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Saturday, June 5, 2010

Kittens!!!!

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Kittens have invaded our home! Not really invaded. They are invited guests. For the longest time I have wanted to expand our little pet family and adopt some kittens. It is now kitten season. At least I think it is since I always see a bunch of kittens this time of year. Last weekend, my husband and I went to the mall where the humane society has a cat adoption center. I saw a sign at the center asking for people to become foster parents of kittens. THAT was right up my alley. I got a business card, called the center on Tuesday (since it was a holiday weekend), and on Thursday I took home four adorable little kittens: Phoebe, Ursula, Monica and Rachel (we didn't name them, I think the shelter does that to personalize them for the docs or maybe to make them more appealing and adoptable).

The main idea of fostering for the humane society is to give the kittens a home and a place to grow until they are adoptable. Sometimes they need medication. Of my litter of four, one needs to take medication twice a day. The important thing is to keep them safe and loved. I have made it my mission to show them plenty of love so when it is time for them to go up for adoption, they will be irresistible to potential new parents. :)

Our family's pros:

1 -- Kittens are just plain cute. Seriously, they are snuggly, fun to watch (great for the blood pressure), and they just want to be loved.

2-- It gives us an opportunity to see how our older cats will behave with kittens. This is a great step for us, because if we will know if adopting kittens will disrupt our adult cats too much. If it is too traumatic for the older cats, we do not want to move forward with adding any more cats permanently into the family.

3-- It adds a new measure of responsibility for my son.

4-- Our shelter provides the food and other things you need so you don't have to have a financial strain.

5-- At least in our case, the kittens are box trained. Nice pro! One important thing when training is to remember to remove poo as soon as it is left behind and give them lots of praise when they use the box. Cleaning the box ASAP apparently makes them more interested in going there.

Our family's cons:

1-- Eventually we will have to give them up, but we can also then get a new litter to love.

2-- We have to keep one room closed off for about a week and a half. This is not really a major con. One of the important parts of being a kitten foster is to keep the kittens away from your other cats if you have them. We have a play room that is now kitten central. This room is kept closed for now to keep our cats from getting any infections. Chances are good that the kittens do not have anything, but you need to give them separate space just in case. After about a week and a half, any issues will appear. This also means we wont find out immediately if our older cats can handle having kittens, but it also means they aren't being disturbed either.

I'll be posting some of our kitten pics later so you can see how cute they are. :)

If you are interested in this opportunity, check with your local shelters. If they are like ours, they will be thrilled to have the help!

3 comments:

Lorie Shewbridge said...

What a wonderful thing for you to do! I can't wait to see pics of all 54 kitties! :-)
You have a heart of gold.

Pam said...

I think that is wonderful. What a sweet thing for you to do. I think it would be hard to give them up. I would always worry about them.

kalea_kane said...

It is definitely going to be hard, but I figure we are going to give them a good start here which is certainly better than being stuck in a cage. We hope that loving them will make them really loving to people and help them get adopted right away. I was afraid at first, but one of the girls who works at the Humane Society told me she has done it for 12 years so I figure it has to be worth it. :)