[love.my.cats]

I've been volunteering for a rescue, doing abit of admin in the office (which is at the Director's house) and helping respond to adoption enquiries etc. Today the director went away and myself and another volunteer are taking calls from foster carers/looking after all the emails that come through. Less than 6 hours after she's left and I've gotten myself into having two semi ferals at my place until the Director comes back. I'm kind of excited about this short term foster but also worried about the dynamics of our cats changing, as well as the fact we have such a small unit and the hubby isn't totally into having them. Ohh well, it's only for a week and a half.. Right? Here's hoping our cats don't get too upset about them. I'm so lucky to have the pen that we bought before we got Jett to set them up in..

 

[Mitts & Tess]

That is the downfall of being actively involved in a rescue! No telling the stuff youll get roped into! Its an adventure though and youll have lots of crazy stories to tell!

I was belly laughing with a friend the other day when she asked if i remembered the older semi feral kitten which got loose in a tnr friends car. It wouldnt leave the car to be placed back in the managed colony. Our goofy friend put a cat box in the car and fed the cat in the car for over a week. Her husband was mift with her because they had to limit the use of their only car since it was summer here.

Waiting to hear what else you will get into doing this week! Good luck with temp fostering.

 

[love.my.cats]

Thanks Merry.. When I started helping out I swore I'd not be taking in any cats (we couldn't even consider a dog here) but I just keep telling myself now that's it's only for a week and a half. Once we have our own (bigger) place I'd love to help out more with fosters but we really shouldn't be doing it here.
LOL that's too funny about your friend and the cat in the car!
I met these kittens once, they'd just come into the rescue. They'd hiss and spit at you but once you picked them up, they'd sit still. They didn't really relax though.. They've moved homes twice already since then so I really have no idea if they're worse than what they were. I'm hoping not but I'm very worried they have gotten worse which will make things so much harder, especially now they're older.

 

[maggie23]

that's awesome what you're doing

what great stories you'll have and what joy you'll be able to bring into some kitties' lives along the way. my husband and i are preparing our house to start fostering kitties ourselves. it may be a while before we're ready, but i'm really looking forward to it. i certainly know there is the "risk" we'll fall in love with some of the fosters, of course, but we're actually HOPING to find up to 3 more eventually who we do fall in love with and who do all get along with our current kitty, Angel. she's the main reason we're doing this. we feel like she needs some buddies. even if and when we do find ourselves with 4 permanent kids (ha ha!), i'm hoping we'll still have the room to foster other kitties for as long as they need it.

 

[love.my.cats]

They're here and they're absolutely fine! Our cats haven't even blinked an eye at the fact they are here (thank goodness) and they're already settling in quite well. I've got some (really bad) pics below - I don't want to bother them too much so I'll get more in the next few days. Bam Bam (boy) is less scared. He cowers but after being held for a little, he relaxes. His sister Pebbles is a little more scared and she'll hiss and lash out but once you pick her up, she's not aggressive. She's not relaxing when held yet though. I shut myself in their pen with them at dinner time and hand fed Pebbles. She let me pet her with (almost) no hissing while she was eating. This will be a regular mealtime thing I think - no food unless I'm in there petting them so they associate petting with yummy food. I'm sitting right next to the pen on the floor as I type this and they are walking around and playing a little with their toys. I wouldn't call them semi-feral, just scared kittens that I think will come around in no time at all.

This was taken about one minute after I put them in the pen - so scared!

Becoming more relaxed with me sitting right near the pen.. Pretty terrible photo though.

BamBam still scared but tolerating snuggles with my hubby.

 

[Dicesmom]

pretty cats!! I would be a foster failure for Bam Bam...I LOVE his coloring.

 

[love.my.cats]

I love BamBam's colouring too (we actually already had some people come see him last night). My husband thinks Pebbles is more pretty than BamBam though.. It doesn't matter either way because there's absolutely no way we can have any foster failures where we're living right now.

 

[Mitts & Tess]

Great news they are doing so well. I hope the one kitty was adopted???? Wouldn't that be great!

Make a decision, under no circumstances will you take any foster, no matter how tempted you are. It worked for me. I adopted a bobtail that was the most awesome cat. She waited for over a year to get adopted by me. I credit the fosterers for her being such a great cat and I'm eternally grateful to them for their labor of love. I keep telling myself, my mission is to socialize and get cat prepared for a new home. My fostering is a gift to future cat adopters.

I would make exceptions for special needs cats. But so far I haven't had to. There are always people with big hearts that step up to adopt these special cats. God Bless them!

Keep posting progress and pictures. They are beauties!

 

[maggie23]

so happy for you and the fosters

i totally admire you for all your hard work.

once we begin fostering, we will be housing adult cats who need help socializing. i hope we're half as successful as you! i feel like our kitty was probably one of those who needed socializing when she was first brought to the shelter, but she is the most lovable little girl now. i'm sure there are lots like her that just need a little love and quiet time to bring out their lovable sides, too.

it would make me so happy to be able to help all those cats find permanent homes, too. and heckins, if that home happens to be with us, then hurray for us all! once we get up to our 4 cat limit (for now), maybe we'll switch over to fostering kittens and HOPE that we're not tempted to adopt them as well. but who knows what the future holds?

 

[love.my.cats]

I haven't heard back from the people that came to meet Bam Bam as yet. They didn't seem to mind that he was pretty shy while they were here but who knows, maybe they went home and discussed it and decided not to go ahead..

We've definitely decided we cannot keep any fosters. I don't know that we'll have more fosters in this place (it's so tiny so I'd understand if hubby says no) but when we move, fostering kittens on a regular basis is something I'd love to do. If we keep any, that means we can't help as many through fostering. Plus, we are both more than happy with having 3 cats of our own.

Maggie23, fostering really is such a great experience (I've done it short term twice before - once was hand raising two kittens). Good on you guys for being so keen on doing it. I'd love to help the older kitties but I fear that a not too well socialised older cat would upset our guys a bit.

Kittens kid when I got home and looked in their pen this afternoon. I had fed them and they were both still very on edge. They're running around their pen like crazy, playing with each other as well as the toys in there. They do freeze when we go near them but at least they are more relaxed in there than they were last night - they just huddled until we went to bed last night. I'm going to go in shortly and hand feed them again, try to get them to play while I'm in there and then we'll bring them out for snuggles on the lounge with us. They're still very scared but apart from when I first got home, they haven't retreated to the carrier to hide from us/any noises so that's a good sign I guess.

 

[maggie23]

Love hearing the progress

I hope you keep posting on their progress. I love getting an idea of what to expect eventually when we start fostering. We will be very careful if we have a foster who might upset Angel. She doesn't do stairs so we will luckily be able to keep them totally separate during the foster period if we have to. I don't think we would chance upsetting Angel if that weren't possible. : )

 

[Alpaca]

Foster and rescue ppl are the greatest for giving your time and effort! You guys have the biggest hearts!

 

[love.my.cats]

Just a little update. When I fed them this morning, I put some woolen golves on so Pebbles wouldn't give me (more) scratches on my hands while I was reaching out for her. It went okay. Tonight, I sat in their pen for a few hours and stroked them the whole time they were eating. It took a little while but Pebbles finally started playing with me. We were playing for ages - throwing/batting around a ball and scrunched piece of paper. I'm actually a little worried about Bam Bam. I thought he'd come further than her since I first met them but he's pretty much just stopped swatting and hissing. He's still very scared and didn't even play with me tonight. So I need to work on different things with both of them. I need to make Pebbles realise that when I reach out, I'm not going to hurt her (I did only get swiped twice tonight and she let me pet her so much). Where as Bam Bam needs to just relax around me in general. i have another 8 days with them so I'm really hoping they can be changed kitties by the time they leave here. I do have more pics of them but I'm so tired and heading to bed now so I'll post those tomorrow sometime.

 

[love.my.cats]

Those are the pics I was supposed to post a few days ago. Things have just been so busy here and I've been spending as much time as possible with the kittens that I'm hardly getting online anymore.

They are doing SO well. They're currently chasing and playing with each other in their pen.. I'm heading in soon to give them breakfast. I'm still making sure I'm with them, stroking them at every meal time. This morning when I un-zipped the pen, they both ran back half way then stopped and came back to me. I took some pics of them looking cute and sticking their heads out as me as though to say "where's our food?".

I got a Feliway diffuser on Thursday night and that's plugged in right next to their pen. I can't be sure if that's helping at all, or if they're just starting to learn on their own that I'm okay.. I think maybe a bit of both.

We went to my Mum's place yesterday and they came with us. Pebbles actually didn't swipe at anyone when they went to pet her in her carrier and that's a HUGE thing. Her swiping has really cut down. I wish I could say it's stopped but she does still hiss and swipe occasionaly. All the little scratches on my hands from her are almost gone though and if she does swipe now, it's nowhere near as aggressive as it was before.

I'm having issues getting the computer to recognise my phone right now - I really want to put the pics up from this morning, they look like two different kittens to the two that are huddled together in the very first pic I took. I'm so proud of them.

 

[love.my.cats]

Bam Bam started escaping from the pen so I kind of just gave up on it - they spent two days in the bathroom but since yesterday morning, they've had free run of the rest of the unit with our 3 cats. They're loving it. And Jett is absolutely LOVING Bam Bam. Although they're still not confident kitties, they are getting there. They've been hanging out on the lounges and will crouch away from us when we go to pat them but are not shooting off and hiding. I think being out and around the other cats is really helping their confidence. Pebbles is still much more scared but is swatting at us less. She still hisses when we pat her and will occasionally swat, but it's just paw and no claws now. I haven't had a scratch for days

This weekend was when they were supposed to go back but when the director came back, she got dumped with a Mumma cat and 4 kittens (two are surrogates and only about 3 weeks old) who all have flu. She also has dogs at her place that need to move on to carers so I've told her we're okay with these guys for a couple more weeks, until the Easter madness dies down and we can get some more carers on board.

I've finally got a new cord for my phone so will upload pics as soon as I get a chance.

 

[maggie23]

so great that they're frolicking with the others now

happy to hear pebbles and bam bam have joined the rest of the family and are gaining confidence. what a great environment you have at home to socialize new kitties!

i'm still waiting for my husband to finish renovations on our house so WE can start fostering. heh heh! our Angel has been an incredible trooper throughout it all, though. her file SAID she didn't mind loud noises, but this is ridiculous. she is the perfect construction site cat. she SNORES through all the tearing down of drywall and the nail-gunning! we are so lucky. :catsm

 

[love.my.cats]

Maggie, it definitely makes life easy having easy going cats

 

[love.my.cats]

The first day they came to the front of the pen when I opened it (I did have food but still, better than running away).

Playing outside the pen

And after being out of the pen and us going out for a few hours, we came home to this..

 

[Leazie]

They are two different cats. You are doing such a wonderful thing for them.

 

[love.my.cats]

They were spayed/neutered today. Will be picking them up shortly. I've spoken to the director of the rescue who said the vet had called her to say they were all done and they weren't too badly behaved.