Four years ago in mid-August we were right in the middle of the saga of Black Kitty, Gray, Kitty, and Striped Kitty aka Lilly’s spawn. We raised / fostered them until they were about 8 weeks ago and then they all went to their hand-selected forever homes. And I was not emotionally prepared for any of it. If you weren’t around then you can read all about my pain here: https://beckypalmer.me/?p=3822 And of course, we swore we would never do it again.
But last week the universe laughed right in our faces.
Late Sunday night my husband heard what he originally thought was a female cat in heat. He eventually realized it sounded a little different and discovered a small kitten close to drowning in our garbage can. Thankfully he heard it in time and no doubt saved its life.
We haven’t named the kitten- I usually call it Kitten and Pat usually calls it Kitty. We are 90% sure it’s a boy. We guess it’s about 8 weeks old.
Once we knew Kitten was going to make it the discussion became what do we do with it. Yes, we did discuss keeping him, but we already have three cats and we’ve always said that’s our limit. Our eldest cat, Boots, doesn’t even like Oreo all that much yet so we knew she would not be thrilled with another sibling. Lilly seemed ambivalent and Oreo was curious but kept his distance from this newcomer.
Thankfully, once again Pat was able to find a great home for Kitten. Unfortunately, she is out of town for a while so we are fostering and socializing him for a bit. And boy oh boy does this kitten need it. He is SPICY! As soon as he got his energy back he showed his feral side. We didn’t see it for more than a second here or there for a couple days. He is now spending a lot of time close to us in the evenings but is still nowhere near what you’d call a lap cat. But the progress as we’ve made in a week gives me hope that with continued love he will continue to embrace interactions with humans.
In about a week or so Kitten will be with his new mom and out of our home. I know that keeping Kitten isn’t what’s in his best interest or in the best interest of the three cats we already have. But I’ll be a little sad and I will miss his funny kitten antics.
And I’m saying again now that this is the last time I will foster kittens!