Who's Afraid of An Empty Nest?

For a short amount of time all the foster kittens had been adopted. But there was something whispering to me from the basement..... 'I'm empty', it whispered,'There's room here for some cats that need fostering...'

What else could I do? I listened to the voice.











These two volunteered. A couple of 'problem' kids. Both would grab at you when petted.


This is Penny. A very beautiful girl under a year old. This sweet girl will come to me and climb into my lap. But being that she is not only a Princess, but a Princess Diva, she has her rules concerning petting. You are allowed to gaze upon her great beauty, but touching is restricted. I am allowed a few pets, then she gently guides my hand with her paw to her mouth for a reprimand. I have informed her that allowing her person to pet her tends to collect the loose hair and therefore prevent those embarrassing moments caused by hairballs. She is considering it.


This is Ronnie. He reminds me a lot of Thomas, another silvery gray medium haired boy. Since Penny was not accepting Ronnie's company I let Ronnie stay upstairs with everyone else. 'Oh by the way Ronnie, a couple of dogs live here.' I warned him as I opened the basement door. Fortunately he gets along with them and the other cats. As for his reaching out while being petted... It was interesting petting him when he first arrived. It was like playing a game of dodge. I'd go to pet him and he probably thought I was going to hit him so he dodged my hand. I thought he was going to bite or scratch me so I dodged. Once he realized that I wasn't going to hit him he loves being petted. He especially likes his shoulders to be rubbed.
~
It wasn't long before the sound of ittie bittie paw prints came into the house once again. These two were about four weeks old when they moved in. Time to warm up a bottle!






Never a dull moment during the kitten season! Look who snuck in. A brother and sister, they joined the ittie bitties. Unfortunately for these two, they smelled like they had a bath before their arrival so they smelled odd to the two occupants.


I have to admire this guys determination, he kept getting into hissing matches and he still came back to see if he could play. Although not sure about me just yet, it's nice that he is outgoing enough to come out from hiding. Meanwhile his plan is working and he is starting to make new friends.


Unlike .....


His sister. After informing her that I am not running a Witness Protection program for feral kittens, I spent a couple of hours barricading underneath the bed. A hard place for me to reach but I was not going to allow her to go someplace that I could not check on her. Satisfied I let her loose in the room only to find her far under the bed less then an hour later when I came in to check on them. Grrr Tomorrow's project is to take out the bed frame and leave the mattresses on the floor. I'm calling her B.C. for Barn Cat.

As if there wasn't enough kitten energy running around the spare bedroom.... here comes two more.

What I find interesting about these two, which I am guessing are brothers, is that one has a mature looking face while the other has a baby face. And their voices match their sweet little faces. One has a baby's meow and the other a more mature sounding meow. Both are experts at purring and playing.`
~
Well, Penny moved out and with Ronnie upstairs I had room for someone downstairs.
Shhh, don't look! Tori is here but she's hiding. She's only been here for about a week, so I don't want to label her as feral. But I do think she'll be the hardest to convince that I am worthy of befriending so far.
What she doesn't know is sometimes when I'm outside I peek in the window and see her sleeping on the blanket that's almost the height of the window and out in the open, Shhhhh

But wait, there's more

I went to photograph some of the cats available for adoption. While in the back room this little girl was meowing at me to let her out to play the whole time. Guess where she ended up? Yup, my bedroom. This girl is quite a character, she likes to "knead" with her front paws while either talking to me or nipping me.

This beautiful girl had stopped eating, probably because of being congested. So she got to come over for some special care.

This poor girl was in the feral area at Animal Services. She looked angry and mistrustful. Probably because someone decided to dye her hair a cyan color. Judging by the way she likes to be petted, I'd guess she isn't feral.

With the exception of the five that stayed and the three that had far too short of a life, the rest of my babies have moved out and found a home of their own. They are great kids and I will miss them, but I am very happy they are in a home where they are loved and taken care of.

Fostering kittens must be an addiction, because here's another foster kitten. This is Thomas. He came to me because he had some congestion and needs some healing in his eye. He has an ulcer on his eye. While it's getting better the ulcer caused some fluid to make his eye cloudy which will take time to heal. Meanwhile he is a very active and playful boy.

Orange Tabby's Taking Over

Even though kitten season is winding down there are still kids to foster.
Here Meg is having a bonding moment with the fluffy one. This guy likes to race around but since his body is getting bigger and he doesn't have an expertise on using it yet, at times his back end would out run his front end. It especially caught up on him when jumping onto the cat furniture. The folks that adopted him wanted an active kitten which is good because that's what he is.





This little lap junkie is around eight months old. He only stayed with me for four days then he got adopted.

This handsome guy is around two years old. Poor guy found Animal Services to be overwhelming and frightening, so he appeared to be defensive and unfriendly. They thought he was unadoptable and were planning on killing him. He moved in downstairs and hid the first week. I checked on him a couple of times a day to see where he was hiding so I could move his food closer to him. Then after a week he let me know he wanted to be petted. Turns out he is very loving, affectionate, and playful. All he needed was a safe place and some time to see that he could trust me. Now he climbs into my lap, which is something he watched the other guy do.
This guy is such a sweetheart and blends in so well with the family that he will be staying here. He's a keeper!



These two are around five months old. They moved in because they had some health issues. I call the black kitten Jazz. She had a bacterial and viral infection partly due to congestion and had stopped eating. I finally learned how to give sub-q fluids as it took a few more days before Jazz started to eat again. I call the grey kitten Gregory and he is a skinny guy. Gregory had some diarrhea and then got constipated. They both spent two and a half days at the vet but now they are all better.

Warning Danger!

Now a word of warning.... do not stand next to the Cat Coordinator when a poor mother cat comes in overloaded with kittens. This poor girl had about nine kittens with her. Two of them were smaller then the rest. Most were dark in color but one of the smaller ones was a cream color. Hmmm. Most likely those two were from another litter and added to this poor surrogate mother. So they get handed to me to hold... well hold and take home to care for. And in move little Steffie and her brother Bennie. Since they were able to play I am guessing they were four weeks old when they moved in.

Then upon the lands walked a kitten that had an early knowledge of how to rule the world. Her part of the world anyway. I call her Princess BG (Bossy Girl) Supposedly her five brothers were pushing her away from the food bowl and she came to me so I could make sure she was getting enough to eat. Her favorite activity is sitting at the top of the stairs meowing her squeaky meow until I open the door and let her in. Then she raids everyone else's food bowl. Hey, it works for her... and it works well.

Yet another little girl with an URI in need of some tender loving care. Just as she was feeling better and playing she ended up getting a blockage somehow and in spite of my and the vet's best efforts, we lost her. Some people have asked me how hard it is to give these precious babies up for adoption.... that's not the hard part... losing them is the hard part.

Remember the warning above? The same warning applies while the Cat Coordinator is at Animal Services rescuing cats and kittens. These two brothers were under weight for adoption and would have been put down unless rescued. Well, they are far too cute for that! So here they are enjoying their afternoon.


Apparently it's not the end of kitten season just yet. Here's four more new arrivals, trying to recover from their colds and get just a bit better so they can be ready to find their own home.



Now as the last of these kids got adopted, for a brief moment I was fosterless.

Comings and Goings

They grow up fast indeed..... for all but one of the "Foster Five" have gone off to join their new families. One of them seemed to have stayed here..

Meanwhile, the now vacant basement has been taken over by five beautiful girls. They were about eight weeks old when they arrived and were congested. So they wanted a chance to heal and play until they were ready to seek their journies elsewhere.


But kitten season continues.... Three beautiful grey babies moved in. They are about three weeks old and from two different litters. The concern was that they were overwelming the surrogate mother they were with so off they moved into my bathroom so I could bottle feed them and take care of them.



The more the merrier or so they say. The three grey babies were here for almost two weeks when three more babies about the same age needed to be bottlefed and cared for. So guess what babies, the family just doubled in size.

The brown tabby cutie is oh so tiny, but a ball of fire. And all six are catching onto how fun it is to run about playing.

Here you can get a better idea of how tiny this guy is.