Flashback to Fostering

We received a mom and a litter of kittens from the shelter one evening...they were all so sick it was pitiful. Mom was doing her best with those babies and you know she had to be feeling just terrible. We got everyone started on meds and kept them comfortable. We started weighing babies daily to check for growth and talked about the possiblity of losing them...it's hard to nurse when you can't breathe through your nose.
Thankfully, they all survived and gradually we added in some other orphaned kittens. In this bed we have the original 4 plus two add ons. Counterclockwise starting at 2 o'clock is Tristan (brown tabby with white feet) he is an add on, Delaney (tortie), Sawyer (grey), Reagan (black), Emma (black and white) those are the original 4, and then there is Walker the smallest add on.

Here's another shot of Walker...there's nothing cuter that that straight up kitten tail!

These guys were all adopted, and some of the original four went in pairs. Their mom Elise was adopted as well...she was such a good cat!

We hope you all have a great weekend!

PS - Our Secret Paws arrived yesterday...we'll be posting about in next week!

Flashback to Fostering

It's been a while since we did a flashback to fostering post, and I found some old cd's of pictures yesterday while cleaning out my office, so here goes...

Meet Georgie. Georgie was a special kitten from day one, and by all means should not have survived. He had maggots growing in a sore on the top of his head, his jaw is deformed and does not grow properly which lessens his ability to eat, and all in all, he is just a touch 'off'. But Georgie doesn't know about any of these problems...he loves life and lives everyday to the fullest.


I actually wasn't Georgie's foster mom, but I did get to babysit him for a couple of weeks while his foster mom went on vacation. He was about 10 weeks at the time. Due to all of his problems, he had been babied his whole life, and was not up to par with the skills of a typical 10 week old kitten. This would not do at our house.


In a group this size you need to be able to stand up for yourself and get what you need...Georgie had to learn.

We treated him like a regular kitten and by the end of his time with us, he was eating regular food from a plate. He used the litter box consistently, and he knew how to play with other kittens in an acceptible manner. We even required his foster mom to take his new friend Keegan with him when she took him back home so he would have a playmate. She ended up adopting both of those boys!

Georgie camped out in a bed...
Learning to play with toys...
A ball of energy and love...
Here's a picture of Georgie today...you can still see the misformed jaw, but he is a cutie none the less!

Everyone deserves a chance in life, regardless of physical difficulties, and animals are no different.

Frootbat Fostering Flashback Friday

This is Cole...he is a mighty Frootbat!
Cole came to live with us, along with his brother Caleb, and two sisters, Cathy and Caitlyn. They were all taking the bottle, but in the transistion stage to solid food. The girls took right to solid food and never looked back. The boys were not so keen on switching...what's wrong with a hot bottle of milk? (These boys wanted their milk warmer than any other kittens we've had...if it wasn't a touch on the 'too warm' side, they wouldn't take it.) I love bottle feeding kittens because you can feel their bellies getting warm as you feed...such a pleasant feeling.

We tried tough love...only one bottle at night...they would go all day without eating and then just inhale the bottle! We became softies. We finally just gave them bottles at normal times to keep them eating, and offered dry or canned in between...eventually they started eating. It was a proud day for this foster mom of the frootbats!

These kittens all found loving homes. My friend adopted Cole and he is going on 7 years old this year. Have a great weekend everyone!

Flashback to Fostering

It was always fun getting a new litter of kittens. You forget just how small they are until they arrive!
Sorscha (black) and Necie (tortie) have been shown here before...but I couldn't resist the cuteness today!

You may need to biggify to get the effect of the cute toesies!

Toasty warm, camped out on their heating pad. These girls were easy, two was a good number...Auntie and I both had one to feed and make potty. They were very loud girls though, and seemed to know when you were taking them into the bathroom for 'potty' time. They would scream bloody murder! Luckily, that phase only lasts a short while and then they were going on their own.

There you have it...looking forward to Meow like a Pirate Day on Sunday!

Flashback on Friday

This is an old favorite of my boys...it was taken in 2003, when we lived at a townhouse. We were fostering quite a few kittens at the time, and I think this photo shows the caring and sharing nature of Smokey. He is sitting on the toy, looking out the sliding glass door...up close to the door are several kittens, sleeping. He chose to sit here instead of disturbing them. He is such a gentle soul. I love that Devon and Tanner look like they are playing together as well.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

PS - The boys are all improving...eating is back to normal, playing is increasing, and sneezing is decreasing. We are on the mend! On the menu for this weekend - washing all the sneeze juice off everything! Blinds, headboard, cat beds, mirrors, fireplace, etc, etc, etc... :)

Flashback to Fostering

I haven't done a flashback to fostering post in a while, and thought I would introduce you to Tybalt. I only had him for a day. He was dropped off at my office one morning by the folks downstairs that had found him wandering around the parking lot. They had seen him a few times and felt he deserved better, so they brought him to me.
Here he is just hanging out with some papers...we had just renovated and moved back into our spaces, so please ignore the super messy office :) He made himself right at home. I feel like he had just gotten lost from his home because he was comfortable being inside.

He took a nice long nap after a hearty meal. He was hungry and thirsty and luckily I had a bag of food in my office. Tybalt was not the first cat to be brought to me this way...so I tried to stay prepared.

He eventually found my chair and just took over...later that day, I drove him to another home where he was fostered until adopted.

I am thankful to have such a flexible work environment where animals in special circumstances are welcomed.

Have a great weekend everyone...enjoy the extra day, if you get one.

Friends Flashback Friday

This is a slight flashback, to the time on our trip a few weeks ago...we met some interesting people, and wanted to share them on Friends Friday.
This lovely lady was at the parade in Red Wing...she had a sweet guinea pig named Ninja that we were happy to meet!

This lady owned the Green Gables Inn, in Lanesboro. This Inn was awesome and we enjoyed our night there. In the lobby, which is part of the owners house, there were a couple of small dogs. How neat to live where you work, and vice versa!

This gentleman was at the farmers market...he sold delicious cinnamon roasted nuts of various varieties. Tanner loved the sweet smell coming from his booth and was not shy about asking for a picture :) I think the real Tanner would have asked for a sample too!

Of course, our wonderful neighbors (minus the husband), who fed us a delicious dinner and showed us around their new town.

Well, there you have it...some of the wonderful people we met on our trip to Minnesota!

Fostering Flashback

Dante was a super sweet boy. He came to us as a single kitten, but was soon joined by Velcro and Xavier, who were just a few days younger than him. It's always better to have multiple kittens when hand-raising them, so they get the proper kitten socialization and playtime.
Dante was super curious and loved helping as he got older. He was adopted at about 4 months of age into a wonderful home.

Flashback to Fostering

This flashback to fostering is about Millicent...the devil girl :) Millicent was one of those kittens you were so thankful when they were adopted and you worried about getting returned to the group.
Let's go back to her beginnings with us...she came to us, with a brother, Martin. They were both so terribly sick. We stayed up one night just holding them, thinking they wouldn't make it. They proved us wrong and started improving.

We spent a lot of her early life medicating and poking and prodding. We snuggled too, but because they were both so sick, they didn't get all that good kitten playtime in like normal. They were a bit older when they started acting more like kittens and Millicent was more aggressive in her play, than I would have liked to have seen.

She was a cute girl, but would run up to you, if you were sitting on the couch, run up on your lap and bite you on the nose! We spent a lot of time trying to work on this type of behavior. She never seemed to learn, and I always felt that we were constantly saying, "no Millicent".

We were able to place her in a home that already had a rough and tumble kind of cat, and was looking for a rough and tumble playmate. Millicent was a match made in heaven! We gave the adopter our number in case she had questions, and off they went. Auntie and I breathed a sigh of relief that the devil girl had been placed :)

There's the right home out there for every cat...they just deserve the chance to find it!

Martin was adopted a few weeks before Millicent and is doing well in his new home too. These kittens will now be 3 years old.

Anti-Frootbat Friday

Leah is doing her anti-frootbat today as we flashback to fostering. She almost has a resemblence to Yoda.
Leah started her life out as Liam, until we discovered (or didn't discover) some crucial parts :)

She was adopted with her sister Lexie and delivered to their new home on Christmas Eve. Leah is going to be 7 years old this year.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Foster Flashback

Here are Necie (tortie) and Sorscha (black). Two sisters we got one day to hand raise. It was always amazing to get a new litter of kittens...there small size amazed me everytime, especially the first litter of the year. You seem to forget just how small they are when you aren't around them for a while.
These girls were both super sweet as they grew. We encountered a new struggle with these girls...constipation! A little pumpkin did the trick though, and they were pottying like champions after that. It seemed like with each group, a new challenge was faced, but we came out with more knowledge and understanding for the next group.

Sorscha was adopted at the first adoption event she attended. Necie stayed with us a few more months, but eventually found her forever home.

Hope everyone has a great weekend...see you Monday!

Foster Flashback Friday

Logan was a foster kitten in 2003. He came to us because he was recovering from having his tail amputated. He had arrived at the vet with his tail almost completely degloved and infected. The best solution for him was to simply remove it, and his hoo-hahs at the same time.
We were running a makeshift hospital at our house at the time, so he fit right in. You can see his little stub of a remaining tail in this picture. He was a complete love bug, and was adopted the first time he went out...everyone loves a bit of a sad story :)

Have a great weekend all you bloggers and Happy Mother's Day!!

Tagged - Fosters Flashback Friday

Sammy and Andy were tagged yesterday by The Kool Kittie Krew...they invited anyone to play along, so we thought we'd give it a try. The instructions are:

1. Open the first photo folder
2. Scroll down to the 10th photo
3. Post the 10th photo and tell the story about it
4. Pass this along to 5 other blogs...

Since this is also my normal Flashback to Fostering post day, I went to the foster kitten folder...this was the 10th photo. These kittens were Sadie (the brown tabby) and Eagan (the silver tabby). We only had them about a week before we moved them to another foster home. In this picture, these kittens are hanging out at Aunties office during the day. Auntie and I were both very blessed and fortunate to be able to bring kittens to work when they needed special attention or bottles or something. Sadie and Eagan were adopted into loving homes. Here's the reason we needed to move these kittens to another home...
We recieved a call from a local shelter that a mom cat had given birth overnight. She was feral and had already (probably by accident) dropped one kitten in the water bowl and she drowned. They wanted to pull the remaining kittens off so they would be safer. There are three kittens. Lunar, the white one (affectionately known as the Fat Whitey because she was at least twice the size of her sisters), Lexie, the one with her head on the white one, and Leah (who started off as Liam until we realized he was a girl). Lexie and Leah were adopted together. Lunar was adopted by our good friend, and turned out to not be white, her points came in later.

Well, that's our flash back to fostering post... We are passing the 'Tagged' portion of the post to anyone who wants to play along...Happy Friday everyone!

Foster Favorites

Some kittens we fostered were favorites...some, I hate to say, could not get adopted fast enough! Today we'll showcase a couple of favorites :)

Velcro was one of the favorites...and good thing too because he was with us for over a year! We got him and his brother, Xavier (we just called him brother) as tiny kittens. We bottle raised them and they were nice easy boys. They were extremely bonded with one another, so we insisted they be adopted together. I believe that is why it took so long...two black male cats that needed to go together. Not everyone likes a black cat, and not everyone wants two of them! Their perfect family came around though and just loved the boys...

The photo above is Velcro, nursing on some fingers. He loved to nurse and suckle, especially on hands. He was a sweet boy.

This little fluff ball is Gage. Gage was a tiny boy when he came to us, and we thought he'd take a bottle, but he wouldn't have any of that. He preferred his milk in a bowl. This made for a messy kitten because he was wobbly and would fall in his (extremely shallow) bowl. He was affectionately known as the crusty kitten. He needed a bath daily for a while. He was a love bug and adopted very quickly.

Well, those are some favorite fosters. If you ever get the opportunity to foster it is well worth it, and so rewarding to know you helped place an animal in a loving home. Keep up the good work all of you who still foster today.

Flashback to Fosters

I've said many times that fostering kittens was a lot of hard work but very rewarding. Here are a few kittens waiting for dinner. Love all the helpers!
Our foster coordinator knew that black kittens were my weakness, so we always had a house full! The two black and whites were a bit shy, but were adopted together. They were sweet boys that just needed some patience to come out of their shells.

One of the brown tabbys and a black one were rescued from some brush by a man who had started to burn the pile when he heard their cries. They were just a few days old. They would both fit in the palm of your hand. Kayley lost a bit of her tail, otherwise they were both fine.

The other black ones and the brown tabby were supposed to be a group we watched while their foster mom went on vacation. We had them until they were adopted :) They were the 'C' group. Cole, Caleb, Cathy, and Caitlyn. Those boys were a mess...it took them forever to start eating from a plate. They wanted their bottles as long as we would give it...tough love won out though and they switched to a plate :)
Devon hanging out on the counter staying away from the munchkins!

Finally, I finished with the plates and everyone sat down to eat.

Kittens eat a lot and are quite messy! Mixing dry with the canned to get them used to eating that...weaning is always fun :)

This is Harrison. He is one of the fosters that was very tempting to want to keep. We had him from just a few days old. He was quite sick, and we weren't sure he would make it. He didn't know how to suckle on a bottle because he was so congested, so we syringed him for a while, and then he learned how to drink from a spoon. We would mix his KMR with som AD canned and he would slurp from a spoon! He was adopted to a wonderful home that continued to spoil him rotten. He was full of himself to say the least :)

Flashback Friday

These pictures are of Devon when he was a baby. The top one is when he was still living with his foster mom. He was found in the woods by a lady on a horse when he was about 10 days old and bottle raised.

The second picture is him at my house. He's probably only been there a couple of days, but already was right at home :)