Wednesday, January 14, 2009
A Purrrrrfect Day!
The Eclipse gang continues to acclimate to life around human with a major breakthrough today. We are putting them in the hallway for some open area play time each day and to get them used to house sounds. Brittany went into the hallway to visit with them and Alice came up on her lap voluntarily and sat there purring. Jasper did the same for a shorter period of time and with more trepidation. Sweet Bella purrs but she is just so busy that lap sitting is not on the agenda. So...major breakthrough with the purring. Perhaps we will turn them from the dark side faster than we thought. :)
Monday, January 12, 2009
Welcome 2009 Kitten Season
The end of 2008 found us with a very successful season. This was the first season that we weathered with no losses and all kittens adopted. This year will be our 4th or 5th season to foster kittens for the Bartlett Animal Shelter (BAS) in Bartlett, TN, a suburb of Memphis.
Our fostering journey began 5 years ago when my daughter, Brittany, then 11 years old, and I began volunteering at BAS because of Brittany's love of animals. After several months of weekly visits to the shelter, the director, Butch approached us about fostering a neonate litter. We knew absolutely nothing about what we were going to be getting ourselves in for and he didn't do much to clue us in. The first year was one of learning and loss as we took the sickest and youngest fosters and lost many of them. Each death took a little piece of our hearts but also left a huge piece of knowledge and caring. Our only consolation through the tears was to know that these tiniest little ones did not die under a cold bush somewhere or in the corner of a cage at the shelter. Every one of them went to the Bridge with the best that our love and caring could give them. We have not kept meticulous track of our fosters but a rough estimate would have between 150 and 200 kittens passing through our care and all have left their pawprints on our hearts.
Any kitten foster parent knows that kittens are pretty scarce this time of year so we usually get a chance to catch our breaths a little bit...clean up the kitten care areas...and catch up on a little sleep. About 3 weeks ago, the shelter asked us to socialize two kittens that were about 12 weeks old. This brother/sister pair had been born and lived their entire lives in the shelter cages due to a URI their mother came down with and that they subsequently came down with. The boy was a friendly, purring, headbutting bundle of energy and did not take long at all to socialize. The little girl was more timid but was coming along nicely. Both were taken to the shelter for spay/neuter this past Thursday and the shelter personnel wanted to go ahead and put them up for adoption. The boy was more than ready to go but I felt the girl could have benefitted from a couple more weeks with us but the shelter had other plans so both the sibs went out for adoption. You see, the shelter had other plans for us...three mostly feral 6-8 week olders need socialization sooooo we now have the first litter of the 2009 season.
Soooo, drumroll please, let me introduce you to the Twilights...Alice, Jasper, and Bella. We named them after characters in the movie, Twilight, since we went to see the movie the night that this crew came to us. Bella is a lovely, squishy all black female who is timid but will let you hold her though it looks like she might be scared to death during the process. Alice is an all gray, long haired fluff ball that creates a lot of noise with clicks, hisses and low growls when approached but who is more noise than action. She will let you hold her but would prefer that you do not. Then there is Jasper. If you have seen the movie, Jasper is the one who always looks like he is scared to death with big eyes. Well...our Jasper is a beautiful, long haired tabby boy who would rather be anywhere else but where people are. He is going to be quite a challenge to get him over his fear and desire to run. At present, all three are in a cage in Brittany's room to get used to the sounds and movements of a household. Once they get to the point where they will not automatically head under the bed, we will let them roam more. I foresee having them for at least a month and hope to accomplish socializing them by that time so that they do not have to enter the adoption competition against smaller cuter kittens...especially beautiful little black Bella.
I will post pictures once I figure out how to do so. I will be in a learning curve for a bit.
Our fostering journey began 5 years ago when my daughter, Brittany, then 11 years old, and I began volunteering at BAS because of Brittany's love of animals. After several months of weekly visits to the shelter, the director, Butch approached us about fostering a neonate litter. We knew absolutely nothing about what we were going to be getting ourselves in for and he didn't do much to clue us in. The first year was one of learning and loss as we took the sickest and youngest fosters and lost many of them. Each death took a little piece of our hearts but also left a huge piece of knowledge and caring. Our only consolation through the tears was to know that these tiniest little ones did not die under a cold bush somewhere or in the corner of a cage at the shelter. Every one of them went to the Bridge with the best that our love and caring could give them. We have not kept meticulous track of our fosters but a rough estimate would have between 150 and 200 kittens passing through our care and all have left their pawprints on our hearts.
Any kitten foster parent knows that kittens are pretty scarce this time of year so we usually get a chance to catch our breaths a little bit...clean up the kitten care areas...and catch up on a little sleep. About 3 weeks ago, the shelter asked us to socialize two kittens that were about 12 weeks old. This brother/sister pair had been born and lived their entire lives in the shelter cages due to a URI their mother came down with and that they subsequently came down with. The boy was a friendly, purring, headbutting bundle of energy and did not take long at all to socialize. The little girl was more timid but was coming along nicely. Both were taken to the shelter for spay/neuter this past Thursday and the shelter personnel wanted to go ahead and put them up for adoption. The boy was more than ready to go but I felt the girl could have benefitted from a couple more weeks with us but the shelter had other plans so both the sibs went out for adoption. You see, the shelter had other plans for us...three mostly feral 6-8 week olders need socialization sooooo we now have the first litter of the 2009 season.
Soooo, drumroll please, let me introduce you to the Twilights...Alice, Jasper, and Bella. We named them after characters in the movie, Twilight, since we went to see the movie the night that this crew came to us. Bella is a lovely, squishy all black female who is timid but will let you hold her though it looks like she might be scared to death during the process. Alice is an all gray, long haired fluff ball that creates a lot of noise with clicks, hisses and low growls when approached but who is more noise than action. She will let you hold her but would prefer that you do not. Then there is Jasper. If you have seen the movie, Jasper is the one who always looks like he is scared to death with big eyes. Well...our Jasper is a beautiful, long haired tabby boy who would rather be anywhere else but where people are. He is going to be quite a challenge to get him over his fear and desire to run. At present, all three are in a cage in Brittany's room to get used to the sounds and movements of a household. Once they get to the point where they will not automatically head under the bed, we will let them roam more. I foresee having them for at least a month and hope to accomplish socializing them by that time so that they do not have to enter the adoption competition against smaller cuter kittens...especially beautiful little black Bella.
I will post pictures once I figure out how to do so. I will be in a learning curve for a bit.
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