A Year In Fosters

So I figured that I would update you guys on some of the guys that I have taken in over the last year. I hope I will cover everyone, but there were a few kittens here and there that did not stay long enough to make the cut (like a trio of ten day old babies that I only had for two days).

So when I last posted I had Bean. Well Bean's name had evolved several times already but by the time she left us she was just Bee. Now she is BeeBee and she lives with a friend who loves her very much (and I am sure BeeBee feels the same way). About the same weekend my computer died we took in another foster and I named her Thumbelina. Thumbelina was a polydactyl (also called Hemingway Cats), which means she had extra digits. She also had an injured leg which she was able to recover from while in my care. Here are some pics of Bee and Thumbellina.

Look at those toes!!

Best Friends.

<3

Bee the day before she went to her forever home!

A couple weeks later I took home two little fuzzballs that needed some socialization. They were very scared (and quite hissy) when I brought them home, but with a little love and time they became full on cuddle monsters. Here are Shy Guy and Growler.

Growler practicing to be a flower.

Happy face.

Shy Guy.

I took a break from kittens for a few weeks after that but then a trio came to stay with us. They were a mom and her two babies (a boy and a girl) and as embarrassing as this is I cannot remember the babies names. It is really driving me nuts. They did not stay with me long and I know I called them Mama B and the Babies Wee, but for the life of me I cannot remember what the babies names were. I know that I am going to wake up in the middle of the night and shout the names out when I remember them, so you will have to wait until then to learn them.

I took in two teeny tiny kittens after that. Unfortunately this story has a sad ending because one of the kittens did not make it. Bruiser was small with a black spot over his eye and his sister The Beast towered over him and was nearly double his weight, and that is where their names came from. They were part of a litter of four neonatal kittens that were dumped at our shelter one cold morning, and two of their litter mates had already passed away. I tried my luck with the remaining kittens but sadly Bruiser was just too small and sickly and he passed away despite my best efforts. The Beast (or Beastie) thrived and was later adopted so I was lucky to have succeeded with one of them.

The Beast being cuddly.

Tiny Bruiser with food all over his face.

A few weeks later I took in a monster group of five kittens; they were tiny and unruly and needed help with litter box training. What a nightmare! I loved them though, so we powered through it and eventually they became normal, happy, potty-trained kittens. Fuzzy Bunny, Nugget, Velcro, Reptar, and Monster were quite the handful.

They worked together to take down their prey.

Cuddle puddle. 

Chipmunk, Squirrel, and Reeses were not meant to stay with me for more than a few days, but when they got sick I had no choice but to keep them for two weeks while they received treatment for upper respiratory infections. Oh, who am I kidding, I loved every minute of it. These were three of the sweetest girls you have ever met!

Reeses, Chipmunk, and Squirrel.

Chipmunk.

Squirrel with Spyrit.

When Snarf (named for her striking resemblance to Snurfle, a previous foster) came to us she had a gaping hole in her neck which we suspected was from a bot fly (nasty!) and we were not sure that she would live long enough to tell her gross tale. She was tiny and screaming and very unhappy. I took Snarf home, cleaned her up, and fed her until she was happy. A few days later someone dumped a very scared kitten at my shelter. We named her Spitfire Sally because she was half feral, and I ended up taking Sally home to see if she would be happier with another kitten around. Snarf and Sally were instant BFFs and Snarf helped Sally to understand what it was to be a house cat.

Spirfire Sally.

Pudgy little Snarf.

Next I fostered another nightmare group of four kittens. They were off the wall but I loved them for the week or so they stayed with me. The boys were Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum and the girls were Storm and Stella. I kept the shelter names for the two girls, but the boys were impossible to tell apart so I ditched their shelter names.

Are you Tweedle Dee or Tweedle Dum???

Storm.

And that brings us back to Domo, the kitten who I showed off a little bit in the last post. Domo had a broken leg and (much like my Spyrit) the vets were unable to save it. It is hard to get a cat to stay in a cast as is, but when he is a tiny energetic kitten it is even harder. The chances of the leg healing properly were very slim so the vets decided that, rather than risk Domo having problems later in life, they would just amputate while he was young so that he could learn how to live on three legs. He gets along just fine! Domo is such a spunky kitten with a huge personality and I really fell in love with him. I am so happy that my sister adopted him because I know that he will always be loved and cared for.

So stinking cute!

So we are almost up to date, with the exception of the two kittens I am fostering right now. I have had a lot of fosters in the last year! I really wanted to do another pregnant or nursing mother cat but we have changed our policy on fostering the really young kittens to employees. For the meantime I am happy to take anyone who is a "project" meaning any kittens that look like they are going to be with us for a little while. The kittens I have right now will have to get a post to themselves because their story is a long one!