Why do we foster?

Why do we foster? Especially since we have no pets, we find people are often surprised when they learn we foster.

There are several reasons, but they can be boiled down to two:

1) Jon is a cat person.

2) Kat is allergic to cats.

Jon was quite sad about being unable to have a cat as a pet, but admitted the reasonableness of Kat's stance that she didn't want to be sick all the time. Many years of allergy shots means Kat can visit Jon's parents for a weekend (have had cats for decades) without major problems, but not much longer. Both of us expected to have pets, but it just didn't really work out.

A good friend who volunteered at the shelter suggested the foster program. It was an excellent suggestion.

Jon gets a cat. The cat stays in one room of the house so Kat can get away from them if she's feeling sniffly. We had been concerned the allergens would fill the house anyway, but it doesn't seem to be the case. For the adults, they go back about the time Kat starts having problems being in the cat room. Kittens are less allergenic, so their sticking around longer is fine. There are some fosters Kat has to limit her time in the cat room by the end of the week. We can take a break between cats to let her allergies calm down again.

In many ways the fact we have no pet makes fostering easier. We don't have to deal with jealousy, splitting our time, or, most importantly, keeping pets separate from our fosters. That's both the rules and safer for both fosters & pets. We also admit it's nice to not have to worry about a pet if we go on a trip.

It's a volunteer arrangement that works well. We get to help the animals, have fluffballs around frequently, Kat stays healthy. We have a big smile every time we find out our fosters have found forever homes.

Good News! Tiny Tiffany & Fauna are adopted!

Tiny Tiffany has been adopted! Tiny Tiffany is still on the web site with a heart by her name. Fauna is not pictured, so we hope/assume she has also been adopted, but too long ago to stil be pictured. We were unexpectedly sans net access last week so we didn't see it.

Josie is still available. If anyone is looking for a very sweet cat you should go visit her.

Short hiatus

Jon and Kat will be taking a break from fostering. At least a week and a half.

Normally, we take a week off between cats--more if the shelter doesn't have a cat who needs fostering. It lets us clean the room, clean the supplies, recover, have a few calm mornings, Jon to not have to defend his cereal, etc.

This time will be at least a week and a half because we are having minor repair work done on the house next week and the cats would be in the way, and probably wouldn't like the noise anyway. That's why Tiny Tiffany and Fauna would have gone back Sunday if they hadn't had to go back earlier.

When we have cats, my plan is to try and post every other day. When we don't, I'll try to post once a week, talking about different aspects of fostering.

If you have any questions or anything you'd like me to talk about during the off-weeks (or the on-weeks), leave me a comment!

Tiny Tiffany & Fauna return to shelter

We dropped the two kittens off at the shelter this morning.

Tiny Tiffany, unsurprisingly, has developed a URI. This was expected. She was, however, starting to sound like Fauna. Not as continuously bad, but she was wheezing off and on. We were also wrong on Fauna's breathing improving. She was slightly better in the morning, but by evening she was just as bad as when she arrived. Steam wasn't having much of an effect.

Then last night Fauna managed to re-injure her spay incision. She did not pull it open, thankfully, but she did create a second wound--we don't know if she popped a blister, wore the skin, or what exactly. The actual incision is looking a bit better, but still has a lot of healing to do. She was also very uncooperative on letting us look at it.

Several of these meant they had to go back for a check by the shelter, and they stayed. The shelter will care for them for now, and they will probably go back into foster soon. Hopefully the foster-crunch will have eased by then. The shelter has a spate of cats with URIs and are short on foster families.

If you are interested in fostering, we urge you to go make an appointment. Most fosters are more straightforward and simple than these two (as shown by the last two we blogged about). I do not suggest Fauna & Tiny Tiffany for first time fosters (beyond having multiple things wrong they are also rather difficult to medicate), but the other URI cats are probably more straightforward.

(As a comparison, our usual morning foster routine is get up, pat cat on head, give cat medicine, cat sulks, give cat food, clean litter box. Done. Less than 10 minutes once you get the hang of it. Depending on how long you pat the cat on the head.)

The morning routine

I wanted to share with you the "routine" in the mornings for Fauna & Tiffany. Evenings are similar. These two are more involved than most, because of the steam treatment and hot water bottle.

Get up. Open the door to the cat room, pat the kittens on the head.

Put Fauna in her crate, Jon takes her into the bathroom and sets her on the counter while he showers. The steam helps her to breath better.

Meanwhile, Kat gets out the laser pointer and runs Tiffany around until she's looking tired. Kittens are fun to play with--they haven't yet figured out the idea of watching and waiting, they just chase. We are worried about running Fauna too hard while she's having trouble breathing so we give Tiffany a good workout while Fauna's not there, and keep play a bit calmer the rest of the day.

After Tiffany is tired, Kat gets a hot water bottle into the bathroom. She takes Fauna out of her crate and holds her with the hot water bottle against her spay surgery incision.

Ten minutes later Kat puts Fauna back in her crate and leaves her in the still steamy bathroom for a bit more steam treatment. She preps the medicine for the two kittens--who get different dosages. (I'm guessing because they have different weights, but I don't know for sure).

Tiffany gets her meds. She runs off in a corner and sulks.

Fauna is brought back to the cat room, gets her meds. She also runs off and sulks.

As a reward for putting up with the meds (if only because they aren't given a choice) the two get wet food. (Ok, actually it's because they are sick kittens, and Fauna at least probably can't smell the dry food. It does get them out of their sulking.) Dry food and water are also refilled/refreshed.

Tiffany eats. We're a bit concerned about Fauna who seems to have problems lowering her head. We're going to try setting the food up on a box closer to head height this evening.

Jon cleans the litter box, and the kittens morning routine is finished.

Tiny Tiffany and Fauna Arrive

We had expected to take a couple weeks off from fostering. I had been planning some general foster information posts, but those will have to wait. The shelter had quite a few felines all come up with URIs at once and not enough foster space, so we agreed to take this pair for the week.

They are 6 month old kittens. At that age they are still behaving like kittens but are starting to grow into looking like adult cats.

Tiny Tiffany, who is almost all black but for a few stray white hairs on her chest, is basically healthy. She's being treated and watched because her littermate/cage mate has a bad URI so chances are she does too, just not showing symptoms yet. She is very exploratory, heading out of the crate quickly, onto the futon and soon after up to the top bunk to peer down at us.

Fauna, also basically black but with some tan mottling on the lower chin, is having a rough time. She has a very bad URI, bad enough she's often breathing through her mouth and sounds like she's snoring when she tries to use her nose. On top of that her spay site is swollen and her eyes have discharge. She is a sad little kitten. She came out of the crate, looked around, the curled up in a little ball on the futon. She climbed on Kat's lap when she sat nearby, but in general is just looking pathetically out at us.

We will be monitoring Fauna closely. If she doesn't show clear improvement in the next two days she'll have to go back to the society for more treatment.

Barring that, these kittens will be with us until Sunday.

(While we were at the shelter we said "hi" to Josie. She was glad to see us, but would love it if someone would come take her out of her crate and cuddle her.)

Josie - Available!

Josie is back at the humane society. She passed her physical and is now available for adoption. You can see her online at cuhumane.org or at the humane society in person.

Josie is a cuddle-cat who likes playing with string from time to time. If you want a cat you can sit with and pet, she's a good one. She's talkative with a lot of different vocalizations. She's also quite polite--Jon ate breakfast in the cat room and she never tried to bother his cereal. While she did jump on the sofa she showed no inclination to jumping anywhere else (such as the desk, the top of the cat tree, etc). She is tolerant of being picked up and held, but it did take Kat a few tries to learn how she is comfortable being held.

A very sweet lap-cat.

Josie Collage

We are reaching the point where there is little change. Josie is healthy, she's cuddly. She will play with a string, as long as someone is dangling it over her head (or across her tail--she goes after it really emphatically if it's on her tail.)

Her vocalizations have expanded. She has always been a talkative cat but she's started trilling and being a lot more expressive since she stopped being congested.

She is always adorably cute when she sleeps. Sometimes it's in the cat tree from earlier, sometimes it's on her back on the sofa looking like a fluffy sausage with curled up paws, sometimes it's curled in a little ball.

We have an appointment to return her to the shelter on Thursday. I will be a bit sad to see this friendly cat go, but I hope she finds her forever home soon.

I took quite a few pictures this weekend. Watch for one more post before she heads back.

Josie--Clips and String

We noticed when Josie would knit while sitting on our laps her claws were getting quite sharp. So tonight we clipped her front claws. It went really easily. Jon held her on his lap laying along one leg and pet her and Kat clipped. He only had to scruff her briefly for one dew claw. Very simple, and we're a lot more comfortable with her on our laps now. It's normally not a difficult procedure, but usually Jon does have to scruff the cat to make them stay still.

I tied her mouse to a string so I could more easily throw it to try and get her to play (having gotten quite tired of getting up to retrieve it). She managed to pull the mouse off the end--and proceeded to play with the string. She won't always play, but fairly frequently. It's fun to watch her bat at it above her head.

I had an email complaining there were no new pictures of Josie. Here you are! Pictures of her and her new toy. You can also see the black patch on her belly.