Fostering kittens - You can do it

[CindyB59]

I think we’ve all enjoyed the recent kitten posts. Watching them grow from tiny nuggets up to healthy, happy kittens that have gone on to their new lives.

Most shelters are seeing record high numbers. Our local shelter, Pima County Animal in Tucson AZ is beyond full. Zero room at shelter, all foster homes at capacity. They are looking at having to begin to euthanize, which is devastating to all.

Fostering is so rewarding. I foster kittens or mamas with babies. It’s very hard work. They are not usually well cared for, which means illness. Nothing grosser than 4-5 kittens with the screaming runs. But watching them heal and start playing…nothing more heart warming. I’ve lost a couple. Nothing more heartbreaking.

Start off easy. Get 2 or 3 that are eating on their own and just need to grow a bit. Slowly work your way, with experience and knowledge, to those that are ill and need meds, etc.

You don’t have to have a fancy setup. Just a safe, clean, appropriate area. I did turn a bedroom into a kitten room. Vinyl is so much easier to clean and sanitize.

I “foster failed” with the two girls, orange and dilute calico. (And renamed them) But I’ve fostered around 160, and only kept 4. I figure that’s not bad LOL

Contact your local shelter and see how you can help!

[moonlitoaksranch]

Of the 14 I started with, I have only three left. I needed help, so I signed up to foster with a local rescue and those kittens are still here under my care, so nothing has changed except I don’t have to screen their new owners. Their intake check up is Tuesday (so busy). After these three, will I foster more for the rescue? They pay for litter and feed. I already have the crates. Maybe…

[shiloh]

I would be the biggest foster fail ever.

Now - send me all the kittens pictured. They are so cute! lol

[Xanthoria]

No I cannot do it - the three ferals I fostered 3 years ago are still here, but now they’re not cute little kittens but big sweaty hair bags lying all over me all night and spreading their hairy hairs everywhere! The worst!

[CindyB59]

GOODBYE is the goal of fostering!

Goodbye is the goal.

[Xanthoria]

Stop rubbing it in!!!

[Fiesta01]

You’re such a good mom!

[DMK]

Last Thursday I took the last group of 4 in for their final shots and spay/neuter then on to adoption. All 4 were adopted by Sunday. I’m picking up my next crew (mom+6!!! kittens) tomorrow.

I wish I had space to do some older fosters but 4 is enough full time residents for my house. Well, 3 today… but another Maine Coon should be here in a month or two. Ideally I keep a 2 MCC, 2 adoptee ratio, so that limit helps with the foster fail urges. The youngest is a foster fail from my “bird” litter last fall, the other is also a foster fail, but he flunked out of the foster program with a dear friend. I inherited him when she passed away.

[CindyB59]

I have a MC too

[DMK]

Ridiculous is the default state

[CanadianTrotter]

My Maine Coon John Coltrane!

[gertie06]

I foster puppies because I don’t like puppies. Haha! I know that sounds absolutely bizarre. Don’t get me wrong…I LOVE dogs. But I love adult/senior dogs. Puppies are a pain in the butt.
By fostering puppies, I’m never tempted to keep them :).

[candyappy]

Since I am currently the middle of getting my own kittens raised and to ( hopefully) new homes, it seems an impossibility but maybe I can just leave the current pen up and see what happens in the future ??

Might be easier taking fosters than it is getting the pen dismantled

[shiloh]

That pic made me tear up, He looks so very much like my Teddy only Teddy was very orange. John is so handsome.

[gertie06]

I love this video and I totally 100% agree with this gal. I hate when people say, “Looks like he found his new home with you!” NO. If I kept them, I couldn’t foster anymore. If I keep this one, dozens more will die because there are not enough willing foster homes. An adopter saves one life. A foster can save hundreds.

[chestnutmarebeware]

I have been a foster fail with multiple kittens, three senior dogs and two separate horses over the course of my adult life. In fact, I’ve never NOT been a foster fail!

At this point, I wouldn’t even try to fool myself into thinking I could foster an animal. I’d just be adopting. Again.

[CanadianTrotter]

@shiloh

That pic made me tear up, He looks so very much like my Teddy only Teddy was very orange. John is so handsome.

Teddy must have been beautiful!

Johnny is the lightest ginger in the house. Oddly the spot where he had his intravenous when he was neutered as a kitten, has turned into a patch of pure white fur.

[CindyB59]

I have kept 4, two sets of siblings. I also bought a Maine coon, my “dream cat”. I’m in no danger of keeping any more, the inn is full

That said, I have a bedroom that I made into my “kitten room”. I don’t mix my personal pets with fosters. They almost always at least have a URI or something. Last ones (that I adopted 2 of 3), I found out had ringworm the day after I introduced them. Ugh. Luckily nobody else got it, including me. Generally, at the end. When I know they’re healthy, I will bring them out supervised to meet the dogs. It’s always a bonus if they’re used to dogs

This is my kitten room. Vinyl flooring, semi gloss paint, so it can be bleached.

.

[moonlitoaksranch]

Our three remaining kittens are now fosters. The rescue did a great job taking pictures of them and advertising them. They even microchipped them already. Just waiting until they’re big enough to spay/neuter.

My lap right now has two out of three. This is a very good perk of fostering.

[DMK]

I just replaced carpeting with LVP, it makes life so much easier (and I think I’ll also repaint with a bathroom grade paint as well).

I use those play room mats that connect along with tespo panels. Right now they are set up on the short side so mom can hop in and out, then when the little heathens get mobile I generally stack the panels 2 high (zip ties) and block off the part of the room with the desk/printers. It’s not perfect but between towels stuffed in nooks and crannies plus the panels I can hold them at bay for the short time they are with me.