixed and ready to go. There was just no room on the adoption floor. And since they had so little space, they had to put more kittens in a cage than they normally would which leads to them getting sick. (Think of how quickly the flu goes through a school. It is the same concept). Normally the shelter would not ask anyone to take on more than what I already had but they are desperate right now.

Being the sucker that I am, I went home that day with three more kittens. They are all fixed and old enoughto be adopted out. They just need a place to stay and someone to feed them until space opens up on the adoption floor. They are sneezing and get some meds as a precaution, but they are not much work. So Pixie, Chica and Duncan joined our foster crew.

So there you have it. 12 cats. I know I am crazy. But from what I could see, the shelter is soon going to have to start turning kittens away due to lack of space. Having this many in my house is a temporary thing because of the combination of kitten season and a bad economy.

Of course the real heroes in all of this are my roommate and her husband who are actually the owners of this house and have been amazing in putting up with me and my animal craziness even though it can be annoying at times. They did not even threaten to boot me out the door when I reminded them that we had agreed to watch my sister's Shitzu this weekend so her husband could take her away for her 40th birthday.

So this coming weekend it will be 2 adult cats, 10 kittens, one freaked out 5lb. dog, a thrilled 4 year old, a tired foster mother and two roommates plotting the foster mother's early demise. I will check back in with an update and pictures soon. :o)

Gaining Ground

2009-07-04T20:38:00.004-04:00

Arista has started gaining weight again! This is making me very happy. She spent a few days at the shelter being force fed to keep her from losing even more weight. It was decided that she did not like the "good" food that the shelter provides and so she just stopped eating. Normally, a kitten would eventually eat any food if they got hungry enough, but she was little to begin with and so when she lost so much weight, she lost interest in eating even when she had the food she liked.

She came home to us here on Sunday and I continued to force feed her with a syringe. And let me tell you, pureed cat food smells nasty. It also gets all over you and the kitten when you try to hold the kitten down and squirt the food into its mouth.

Thankfully, after a long week of doing this two times a day, Arista decided to give us both a break and just eat the Friskies that I got for her. Of course, now her sister doesn't want the "good" food either so I have been feeding them both Friskies. Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against Friskies, it is just not what the shelter uses and so it makes feeding time harder for them when not all of their animals are eating some version of Science Diet.

Both Arista and Lulu were surrendered at close to 8 weeks old. Their owner kept two kittens from their litter and surrendered four to the shelter. Arista and Lulu were too small to be adopted right out like their litter mates. They most likely were eating Friskies at their owner's home and for some reason, Arista could not adjust to the change. I am optimistic that she will continue to get bigger now that we know the issue.

So the moral of this story for pet owners is - if you have to surrender an animal to a shelter or rescue group, give them all the information you can. Something as small as a food flavor preference can become a big issue once they get to the shelter.

And the moral for foster parents is - if you are going to have to force feed a kitten pureed cat food, just be thankful that your new washer and drier were delivered last Friday - cause you are going to need it.

Sick Baby :(

2009-06-25T09:50:00.003-04:00

Arista is currently very sick. She has lost over 8 oz. since she came to be with us. That is 25% of her body weight. She no longer wants to eat. All she wants to do is drink water and curl up next to me to sleep. I am very concerned about her. I was up all night with her just watching her and trying every few hours to get her to eat anything with no luck. She looks very weak and so skinny. I am bringing her back into the shelter at noon today and they are going to keep her for a while and force feed her to try and get her stabilized so that she can eventually come back here to us.

I am also bringing her to the shelter today be cause I am heading down to visit my sister-in-law and her newborn twins for the day. While that makes me very happy, I did not feel right about leaving Arista alone all day because she is too sick. Thankfully, the shelter understands that and will keep her until she either is stable or until after I visit my niece and nephew and can be with Arista all day long to force feed her, which ever comes last.

They do not know what is wrong with Arista, just that she is not eating and that is a bad thing for a kitten. The good thing is that since she is over 8 weeks old, she has a better chance of surviving than if she were younger. I will update when I have more information.

For now, I am going to drop her off at the shelter into good hands and then try to put the situation out of my mind while I go be a happy new aunt and spoil my new niece and nephew, Shannon Grace and Liam Grant.

And the winner is . . .

2009-06-25T09:47:00.002-04:00

With 50% of the votes, my gray, partly feral kitten is now officially named Griffin. And just in time too. He will soon be going into the shelter to be fixed and if he handles that OK, he will go up for adoption. There is always a chance that he will revert to his anti-social behavior once he gets into a new environment and if that is the case, he will come back here for more socialization.

And the Sisters Make Eight

2009-06-14T21:39:00.007-04:00

As of tonight, my current feline occupancy count is at eight. I think that this might be the limit. LOL. How did I get to eight you ask? Well here is the run down:

First we have our two adult cats, Fidget and Sadie. They are our cats and we have had Sadie for a few years and Fidget for all her life. Next we have Doyle, my foster turned forever kitten that I adopted a few weeks ago. Doyle is almost 12 weeks old.

After that came "nameless cat" who is the gray kitty I am running a poll to name. He is about 8 weeks old and needs socialization. Following him are two more kittens who need socialization. They are 5 weeks old and little tiny bundles of orange fur. There is one boy and one girl. We have named the girl Darcy and the boy Julius. These kittens really need my help, but are not much fun for either my niece Paige or Doyle to play with but we were dealing with it.

I got a call from the shelter this morning to ask me if I had room for two more kittens. These kittens are also 8 weeks old and are very playful and social but they were smaller than their litter mates and do not weigh enough to be adopted out yet. They need a few days or a week, tops, to grow some more. Normally, outside of kittens season, they would just stay at the shelter for the few days they needed to grow with a note that they could not be sent home until they were the right weight. But since kitten season is fully upon us, they are quickly running out of room. When I went to get them today I could see that every single cage on the adoption floor AND in the holding area out back was full. What that means is that if they could not find someone to take these guys home for a few days, then they would have to make some tough decisions when they next got a cat that might be hard to adopt out, usually due to age.

So, although eight cats is a bit much, if taking these two home for a few days gives an older, less "kitten cute" cat a chance to find a new home, then it is worth it. Our temporary visitors are both little girls and we have named them Lulu and Arista. For those of you who read in my previous post that we were going to name one of the little orange ones Arista, we have changed our minds. Since Paige was the one who wanted to name a kitten Arista, we decided to give the name to one of the social kittens that would actually play with her. So the new arrival will be Arista and the little orange female kitten has been renamed Darcy.

And since our newest additions are not scared, I was able to get some photos right away. Here are Lulu and Arista:

"The only thing to fear is fear itself."

2009-06-13T22:53:00.006-04:00

This famous quote from FDR really seems to fit my new foster group. I picked up two more kittens that need to be socialized because they had been found outside. They are younger than my current nameless kitty, only 4 weeks or so old and pretty scared.

They are two adorable little orange fluff balls. Pictures will follow in a few days after they have a chance to settle in. I have one girl and one boy. I have let my niece name the girl Arista since that is what she was dying to call the gray guy that I am running a name poll for right now. It is hard to explain to a 4 year old that a boy cat might not like the name Arista.

Arista, for those of you who are not aware, is one of Ariel's sisters in the Little Mermaid. Paige is a little mermaid freak. We have yet to name the boy, although my roommate has suggested Julius after Orange Julius.

The reason I say that the quote fits this kind of foster is because they are so terrified, but you can see in their eyes that they really want to not be afraid and be with us. They are such social creatures. All they have to do is overcome their instinctive fear and realize we mean them no harm.

Nameless kitty spent the night in my bedroom last night, much to the dismay of my own cats who had to be banished from the room for the night. He calmed down really quickly once I brought him in the room and actually was playing with a cat toy, chasing it on my bed for a while. I wanted to bring him into my room for a night because it would give him a longer period of time to be exposed to me rather than the 45 minutes twice a day he has been getting so far. I set up his bed on the far side of my room from my bed near a corner so he would have a place that he felt safe to sleep and also figured he could curl up under my childhood rocking chair like our cats do. He did that for a while when I was awake. I curled up in my bed and he curled up there and I turned out the lights.

My "bed" right now is just a mattress on the floor since my bed frame did not survive our recent move. (Actually when we went to take it apart to move it, I realized that the frame was broken and and only thing that was holding it up was the many under bed storage containers full of books I had under it so I tossed it - and kept most of the books.) I am perfectly happy with just the mattress until I find a new bed I like so I am not in a rush. Because it is just pushed up against the molding on the floor, their is often a small space in between the head of the mattress and the wall.

When I woke up in the morning and did not see him in any of the places I expected him to be, I went looking for him. I realized that although he was not brave enough to actually sleep on the bed, he did want to be closer to me and had left his hiding spot near the rocking chair for the space in between my bed and the wall. He spent all night and day there until I moved him back to the foster room to meet his new roommates.

The ironic thing is that the kitten that wants nothing to do with people suddenly became quite jealous of these new kittens being fed and touch and held by "his" person (me). He hissed at them and growled a bit and for the first time let me pet him on the back without having to scruff and swaddle him first. He was definitely staking out his territory. Oh well, I will use what ever works. The new kittens, being much younger, completely ignored him in favor of trying to figure out how to eat solid food without it going up their noses. :o)

My First Poll

2009-06-13T04:12:00.003-04:00

Even though he is coming along, my new foster is still so scared that his personality is still unclear. This is making it hard for me to decide on a name for him. I have gone through quite a few names in the one short week that I have had him.

Since I am not getting anywhere, I have decided to reach out to the blogging community for help. This also gives me a chance to try the poll feature on blogger. Please help me out by taking a minute to look at his picture and cast your vote for a name.

If you have an alternate suggestion, please feel free to leave a comment with it. I will tell you that I have always tended to chose names for my pets and my fosters that are also people names rather than things like spot or shadow or fluffy.

I will post in a week to let everyone know what name was chosen. Thanks in advance for your help.

Getting to Know You

2009-06-11T00:29:00.005-04:00

My new foster kitty is coming along. This is the kitten that I have been fostering for socialization rather than age or size. He has never been around people before and is terrified of us. He has been here since last Friday and we are making some progress. He no longer starts hissing as soon as I come in the room. I have to get too close to him too quickly for him to start that now.

I have managed to pick him up and cuddle him a few times now. In order to do so though, I have to pick him up by the scruff and wrap him in a blanket. He does not really like hands on him. Doyle has been helping out by playing and running and eating off my finger while the kitten looks on from his cage. The kitten seems braver when Doyle is around. Kind of the "if he can do it" mentality. He has started to purr when I hold him and pet his head and back gently.

Just yesterday, I cuddled him in my arms for a while and then slowly lowered him to my lap and let go. It was the first time that he did not immediately bolt back into his cage as soon as I was no longer physically restraining him. Then a little later in the day, I did the same thing again and he went back into his cage, but then turned around and came out again on his own to explore the room. When I was ready to go back upstairs, I locked him back in the cage so he would not freak once I left the room.

Today he came out and wandered around after I opened the cage, so I decided to just let him be for a few hours. When I went back down later he had not gone back in his cage. Instead, he had curled up on a pillow and blanket that was left over from another foster and was resting. Since he seemed to be doing well, I decided to leave him out of the cage tonight. He is still confined to the foster room, but at least he has more room to move. The cage is still set up and open so that if something scares him, he can go back to his "safe" place. Since he was a little more relaxed today, I took a chance and took a few pictures of him. So here he is, our latest visitor who we have named Griffin for the time being.

Doyle, showing Griffin that it is safe to eat in front of me.

Griffin giving eating in front of me a shot. This is the cage that he stays in most of the time. Although it seems kinda mean, he is in it because he feels safer in a smaller confined area. For this first few days, I had a blanket covering most of it so the only part you could see in or out was the front where the door is. You can also see from this picture that our foster room is also an extra toy room for the many many toys that my niece Paige has received from various family members. There is no way they would all fit in her room.

I think things will continue to go well, although I am prepared to go down there one day and see that we have had a setback because that's just the way these things go. I just think of it as one step forward at a time. Or would that be one paw forward?

Fun With Doyle

2009-06-10T22:16:00.007-04:00

I know Doyle is no longer a foster kitty - he is mine forever now. But, I thought that I would post a few photos so that those of you who have been following him since he came to me at three days old could see how he was growing. Here he is now:

This is a photo collage I made of him "playing" Chutes & Ladders with Paige.

This is Fidget, my roommate's 13 year old cat. Doyle fell in love with her when he was still just a few weeks old and has been following her around ever since. She wanted nothing to do with him at first. She generally does not want much to do with the foster kittens and avoids them. He would not give up though and eventually won her over. She started to clean him and follow him around to take care of him. Now, they sleep together and play together (until she gets annoyed and swats him) and when Doyle gets himself trapped in the bathroom (it happens often) she comes and meows at me to get him out.

This is my cat - Sadie. She is also 13 years old and has no use for Doyle at all. She swats at him if he gets too close to her, but she is getting more tolerant of him the longer he is around. Of course, part of her annoyance with him could be the fact that she does not like to share me. He also likes to sleep in her spot on the bed and I have to keep moving him out of the way. When ever she gets too annoyed with him I just tell her "with out him, the kitten food goes away." She really likes the kitten food.

And a thanks to my roommate for this latest set of pictures. She has been taking many photos lately because she is trying to take a photo a day through out the summer. If you want to see some of the photos, including some great ones of her daughter Paige (who I refer to on this blog as my niece), just visit my roommate's blog, Seeking Imperfection, using the link below
http://seekingimperfection.blogspot.com/

Kitten Crack

2009-06-07T01:58:00.008-04:00

I was looking online for ways to help my new foster become less afraid of humans. Right now he hisses and cowers in fear if you even go into the room with him. He cannot be handled unless it is really necessary because he will likely bite out of fear. He is this 2lb bundle of fear and fear based hissing. I feel so bad for him.

I knew that the easiest way to get an animal to start to trust you is by using food. I learned this with the many stray dogs I used to play with as a kid. Food and play is the way to gain their trust. But this kitten did not seem interested in his food, even the wet food. This morning I realized that he did eat the wet food, he was just to afraid to eat while I was in the room.

So I did some research online and came across some really good sites and videos on the best way to help socialize stray or feral kittens. In one video, the gentleman talked about what he called kitten crack. Which, in case you are wondering, is Gerber stage 2 chicken and chicken gravy baby food.

His video said that they just can't resist it. So I went to the store today and picked some up to try it. I was skeptical because so far even getting anywhere near the cage caused him to hide or freeze and hiss so I did not see him eating baby food off a spoon for me. But I opened the jar and just sat near the cage and read a book for a while so that he could smell the food. After about 5 minutes, I put some on a spoon and slid the spoon in the cage. It took him a minute or so, but he ate the food. After that, I was able to hold the spoon with my hand outside the cage and the spoon inside and he ate off the spoon. Then Doyle (my kitten) wandered in and practically jumped into the jar of baby food so I fed him some right near the cage. Then I fed Doyle some off my finger. The kitten relaxed even more once he saw Doyle interacting with me without any fear. Eventually I was actually able to get the kitten to take some of the baby food off of my finger. He prefers to eat it off the spoon, but getting him to lick my finger even once is progress.

Hopefully, we will continue to progress. I do not have a picture of him yet, because I do not want to scare him any more than his is. I will give him a day or two before I whip out the camera. So instead, here is a picture of his new favorite thing in the world:

Kitten Crack
(a.k.a. Gerber Chicken and Chicken Gravy)

On Their Way and A New Arrival

2009-06-05T17:16:00.005-04:00

Dora and Nirvana went back to the shelter to find their forever homes today. I am happy to see them move on. The two of them combined were getting to be a handful and they were more than ready to go from being confined in one room (my foster room) for most of the day. They need to be in their own homes where they will have the run of the house for most of the day.

Normally, I would let them have the run of the place, but they were both dealing with upper respiratory infections (URI) and were on medications. They had real mild cases, but the shelter wanted me to keep them separated from Doyle just in case because a URI is what he had as a very young kitten that made him so sick and they did not think it was a good idea for him to get exposed again so soon after his symptoms finally went away. Although Doyle did miss playing with his friends. I am sure that both Dora and Nirvana will be adopted right away. They are both really cute.

I also picked up my next foster today because they happened to be looking for a foster home for this kitten when I came in to drop off my crew. This will be a different type of foster for me. This kitten is heavy enough and old enough to be adopted out, but he was found as a stray and needs socialization before he can be suitable to be placed up for adoption. I just got him settled in the foster room and am going to leave him alone for the rest of the day so he can settle in. I will post more about him as I get to know him.

UPDATE: Dora and Nirvana were both adopted the day after I dropped them off so they were in the shelter less than 24 hours before they were on their way to a forever home. I do not know if they went to the same house or not because I have not had a chance to check, but I am happy they are in their new homes.

Domino Goes Home!

2009-06-03T07:17:00.003-04:00

For those of you who have been following this blog, here is an update on Domino. Domino is the brother of Doyle, the kitten I adopted. They both came to me when they were three days old, with their mother, Muffin. They were both really sick with the kitty version of the flu. Domino got so sick that he had to become completely bottle fed and eventually, I had to return him to the shelter for even more medical treatment. He actually had to be tube fed for a while. We were not sure if he was going to make it or not.

The good news is that he made it! He is now a healthy happy 10 week old kitten and has just recently gone to his forever home. He was never able to come back to us since we all felt it would be best if he was with an experienced bottle fed family. But the shelter nicely kept us updated and has even sent us some pictures of him all grown up that I can now share with you. Here he is all grown up and healthy. Isn't he a cutie?

That Was A Short Trip! (a.k.a foster "failure")

2009-05-25T02:22:00.003-04:00

I took Doyle and Muffin in on Tuesday to be fixed and adopted out to their forever homes. As I mentioned, I was very sad to see Doyle go. Not that Muffin was not a great cat - she was. I was attached to her as well. There was just something special about Doyle that tugged at my heart and made me hate giving him back to the shelter. But I did it anyway.

I went back to the shelter on Thursday to attend a training on how best to bottle feed kittens. I was thrilled to attend this training because I had felt like I did not know what I was doing when Doyle and his brother Domino were only a week old and had to have supplemental bottle feedings.

In the few short days between dropping Doyle and Muffin off and when I attended the training, I missed Doyle terribly. I still had Dora and Nirvana, so I still had that fun kitten interaction, but there just seemed to be something missing from our house. While I was at the shelter for the training I looked to see if Doyle and Muffin were on the adoption floor or had adoptions pending just like I did with my previous fosters. When I did not see either of them, I asked the foster coordinator how they were doing. She told me that they were fine. They were both in the surgery room since they had just been fixed that morning and I could go in and see them if I wanted to check on them. Which of course I did.

They were in a cage together and obviously groggy from surgery. Muffin just kind of butted her head up against the cage and purred at me when I came over. But as soon as I started talking, Doyle opened his eyes and started meowing and stumbled up to the front of the cage trying to get to me. Even the people in the surgery area noticed how much he wanted to see me.

Needless to say, I had the foster coordinator put a hold on him for 24 hours so I could talk about him with the rest of my household and see if they would mind if we kept him. Thankfully they did not and he came home with me the next day. My niece, Paige was staying at her grandmother's the day I brought him home and so she did not see him until after her dance class on Saturday. When she saw him all she said was "Doyle, you got your first collar!" (I bought him a kitten collar when I adopted him). Her mom asked if she wanted to know why Doyle was back. Paige replied that he was going to stay with us until he went to his forever home. When her mom told her that our home was his forever home and that he was staying with us forever, Paige was so happy she ran over and hugged her mom and said "You're the Best!"

So now it has happened, my first (and hopefully last) foster "failure". The shelter calls a foster family adopting an animal a foster "failure" because the point is to foster them until they can be adopted out to another home, not to keep them yourself. But they use quotes around "failure" because they have still achieved their goal of adopting the animal in a good loving forever home. And somehow, no one at the shelter seemed at all surprised that Doyle had found his forever home with us. I think they knew he was going to stay with us well before we did.

So here is the latest addition to our forever family - Doyle.

Bon Voyage

2009-05-19T20:30:00.003-04:00

Doyle and his Mom, Muffin, went back to the shelter today to be fixed and put up for adoption. I am really, really going to miss Doyle. I told the shelter that if he did not get adopted within the normal amount of time for a kitten to be adopted, to let me know so I could come take him back.

I am rather depressed about giving him up today so I am kinda blah. However, I need to not keep the fosters if I want to keep doing fostering. And since in the half hour I was at the shelter today, they received over 14 cat surrenders, the need is as great as ever.

I still have Nirvana and Dora. Dora is not gaining weight as quickly as she should so she is staying with me and starting on some medications. They are leaving Nirvana with me so Dora does not get lonely and it also buys us so time to work on breaking Nirvana of his habits of chewing on hands when playing.

Please send some good thoughts to Muffin and Doyle as they start of their way to their forever homes.

You Get What You Teach

2009-05-17T00:24:00.009-04:00

This is Nirvana. Or, as I have nicknamed him since he arrived, P.K. What does P.K. stand for you ask? It stands for Psycho Kitty.

Since he arrived he has been annoying and hyper. He does not play nicely with the other kittens. He is too rough with them and his play bites are too hard. The other kittens will cry out and try to get away from him when he gets too rough but he just chases them down until I pick him up and move him away from them. He is staying in my room right now because I can not put him in my "foster room" with the mother cat, her kitten and our other visitor Dora. I can't do this because Muffin, the mom cat, can't stand him. He kept jumping and biting her tail and swatting at her until she finally ended up pinning him to the ground with his neck in her mouth to stop him. This is a common thing for mother cats to do to kittens to teach them that they are getting too rough and need to stop. They are not actually hurting the kitten. It is how they learn to have manners around other cats. If the kitten does not respond the mother will get more and more rough until the kitten is pinned and can not move. This is what Muffin was doing to P.K. Even then he did not get the hint and I had to separate him from her so she would not accidentally hurt him.

That is not the worst of it. He is the same way with people. He bites, he scratches and in general just acts like the psycho kitty that I have nicknamed him. He chases anything that moves - hands, feet, hair, computer cursors. Even as I type this he is chasing and trying to bite my fingers.

Then why, you might ask, am I willing to foster him? Well, for one thing, it is only for a few days while he gains a few ounces. But the real answer is - it is not his fault. Kittens are not naturally like this. They do all bite and scratch and pounce on things that move while they learn their "hunting" skills, but they do not usually bite or scratch hard enough to really hurt.

The behavior that he is showing right now is learned behavior most likely caused by the person who turned him in to the shelter. He either has had no social interaction with people and does not know how to interact with people or this was how he was taught to play.

I do not think he has had no socialization because when he is calm he is very sweet and loving and he always wants to be with the people in the house. If he is separated from me for any length of time he cries until I come back. And he is learning that I do not like him to be rough. He is not a malicious or mean animal, he just wants to play. I think that the problem is that he was taught to play rough. People think that is is funny or cute when their tiny few week old kitten attacks their hand and wrestles with them or jumps on their back. They do not think about how annoying that behavior will be when the kittens is 2 months old and has stronger, sharper teeth and claws that actually hurt when he plays how he was taught. Just like people like to cuddle puppies in their laps and then don't understand why they can't keep their full grown heavy dog off of them.

Don't get me wrong, I know how hard it is to keep this sort of stuff in mind when dealing with a baby. I have had to work hard in the last two weeks to wean Doyle off of cuddling up on my chest like he is used to from when I had to help feed him. I still want to cuddle him next to me because he is so soft and sweet and nothing feels nicer than snuggling with a kitten. However, I also do not want to stick someone with a cat that keeps trying to climb on their chest. I guess what I am saying is before you teach your baby animal to act a certain way, be sure that you still want them to act that way when they are a larger full grown adult.

As for P.K., I will put up with him. Since it is late at night, he has gotten tired and in the amount of time it has taken me to write this post, he has given up his rough "playing" and curled up to sleep on the corner of my bed. I do not know what his story was before arriving at the shelter, but I am willing to bet that his previous owner taught him to be this rough when he was younger (probably unknowingly) and when he got older and was too hard to handle, dumped him off in the shelter for someone else to deal with the problem.

Of course, I could be wrong. His previous owners could have loved him to death and liked that he is so crazy and are heartbroken that they had to give him up. I will never really know. All I know if that he will have a harder time finding a home the way he is right now. So, for as long as I have him, I will continue to try to unteach him what he has learned and instead teach him to play gently and lovingly all the while trying to ignore the scratches covering my hands and feet. I see a lot of Neosporin in my future but giving P.K. a better chance at finding a home is worth it.

Updated Photos - Part 2

2009-05-15T08:59:00.005-04:00

This is my baby, Doyle. At about seven and a half weeks he is almost all grown up and ready to go to a forever home. He is lying in his favorite spot, on my pillow next to me.

This is Dora, one of our visiting friends.

This is our other visitor, who was named Nirvana by the person who turned him in to the shelter. So far, my niece, Paige, is amused by the name and wants to keep it. She is only four and obviously has no idea who Nirvana was; she just thinks it is a fun word to say.

Every body should be big enough and old enough to return to the shelter for adoption by the middle of next week. It is funny to see that even at this young of an age, the kittens have definite distinct personalities. Nirvana seems to be a little bit hyper and tends to want to fight and nip and scratch more than the other two and hates to be picked up. He is, however, very sweet once he uses up his energy and he is learning manners now that he is here with me. Dora is the typical kitten. She is the perfect pet for a kid. She loves to run around and play with toys and follow you wherever you go. She also does not mind being picked up but if you hold her for too long she will wiggle to get down. Doyle is rather timid and tends to get scared by the faster movements and loud toys that little kids have. He seems to like being with the adults in the house. He also would prefer to curl up next to you and sleep rather than run around and play.

All in all, I think they each will make a great pet for the families that will adopt them because the shelter is so good at making sure they go to a family that matches their personalities rather than just to the first person that wants them.

Updated Photos

2009-05-15T08:51:00.003-04:00

Here are some updated photos of my current foster crew:

This is Muffin, the Mom, sitting in my childhood rocking chair and also watching our resident squirrel who we have nicked named "ballsy squirrel" for what I think is a pretty obvious reason. :)

Isn't it Ironic?

2009-05-15T07:50:00.007-04:00

I picked up another kitten yesterday. He is another single kitten from a different litter than Doyle or Dora. They sent him home with me because he needed to put on a little bit more weight just like Dora does. The options for him were to stay at the shelter in a cage for the week that he was likely to need to gain the few ounces that he needed or to come home and live with me for that week. We all thought that coming home with me was the best option for him. So now I have three kittens from three different litters.

What is the ironic part you ask? It can be hard to introduce a kitten from another litter into a house that already has a mother cat and her kitten(s). Part of the reason that Doyle and his brother Domino had so much trouble when they were just born was that their mother was young herself and just was not a very protective or attentive mother. The ironic part is that is the same quality that is allowing her to now accept two other kittens from other litters. Since she does not do much for her own kitten and just basically lets me take care of him, she does not mind that there is now two additional kittens around now. Any Doyle his having a blast playing with his new friends.

Annoying Computers and Fun Friends

2009-05-13T22:35:00.008-04:00

Well, I have not posted about my foster kitties for a while because our Internet connection has been so bad that I have been lucky to get online once a day to even check my mail. I also had more recent photos of Doyle to post and for some reason the photo program deleted them off the camera without putting them on my computer.. Oh well.

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)

One Month, One Pound - Milestones

2009-04-22T21:17:00.004-04:00

Doyle has been busy in the last week reaching quite a few milestones. His cold is finally under control and he:

is now one month old.
has had his first taste of wet cat food and water (which he likes, although mom is not too keen on sharing her food).
finally weighs over one pound. True it is only 1 oz over a pound, but it is a start. He is walking well and doesn't fall down as much.
is also awake more often now
and just today started learning how to play
is way too adorable for his own good

His brother Domino is also doing well. He continues to have medical problems and be bottle fed, but he is slowly improving in the new foster home he is in.

Doyle's one month birthday celebration. (No he did not get to eat the cake, we did)

Sitting Pretty

Being this cute is hard work - Nap time!

Lap Kitty

2009-04-16T01:14:00.004-04:00

Doyle climbed into my lap for the first time today. He looked up at me, blinked, gave a big yawn and proceeded to fall asleep. His mom walked over, rubbed up against me and then calmly went over to eat her food. And that, for anyone who wonders, is why I do this. Those small signs of love and trust are what make the worry and the work that can be involved with fostering all worthwhile.

Three Weeks and going strong

2009-04-13T22:03:00.001-04:00

Doyle (and Domino) is three weeks old today. He has started to get his teeth in, is staying awake for longer periods of time, and learning to walk. Watching him stumble along on his wobbly legs is awful cute. Domino is holding his own so far, but still has to stay at the shelter. Since Domino is not around for him to clean, Doyle has started "grooming" my hand whenever I am holding him. And let me tell you, boy does it tickle! Mom is taking good care of him now and he is growing in leaps and bounds. Just look at that cute face. Who could resist?

Domino is growing

2009-04-12T22:08:00.002-04:00

I got an update from the shelter about Domino. He has actually managed to gain a little bit of weight, which is great! It is the only way he will survive. He is currently being taken care of by shelter staff members because there is not a foster home that is equipped to deal with his fragile state right now. He is still very congested which makes eating very hard. So it is still touch and go for now, but at least the weight gain is a positive sign.

The foster coordinator said that if a foster home that can bottle feed him and care for his needs opens up then they will send him to one, but at this point they think he needs to be with a staff member. If he stays with staff until he is old enough to eat solid food, then they will send him back to us! Where every he goes, I just hope he keeps gaining and growing.

Missing Domino :(

2009-04-08T23:14:00.003-04:00

Well Domino had to stay at the shelter. He needs fluids too often to be in a home setting anymore. I also realized that mom took much better care of the other kitten, Doyle, when she did not have to worry about Domino. The mom was also starting show signs of stress from the daily carrier trips to the shelter. We all miss Domino alot, but he is where he needs to be. The shelter is going to update me when they can and I will update here.

On the good side, Doyle has gained weight and is nursing from mom again. I was worried that Doyle would have trouble sleeping because he tends not to go to sleep until he manages to climb on top of or snuggle next to Domino. But I found a really neat thing that is shaped like a small dog and can be put in the microwave to warm it up to body temperature. It is meant for when a puppy or kitten is having trouble sleeping once it is old enough to be seperated from its littermates. Doyle curled right up on it when I put it in the bed a few hours ago and went right to sleep so I think this will help him alot.

Bottle Fed Baby

2009-04-07T23:23:00.003-04:00

Well, Domino is now a strictly bottle fed kitten. He continues to lose weight and is down to 7oz. He was almost 9oz on Sunday. This is not good. We are no longer depending on his mom to give him any of his food. He has received IV fluids three times in the last four days. I will be feeding him every two hours or so, 24/7. Hopefully this will help him to stop losing weight and if we are really lucky, maybe even gain some. The next few days will be critical for him.

Thankfully, the antibotic that both kittens are on has worked well for Doyle. Doyle is a nice plump 10oz and is starting to act like a kitten should. He is following us with his eyes and ears and starting to try and be playful.

I will try and keep this blog updated on Domino's progress just in case anyone is actually reading it and just not commenting. Everyone out there in blog land, please keep your fingers crossed for this little fighter.

Happy Birthday to Us!

2009-04-06T20:47:00.014-04:00

Hi - we are two weeks old today! Isn't that exciting. We also finally have names.

My name is Domino

And this is my brother Doyle

We have had a bit of a rough road so far because we both have colds that we just can't shake and that are making it hard for us to eat. Our foster mother keeps putting us in a carrier and bringing us back to see the doctor. Yesterday, she gave us somethig called fluids in a big needle. We did NOT like it.

Our mom is trying to take care of us, but she keeps forgetting to feed us and stay with us so we stay warm. Yesterday our foster Mom and the shelter staff decided to put us all in what my foster mom jokingly calls "Bad Mother Jail." It is a big dog crate. They noticed that mom does take care of us if she is in a confined area with us so I guess that was their idea of how to keep her with us. It did not work. Mom just ended up pushing us out of the crate through the bars while trying to get us all out. We are still rather tiny.

We have been getting steam treatments twice a day for the last few days. It is supposed to help our noses stay clear. All we know if that we like sleeping in the little bed in a warm steamy room.

We have to go back to the vet AGAIN tomorrow for a check-up and our first vaccination. Hopefully the doctor will tell us that we are doing better. Well this was a lot of work, so I think we are going to sleep. Bye for now.

A Home for Marion

2009-04-05T16:34:00.003-04:00

I had to take the current foster kittens to the shelter today (yes, again. More on that later). But while I was there I found out that Marion, the mother of my first foster kittens, now has an adoption pending. That means that they are just waiting for all the paperwork and such to be processed and then she gets to go to a forever home. I am so happy. I was worried that it would take much longer than this since she was not great with other animals or little kids. Yeah for Marion! She had a rough start in life, so she deserves a good place to spend the rest of her life.

Marion - mother of Triton and Ariel

Missing Mom

2009-04-05T00:40:00.002-04:00

My roommate and I ended up feeding both kittens three times today. Domino was hungry and I decided to offer his brother some food too and he sucked it down like crazy so I do not think Mom is feeding him enough either. It is hard because we want them to eat from Mom as much as possible, but we do not want them to go hungry either.

When I fed them the second time Domino sounded like he was breathing heavily, like he was really congested so I took both of them in the bathroom and ran the shower for steam like the shelter suggested. He was still soundng a little loud when I fed them for the last time tonight and that concerns me. Of course, I do not know what a kitten's breathing is supposed to sound like, so who knows. I have asthma so I am always hyper-aware of breathing that sound labored.

We brought the kittens upstairs to feed them and bring them in the bathroom for steam and when I brought them back, I realized that Muffin (the mom) was missing! When I did foster orientation they warned me that it was common for kittens to get temporarily lost because they are so small, but leave it to me to lose the mom. I thought at first that she might have come looking for her kittens since I had taken them away from her, but after a few minutes of searching, I found her curled up on my bed.

It seems she did not care that I took the kittens. She just wanted to be with the people in the house. That is part of the problem with her. She wants to be with us more than she wants to take care of her kittens. She acts somewhat like a kitten herself even though she is two years old.

Hopefully, Domino's breathing will sound a little better tomorrow. I would like to avoid having to take him back to the shelter before Tuesday. They are scheduled to go in then for a vaccination. Of course, if he gets worse I will bring him in right away.

If anyone has any advice for me, I would be happy to hear it. Even if it is that I am doing everything all wrong. LOL.

Formula Anyone?

2009-04-03T17:58:00.002-04:00

Well, I am glad I decided to just go with my overprotective foster mother feeling (see yesterday's post). I took the kittens in today because the mother was acting strangely toward Kitten C (who has been nickednamed Domino because of the spot on his neck). I did not have anything real concreate to tell the shelter, just a bunch of vauge concerns that made me think he might not be getting the milk and care he needed from Mom.

The foster coordinator at the shelter agreed. So I am going to be supplementing his feeding from his Mom with some formula. I also got an antibotic for him and the Mom since their colds are getting worse. Oddly enough, Kitten B is doing just fine. But I will keep an eye on him too.

So, in the end I am glad that I listened to my instincts and got them checked out. There is no need for serious concern right now, but if I had left it for too long, there could have been.

Overprotective Foster Mom

2009-04-02T22:06:00.002-04:00

I can't get this annoying feeling that there is a problem with one of the kittens out of my head. Somehow the kitten keeps ending up out of the bed and away from the other kitten. The mother does not seem to be real anxious to put it back. In fact, she tends to push it towards me if I am down there. She also will roll over and move around to make sure that the other kitten is latching on when she lies down to nurse them, but the lets the other kitten climb all over her looking for a place to eat without doing anything.

I made them a new bed that I do not think the kittens can get out of on their own and that gives Mom more room to lie down, so I will see how it goes tonight. But if I still have this uneasy feeling in the morning, I think I am going to have to call the shelter and see about bringing them in to be checked over.

I guess it is better to be thought of as the crazy overprotective foster person than take the chance that there is something wrong and I did not pay attention to it.

Eyes Wide Open

2009-04-01T20:35:00.002-04:00

Well, at least partially open. That is right; Kitten B opened his eyes today. They are very cute, very unfocused blue eyes. Kitten B also finally lost his embilibal cord. I brought the foster family up to my bedroom today to keep a closer eye on them because I had a little bit of a concern today.

I mentioned in a previous post that they all have a slight cold. Well, one of the things that can happen when a kitten gets sick is that the mother can reject them and not keep them in the "nest" where it is warm. When I went into the room today, one of the kittens was sitting alone in the middle of the room. I did not know if the mother was ignoring it, or if I had just interuppted her in the middle of moving the kittens. (She likes to move them around the room).

So, just to be safe, I brought them up to my room to watch for a while. Turns out that Kitten C has decided that he likes to try and crawl around the room loking for Mom even though his eyes are not open yet. So thankfully, it seems he is just adventurous, not that Mom is rejecting him.

Kitten B now weighs in at 9 oz and has opened his eyes. Kitten C weighs in at 9.25 oz.

Ack!!

2009-03-30T11:04:00.005-04:00

I just went downstairs to give the mother cat, Muffin, some wet food and attention. I, of course, peeked into the "nesting" box to check on the kittens. I almost had a heart attack because it was empty! Thankfully, I quickly located them in the cat bed that is right near the box. I guess this means that Momma kitty is getting more comfortable here.

The babies are sneezing a little bit today. I think they caught Mom's cold. But otherwise, they are doing great. I think one of them is starting to try and open his eyes. Today is their one week birthday!

Unexpected Challenges

2009-03-29T20:11:00.006-04:00

When I decided to start fostering, I knew there would be some challenges that would come up and I would have to figure out how to deal with them. I expected things like dealing with a foster that got sick in some way and dealing with giving them up at the end of the foster time. I have, however, had some challenges that I did NOT expect when I signed up. Such as:

1. Thinking that with the only child in the house being 4 years old, I was done shopping at Babies R Us only to have to go back and get a bi-fold door child lock to keep a mother cat from hiding her newborns in the closet. Especially since I had just the day before filled the closet with every thing from the room that I though was NOT safe to have around kittens that young.

2. Convincing the 4 year old that the newborn kittens did not have sticks coming out of their bellies. They were embilical cords.

3. Explaining to a 4 year old what an embilical cord was.

And on that note, I am happy to report that Kitten C lost his embilical cord today and both kittens are doing well and maintaining their weights.

2009-03-28T00:01:00.004-04:00

Here are some pictures of my latest foster kitties.

This is the Mom, Muffin. She is two years old. Her nose amuses me because it is half black and half pink.

Look at that face! This is Kitten B.

This is Kitten C.

Sleeping babies. They are so small.

Welcome to my home (and the world)

2009-03-27T23:36:00.007-04:00

I picked up my latest foster on 3/26. The foster coordinator at the shelter asked if we would be willing to take in a pregnant mother cat and we said yes. By the time things worked out to go get the cat, she had given birth to two healthy kittens. I picked them up when the kittens were three days old.

The mother is a two year old black and white cat named Muffin. So far she is taking great care of her babies. I had a little trouble when I first got them home. I had a bed for her like they had at the shelter, but there she was in a smaller cage and at my house she has a whole room. It seems that she did not care to have her kittens out in the open like that and kept trying to move them to the closet. I actually had to go to babies r us and get a bi-fold door lock that you normally use to keep a toddler out of a closet. My roommate's husband (Roland) also helped me make Muffin a nesting box out of an old moving box so that she could safely "hide" her kittens.

As of today, the kittens are four days old. We think they are both boys, but it is hard to tell at this age. Since we are not sure about their sex, we have not named them yet. Kitten B is black and white and right now weighs in at 5 oz. Kitten C is also black and white and has a white neck with a black spot on it. Kitten C weighs in at 4.5 oz. If I can figure out how, I will post some pictures.

My First Fosters

2009-03-27T23:27:00.006-04:00

My first fosters were a mother and her two five week old kittens. They came from an overcrowded house. The mother was named Momma at the shelter. We (my roommates and I) renamed her Marion. She was very skittish and took a long time to warm up. She did not like being around my roommates' 4 year old daughter. If it was quiet and you took the time to let her get used to you, she was very nice and sweet. When I turned her back into the shelter, I reccommended a nice quiet adult home for her.

The reason she and her kittens were placed in foster care was because the kittens were about two weeks shy of being old enough for adoption. They also had "frog legs". This meant that their back legs stuck out to the side like a frogs do instead of going straight like they are supposed to do.

The vet at the shelter said that this happens sometimes and they just needed a little time to grow out of it. So they stayed with me for a little over a month to get a little older and so that I could be sure that their legs were improving with time and not causing them any trouble. By the time they went back to the shelter their legs were straight and they were running and jumping like crazy. My roommates' daughter, Pagie, named these kittens. There was one boy and one girl so she chose Triton and Ariel. (She is a HUGE fan of the little mermaid).

Triton and Ariel were adopted almost immediately after returning to the shelter. As of last Saturday, their mother, Marion, is still waiting for a new home since she is an adult cat and does not get along well with kids, but the shelter tells me that she is so sweet, they expect her to be adopted quickly.

Fostering 101

2009-03-27T19:26:00.003-04:00

I am only on my second foster "family" but already people have been asking me questions about being a foster home for animals so I thought I would answer some of the most asked questions.

Q. What made you decide to be a foster parent?

A. I love animals, but cannot afford to keep more than the one cat I have. Vet bills can be expensive. But with the organization I work with, they provide everything. All I have to provide is a place to stay, time and love.

Q. What type of animals do you foster?

A. Mostly mother cats with kittens or kittens that are too young to be adopted. I keep them until they are old enough to be fixed and adopted out.

Q. Do you enjoy it?

A. I am only on my second foster family, but so far I LOVE it. It is very rewarding. It is fun to have kittens around and I like feeling like I am giving an animal a second chance to find a good home.

Q. Is it hard to give them up when the foster time is done?

A. Yes. I will not lie. It is very hard to give them up and I miss my first foster cats alot. It is hard to balance giving them the love and caring they need, but still keep in mind that they are not "yours". But it is so worth it when you hear that they have been adopted. I think it makes it easier for me because I adopted my cat from this shelter and I know they are very careful to be sure that their animals go to the right home, not just the first one that will take them off their hands.

Any other questions? Feel free to comment and I will try to cover them at some point.