Being a Foster Mom!

by Cathy Baillie

The joys:

Fostering kittens and cats can be one of the most rewarding experiences you have ever had – that is if you can give them up!  Watching kittens grow from scared little rescues to healthy and happy and social members of a family is amazing and a lot of fun.  Watching them play together, eat together (as pictured here) and sleep together – it’s so innocent and so right.

To take fosters into your homes means giving of yourself.  You take animals that would otherwise be killed, abandoned to their fate, or left to become an additional part of the problem, and give them hope and a home.  Watching those kittens go into loving homes to become the companions of others is quite an experience.

Fostering the older cats is also rewarding – cats that have been abandoned, given up due to health issues or a death, or for whatever reason.  It is definitely harder to find a home for an older cat and you often have them in your home for a very long time.  However, there are people out there who want to have an older cat – one whose personality is already known.  So it does happen – and is more rewarding than placing a kitten.

The sorrows:

There is no question that fostering brings sorrow as well, especially when dealing with very small kittens.  The little grey kitten pictured is Popcorn.  Popcorn came into foster care when she was only about 2 days old.  Her littermates hadn’t survived and her mother was hit by a car.  Debbie took her in and bottle fed her – every couple of hours!  As you can imagine a kitten that small requires a lot of attention.  She lived in a carrier with a heating pad.  She had to be cleaned frequently.  She didn’t even have a name for a few weeks – it’s hard to name something so tiny when you don’t know if it will survive.  

Popcorn had tenacity and she developed quite a personality for one so very small.  It was obvious after awhile that something was wrong because she remained tiny.  But she had a lot of spirit and, after awhile, the most incredible green eyes! 

It was fun to watch her begin to play with other kittens.  But there was always the knowledge that something was not quite right.  At 3 months she still weighed only a little more than a pound.  And at about 3 months she died.

Her life was short but it was full.  Debbie gave her lots of love and caring – and it broke her heart when she died.  That’s the sorrow – kittens can die.  Sometimes you might expect it, sometimes you won’t.  But the joys outweigh the sorrows – the joy of placing kittens in new and loving homes, the joy of giving even those that don’t make it a warm and loving home for the short time they have.

Should you become a foster?

More foster homes are always needed, especially during kitten season (which seems to become longer and longer each year!)  I know that the one time I took a kitten into my home to foster – he stayed.  No way can I give up my Figaro (black and white kitten pictured)!  So I do what I can in other ways.  But I have a great deal of respect for all of those who foster – Diane and Debbie, Christine and Karen, Claudine and Danni, and many others.  The work they do cannot be measured in terms of cold hard cash – it is measured in the love that they give to the cats and kittens and the love they receive from those animals in return.