Waitin' for Foster Kittens to Arrive is Tiring

©2010 Robin A.F. Olson

Blitzen's dreaming of meeting his new foster friends, but for me, it can't come soon enough. I admit to feeling jealous that many of you have already gotten your first or second litters of kittens to foster, while my foster room is empty.

I was contacted by our friend, Jenna, in South Carolina yesterday and she needs help with two orphaned kittens. I don't know much about them yet, but will be getting photos soon. I know they're just old enough to eat on their own and are skittish, but we, rather Jennifer, (thank you for being willing to foster them!) is going to take care of them. She and her husband love the little ones. We'll see how they do and if they do all right, then I'll gear up for taking on fosters, too. I have to back Jennifer up in case there's a problem with the cats, so no getting fosters for me until the coast is clear.

Some of you might recall, I had to stop doing out-of-state transports after “Santa's Team” of 9 rescues from GA, became so very sick, for so very long. Their Vet bill was into the thousands of dollars and although the same thing could happen with any cats we take in locally, odds are that they will not be so sickly because they will not have had to bear the burden and stress of the transport, being moved from a shelter to quarantine, then moved again into a foster home. Cats are delicate creatures.

That left us with the option of not helping Jenna (it's just TWO kittens, who are being cared for by a VET and I have two empty foster homes!) or go “rogue” and care for these cats without them having the support of The Animal Center and do the fundraising, fostering, Spay/Neuter, adoptions on our own and with our own money.

I wish this wasn't the case. I understand that transporting cats into CT is not a popular thing with many many people, but if I can get two, well vetted kittens, does it really matter where they came from? If I pull them from a local shelter, then the cats won't have had the vet workup, they could be carrying something that will be transmitted to my own cats because local cats are not put into quarantine between being in the shelter and being in my home. I don't have this all worked out and there are valid arguments for either side of this subject, but at the end of the day, a life (or two) saved, is a life (or two) saved.