Fostering feline friends

Our first group of foster cats

Two of the four kittens in our first foster group

A few years ago, a co-worker told me about how she fostered cats and kittens for the Wisconsin Humane Society.  I had never heard about fostering animals before, so I did a little research.  The WHS uses volunteers to foster dogs, cats and small animals.  Animals need to be fostered for various reasons.  Usually animals go into foster care because of growth, behavior or medical reasons.

We didn't have any family pets at the time.  I thought that fostering would be a good way to learn about caring for animals and an interesting family project.  We had been pet-sitting for friends' pets (dogs, cats, guinea pigs, rats).  We enjoyed that because it gave us the opportunity to spend time with a variety of animals.  All three of my kids were being home-schooled at the time, and so fostering would also be part of our education as both a learning experience and a service project.  I mentioned the idea to my kids.  There was no turning back after that!  I filled out the online application and attended the required Foster Orientation and Cat Behavior Seminar.  We got our first foster group at the beginning of 2012, as a New Year's present.  It was a group of four kitten siblings that were about three-months old.  They needed to be fostered for growth and because of an upper respiratory infection.  

We brought the two male and two female kitties home and set them up in an extra bedroom.  They were so much fun, and we got into our daily routine of feeding, medicine and playtime.  Lots of playtime!  The kids got to know the kitties' personalities and named them Sweetsie, Stinker, Swirl and Tiger.  Over the course of the few weeks we had them, we took them in for a couple of vet check-ups at the WHS.  Eventually the time came that the four kittens were healthy and ready to go out for adoption.  I will admit - it was very hard to say good-bye.  There were tears on our part.  But we knew that we had taken good care of the cats and helped them get better.  We looked for them to be posted on the WHS website and were excited to see that all four of them got adopted within a day of being posted.  It cheered us up to know that our first fosters were adopted so quickly and that we'd be called to foster again soon.   

Buddy Skojko and Angel

Angel with my daughter

And we were called within a few weeks to foster two more kittens.  These two just needed to be with us for a couple of weeks so that they could grow big enough to be neutered or spayed and then put up for adoption.  The kids named the sister Angel and the brother Buddy Skojko.  Again, we were sad to say goodbye.  Again, the kittens were adopted quickly.  However, my daughter started lobbying for adopting from a future foster group. That leads me to our next foster group.  This time a mama cat with her two babies.  These kitties were younger than any we'd had before - only about 20 days old.

Little Buddy Jay

Little Buttercup

 

Buddy Jay and Buttercup, as well as their mom Crystal, stayed with us for quite a while.  The babies were tiny and needed to stay with their mom and nurse and grow.  They also both had eye infections for which we had to administer medication regularly.  We grew really close to this little group, and we made the decision that we were definitely going to adopt Buddy Jay and Buttercup.  We considered adopting Crystal as well, but she started to not want to be with the kitties as they got older.  The WHS recommended that we just adopt the kittens.  So they found their forever home with us and have now been with us for two and half years.  

We didn't foster for several months after that, as we wanted to focus on our new pets.  We also had trips and other events that kept us away from home.  In addition, we had rearranged the bedrooms and no longer had an extra one that could be devoted just to kitties.  But in the beginning of 2013, we decided we were ready again.  Over the course of 2013, we fostered four individual cats.  Two were adult cats that we fostered for socialization.  Two were kittens that we fostered for growth.  We were able to figure out a way to keep them separate from our resident cats, which is a requirement for fostering.  After these four, we had another period of time when we couldn't foster for various reasons. 

Charlotte

Jughead (we did not name him!)

Charlie

Leo

Nala

At the beginning of this summer, we took in another adult cat.  She was a sweetheart who we named Nala.  I had mentioned to the WHS that my daughter was really hoping to foster a group of kittens again.  And they obliged!  The day after we returned Nala to go out for adoption, they called us about taking a mama cat and her five kittens.

Mama & five nursing kittens

Five kittens in a pile

When we picked them up, they were only twelve days old.  They are the youngest kittens we have fostered.  We've had them for a few weeks now, and it's been so fun to watch them grow.  From the first day when they barely wobbled out of the crate and spent all of their time either nursing or sleeping.  To the active kittens they are now - running and chasing and wrestling and eating.

Fostering cats and kittens has been a wonderful experience for our family.  Including our current group, we have fostered twenty cats.  We'll probably take a break after this boisterous group, but I'm sure we'll continue to foster when we can.  There is work involved, of course, depending on the age of the cats or kittens and whether or not they are on medication or need additional special care.  Lots of cats or kittens means lots of feeding and lots of litter-scooping.  And sometimes even wiping little kitty bottoms.  (The WHS provides all necessary food and medicine.)  Fostering certainly has been an educational experience.  We've learned a lot about kittens and cats and about the functioning of the WHS and the roles of the different people who work there.  Fostering has also been a good service project.  Taking care of animals and helping them get ready to be adopted by their forever home is a great feeling.  Fostering has been a lesson in compassion and care-giving.  And a lot of fun!     

*****

P.S.  If you're interested in fostering animals for the Wisconsin Humane Society, you can find more information here. 

P.P.S  My daughter insisted that I include photos of all the cats we have fostered.  (I could not find a photo of Crystal, but I have the rest.)  I haven't taken time to learn about layout in Blogger, so pardon the inelegant arrangement of the photos in this post.