Fostering Kittens: A Worthwhile Endeavor
My family is currently fostering two kittens and it is quite the experience.
This is not the first time we have dipped our toes into the fostering world.
Three years ago, we fostered two kittens and were immediate foster fails when we fell in love with our Toby. My husband took one look at Toby and his adorable bobtail and happy personality and fell in love. In our defense, we were in the market for a kitten so it was not completely out of the blue. His sister was adopted by another family soon after her return to the shelter, so we were successful!
This time we are not in the market for a kitten, so it is a different type of experience.
People keep asking me how we are going to return them, especially if we’ve failed before. Our mindset is just different this time. We are performing a very much needed service to work on getting these little ones ready for their forever home. Our job is to socialize with them so they can be adopted by others. We have no intention of keeping either, especially because we want to keep fostering!
If you’ve never fostered it can be very rewarding, but it is also time consuming.
These kittens are unknown to us, so it is super important to keep them away from our cats and maintain strict hygiene rules with hand washing and hand sanitizer, so we don’t accidentally spread any illnesses. So, lots of hand washing.
I was originally told that these little ones came from the same litter and were about 5 months old. This is clearly not correct, as both the shelter and I discovered very quickly. We ended up with two kittens between 5 and 7 months old, clearly not from the same litter based on their sizes. They do get along and find some comfort with each other which is a huge benefit.
We designated my son’s bedroom (who is away at college) as the kitten room because it’s pretty empty and has hardwood floors.
Dean on the floor and Sam in the bed frame
What I didn’t plan on was them immediately finding a hole in the fabric on the bottom of the box spring allowing them to essentially hide inside the bed! Clearly, not ideal.
They hid for a full 24 hours inside the bed.
We then decided to remove the fabric from the bottom of the bed – who needs it anyway! Now they use under the bed as a sort of suspended hideout. This required us to put pieces of wood under the bed posts so we could get under the bed to visit. So now we visit the kittens by scooting under the bed and playing with them as they sit on the wooden boards – again, not ideal, but actually pretty funny.
My son spends time in the room with them essentially ignoring them and playing on his phone while lying on the floor. This works wonders as they learn he is harmless and come out to explore and even move closer to him.
Dean chilling
We’ve made some progress with both of them. The older male, we call him Dean, loves a good petting and even snuggled against me under the bed and purred.
Sam (short for Samantha-if you like Supernatural, you’ll get the name choices) still will only tolerate a small amount of contact. They are a work in progress, and this is exactly why they are with us.
Fostering is such a unique experience of sharing your home and love with an animal that needs special attention. We are so hopeful that these little ones will find their forever homes after their time with us.
Meanwhile, I’ll spend time sitting in the bean bag chair working or reading books hoping to see their little faces peek out for some affection. There is nothing quite like a purring kitten to help you relax and feel pure happiness. And there is something even more special knowing that a kitten who was scared and hiding now trusts you. That is what makes the time and effort of fostering worthwhile.