Branching Out

This is Bertie. Isn't he cute! He came into the vet clinic mum works in last week. Some doggies sniffed him out in a golf course car park, and their dad was able to catch him and bring him in. Unfortunately, they haven't been able to find his original owners. It is sad because from his behaviour, he seems to be a bunny who has known a lot of affection and love in the past. He is very calm, and has a sweet temperament.

Mum's friend and colleague Greta will be fostering Bertie while they try and find him a new Forever home through his PetRescue listing here. He is going to know a lot of loving and affection while he is there, let us tell you! It will give him a good chance to fatten up, too, as he is a bit on the skinny side. We wish we could meet him. He probably smells really interesting!

Sillie Tillie Billie

Do you remember this lovely little ladycat? It's Tillie Tuxedo-Rex. She is still waiting at the shelter for her Forever Family to come and find her. As well as being cute as a button, Tillie is a lovely girl with a gigantic personality. We are hoping that if we ask our friends to purr for her, it will help draw her family to her, and get her into the loving home that she so deserves.

We love you Tillie! Purrrrrrrrr! Purrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!

Edit---

This was supposed to go up much earlier, but we've been having lots of trouble with our auto posting. Is anyone else having this problem, or know what we are doing wrong?

Surprise!

Here is part one of our surprise! Isn't she pretty. She is only the size of Suey when she was about 9 months old, a tiny little thing. She is also incredibly friendly. This was the best photo of her that mum could get, because she just wanted cuddles and kept trying to get closer. And this is part two of the surprise! 5 little babies! They are two days old, and look a bit like little ratties (we're being honest!).

We are so excited to see how they grow and develop:)

Tama-Chan, you got it right first go!:)

You Would Not Believe...

how loud those kittens are when they get to playing THoE.

The eight of them combined must weigh less than me! I'm off to buy earmuffs.
meanwhile, upstairs

Meryl declares herself Queen of the Castle.

Introducing the Brady Bunch!

Hi! We are the new babies! We don't have names yet, our foster parents are still getting a feel for us. They do have some ideas though.

We are litter number 1. Kitten A is a handsome tuxie. I'm a bit reserved. I like people though, they are fun!
Kittens B and C are gingers. Bet you couldn't have guessed we are siblings! MOL! We are confident. We love attention, and will purr our heads off if we even think you're coming to give us skritches.

We are litter number 2. We are tiiiiiiiiny. We are probably the smallest kittens that our foster mum has had. She get's scared that she will break us when she picks us up!

We have been doing really well getting used to the humans, and litter number 1. We were a bit scared and hissy yesterday, but today we even allowed our foster mum to clip our nails!

Amongst us, there is one girl. The rest are boys.

Can you guess which of us is the little miss?

That's right!

It's meeee!

We will probably be here for at least a month, so we are looking forward to some big adventures, and meeting some great friends:)

Introducing Quincy!

Hi everybuddy! Today we are handing over our blog to a good friend of ours from Catster, Quincy. As you can see, he is one super handsome kitty. And more than that, he and his mum are super lovely. They are fosters at the superhero level!

Do you remember our post about the $10 kittens? The whole time we were writing that, we kept thinking of Quincy and his mum, and how much better the whole pet shop system would be if we followed their lead. So, without further ado, we'll pass the keyboard over to Quincy:)_________________________________________________________________

My name is Quincy, and I am a foster kitty ambassador. My Mama fosters for Kindred Kitties of Kenosha, Wisconsin, and she was asked to share our experiences of how our fostering and adoption process works as opposed to a pet store selling kitties cheap with no medical attention, shots, etc. at all.

First of all, let me say that we love fostering and highly recommend it to anyone considering it. What a sense of fulfillment you get by taking an animal into your house and giving it shelter, clean water, good food, love and attention, socialization, and then seeing the joy on the faces of it's new forever family at adoption time. Many of these kitties are abandoned in homes, tossed outside, or are born outside to feral mothers, and your home could be the difference between life and death for them. Our program is no kill, but our local humane society is not. We are limited by foster space as to how many kitties we can have in the program at any given time, and we have reached upwards to the low 300's during kitten season. Our adoptions have been in the 900's for the past three years.

We have been fostering for 3 1/2 years now, and I was part of the second litter Mama fostered. Mama already had 2 kitties before me, and she kept 2 more after me. These are my "sisters", and most of the time I wish she would just return them all. Yes, I am the Male, the King of the Castle, and I rule with an iron paw....OK Mama, we'll get back the the fostering now. All together we have fostered over 350 kitties, since we average around 100 per year. Crazy, yes, there are 3 spare bedrooms in our house, and we usually have multiple litters in at least 2 of them in the height of the season. We have fostered many, many Mama's with babies, and have even had six give birth in the house. Fostering is not always easy as there are mouths to feed and litter to scoop and medicine to give and socializing to do and driving to the vet or to Petco. Sometimes you lose one or you lose a whole litter, and your heart just breaks. There are many times Mama just wanted to quit, but how can you turn your back on the little ones?? The homeless and the helpless and the injured and the sick?? So we push on and keep doing what we're doing - saving as many as we can, one at a time.

Our adoption fee is $80 for one and $120 for two since we feel so strongly in them going out in pairs. People often ask - "Why should I give you $80 when I can get one out of the paper (or from the farm or from my neighbor) for free." The difference is the medical work we put into the kitties and the extras that come with the adoption. All our kitties come with a leukemia (Felv) test, at least 2 distemper shots, deworming and defleaing.
Older kittens (4-6 mos.) and adults are also spayed/neutered and have a rabies shot. Adults are given a feline AIDS (FIV) test as well. All the kitties come with a certificate for a free Health Check to be used at a local vet within 2 weeks of adoption, and a discount certificate for spay/neuter if they are not already done. Most of our local vets accept it for 1/3 off. We give out a 4 lb. bag of Science Diet food with every adoption, and also a Petco coupon book. The coupon book has a coupon for a free bag of food, and many other coupons worth up to $120.

So what's the better deal - a "free" kitten or one that comes with the above?? We are only able to do all this and still charge so little because we do our own shots and testing and also order all our medicines at a discount. We have several low cost spay/neuter programs that we use not only for our kitties, but we welcome anyone from the community to use through us. Last year (2007) we were responsible for 999 spay and neuters, with a little under half being our kitties awaiting adoption. This year (2008) we already had 994 at the end of October. We could write a whole blog on the importance of spay/neuter, but we have a feeling we would be preaching to the choir. Let's just say it is a major focus of our program along with rescue. Mama always says she loves fostering, but will be glad when the day comes when there are no more to foster because that will mean that everyone has a forever home and responsible owners who practice spay/neuter.

Kindred Kitties has had an adoption center in our downtown area for the past three years, but before then we made appointments for people to see the kitties in the foster homes, or we used Petco. We still use Petco as it is a mutually beneficial arrangement and because they are such a wonderful store to work with. We have a place to show our kitties on the weekends and for certain holidays, and they get lots of sales from the new families and also do not have to keep kitties (or puppies) in the store. We are able to leave kitties at a second Petco we work with, but we are responsible for their total care while they are there. Many shelters and rescues have arrangements with their local Petco's and Petsmart's and other chain pet stores like these. We do not have any knowledge of any smaller pet stores selling animals in our area, but we do not think it is right at all for any of them to be selling animals who have not had proper preventative care and routine shots. There are rescues and shelters all over the world for these stores to work with, and they should take their cue from the larger chain stores and set up such an arrangement.

Happy New Year everyone, and thank you for reading about our experience!!! Remember to encourage everyone to spay/neuter their animals and to adopt from a shelter or a rescue. Your new best friend is out there waiting for you, and you're saving a life as well!!

_________________________________________________________________

Isn't that amazing?! Over 350 lives have been saved by Quincy and his mum. That makes them heroes in our eyes. Thankyou Quincy, for writing such a great piece. We hope for the day when the kitten and puppy farmers see no profit, and give the business away!:)

We Are Home This Christmas!

I'll be home for Christmas;
You can count on me.
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents on the tree.

Christmas Eve will find me
Where the love-light gleams.
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams.
-Kent, Gannon and Ram.

Pipi on the mantle, from l-r, Katie, Nigel, Archie, Basil, Trixie, Charlie, Rick, Bobby, Tom, Evie, Dohni, Manuel, and James. They all found their Forever homes this year.

Life Goes On...

... and today it bounced back into our home in the form of three tabby and white darlings!...

I am a boy!!!

I am a girl!!!

I am a boy too!!!

We don't have first names yet, but we are the Claus family. It is nearly Christmas, afterall! The only way our foster mum can tell us apart is our noses. But we have only been here for a couple of hours, so we won't hold it against her yet.

We had our first ever bath, because we were kind of dirty and flea ridden. Now our foster mum says we feel softer than she can believe! The white part of our tabby and white furs is nice and clean looking now.

Guess what else! We use the litterbox! Foster mum was so excited that she took photos, but we asked her not to include them in our introduction post. It wouldn't make the most attractive first impression now, would it.

Instead, look at us play! It is much nicer, and we had lots of fun.

We look forward to getting to know you all better:)

--------UPDATE-------

We have names!!!

Me at the top, the big lump of a lad, I am Blitzen Claus!

Me in the middle, the pretty little girlcat, I am Dancer Claus!!

Me at the bottom, the little white nose, I am Dasher Claus!!!

Jibjab

We have seen some other wonderful dances from kitties, and couldn't resist giving it a go ourselves. We thought Evie would be a good co-star, as she lived with us the longest of the fosters. You can see our effort in the post below:)

Today is day 8 of the 7-10 day period we could be carrying the cat flu. So far, so good. No sign of any symptoms, and believe us, mum has been watching us like a super observant hawk! We will most likely get our next group sometime next week. The kitten room has been scrubbed down, scrubbed down, and scrubbed down again, and everything has been washed and boiled and disinfected. Mum is looking forward to having kittens back in the house. She has missed the thundering noise! :)

Evie Update

Evie is still with kittens. She is doing very well, putting on weight and looking healthier. Her coat is becoming softer, and hair is starting to grow on her neck. Her belly is growing, and I believe I felt a kitten in her tummy when we were having cuddles!

She does not like Fui and Suey. When I tried introducing them face to face, Evie was not at all impressed, and chased Fui to take a swipe, before she ran to defend her room. We have decided to keep them seperate from now on, in the hope of keeping stress levels at a minimum. It will be interesting to see whether she settles after the kittens are born, and the aggression is related to her pregnancy, or she is a real solo cat. Fui and Suey are a bit bewildered by it all, and don't seem to understand why she wouldn't like her.

With people, Evie is a total lovebug. She wants hugs and pats, and if you're anywhere near her, wants to be in your lap 5 minutes ago. She loves having neck scritches, especially under her chin.

I'm starting to really look forward to her giving birth. I'm a bit too worried to leave her alone for too long, incase she needs any help! I wonder when it will happen!

Our First Fosters

Our first experience as foster parents came with Dohni, Nigel and Tom Kitten, who were dropped off at the shelter as an 'oops' litter. Dohni and Nigel were black and white, and Tom was a smokey tabby. We were told initially that all three were boys. They came dirty, hungry, and with fleas.

Each of the kittens got a bath on arriving home, which they accepted rather happily. I set up our spare room as the kitten room, with plastic sheeting to try and protect the carpet, and then put down lots of blankets and kitten cushions, as well as a mattress against the wall for them to hide behind and climb on. They LOVED having plenty of food available. Tom Kitten was protective of his food, and growled while eating it. To try and combat this, we took to gently stroking him and talking to him while he ate. He dropped this habit after about 10 days.

Dohni and Nigel grew fast, and were very rambunctious. Tom Kitten on the other hand, who was smaller than the others when they arrived, barely grew at all. The other two, while still sweet kitties, took to bullying him. Dohni and Nigel went back to the shelter to be desexed when they reached the magical 1kg mark. Nigel found his forever home 2 days later, and Dohni the day after that. Tom stayed with us for a while.

Dohni turned out to be a girl! I should have known really, she was a dainty little thing, and very happy to put lots of love on you. Both Nigel and Dohni got along really well with Fui. They loved to play with him and watch him, and he was fascinated with the kittens. Dohni was very clever. She was onto everything straight away. Initially, I tried using a baby gate to confine them to one part of the lounge, but she worked that out in about three seconds flat! Nigel was a bit more reserved. He would watch what was happening very carefully, and you just knew he was figuring it all out.

Tom Kitten thrived after being seperated from his brother and sister. When I took them back to the shelter, I bought home a second litter, Pipi Saurus-Rex, Charlie Brown and James Bond, and one other kitten Trixie. The first three were younger and smaller than Tom, and he loved having a chance to be topcat. He started to grow more quickly, and became more confident. Trixie was very gentle with him, and really helped him to come out of his shell. I absolutely adored him. It would have been very easy to keep him!

Tom was ready to go back to the shelter a week after his siblings. He was adopted 11 days later. He was a lovely little boy, and I am very proud of the way he grew and learned. The three were a great introduction to fostering, very laid back and happy. They were an absolute joy:)