For many years living in Santa Barbara, California my husband and I had a doggie day care/overnight service called Just Good Doggies. We welcomed a wonderful range of pups that would come and share their love.
We even opened our home to bunnies and tortoises! A virtual menagerie of God’s creatures. When we moved two years ago to South Carolina, sadly we left that business behind. We now live in a community and not enough room to romp and play in the backyard.
When the hurricane came upon us I learned that there was no electricity at the Aiken County Animal Shelter and some of the resident cat’s there needed a safe haven for a few days.
It didn’t take me long to volunteer our warm home for these sweet angels. We had an unoccupied guest room and they could gaze out the large Palladian window for hours and play with toys, scratching posts and towers to climb.
When it was time to return them, I had my chin on my buttons and so sad to see them go and asked if I could help in any other way other than volunteering at the shelter itself…too much of a tug on the heartstrings. Lucky for me they needed kitten fosters and BINGO….PAY DIRT!
I was grateful that my husband was on board as well. To date we have probably cycled through almost a dozen kittens or combination of mother and kittens for fostering.
Everyone wonders how we can do that and not get attached and want to keep them. The answer is simple. Our job is to bring them along with food, love and safety. Add socialization and lots of human contact so they are the perfect pet for their new family when ready. We can’t afford to get too attached and become a foster fail because that’s not the job description.
We are so fulfilled knowing that we did a great job and as soon as they are presented in the lobby of the shelter they are snapped up instantly. Fostering does come with its sadness and disappointments. We have had two very, very young kittens that just didn’t make it no matter the efforts from us and FOTAS.
Recently Hilary contacted me about two pre-mature kittens with no mother. The odds were stacked against their survival but the only hope was that if Monica (the mother cat we were currently fostering) would accept them as her own. She did and we were so pleased to see that she would care for them.
However, one was just too weak to get the sustenance needed to grow so sadly the little one passed. Miracle of miracles the other one fought his way to his new mama and started growing. We weighed him on a daily basis and little by little he put on weight. I named him Rocky Balboa! My Italian Stallion was a fighter!
It’s such a joy to walk into their room and see them playing and hopping around! If you were ever thinking about fostering kittens, it is a warm and fuzzy experience and one that you will never regret while making lots of meow memories!
Their Lives Are In Our Hands
By Carole Bennett, Kitten Foster