Cat fostering

WezV

A week ago they were all hissy spitty little angry goblins.      We had a few days of hand feeding them to get them used to food  and had to give them a good clean every day.

Now they are exploring the house, meetings the other cats,  eating well and  becomming very sociable.  They will now make good pets for someone.


One of the residents has stepped in to help teaxh th to clean themselves


And my meetings have a few extra participants


So far so good.

DefaultM

I got 2 kittens from my neighbour because their cat had a litter and my wife said that if we didn't she was convinced she'd drown them.
She didn't have anything done to the cat after this, it had another litter, but I said we couldn't have any more cats and not to worry as there's no way she'd kill them. Unfortunately I was wrong. Shortly after all the kittens plus the mum cat had gone and she said "Oh yeah, I dunno, they just all died suddenly". Sick bitch.

WezV

This bunch were all ready to go off to new homes, but the person having the girls has apparently backed out at the last minute.

Link to the rescue below, just in case anyone wants to help a couple of kittens looking for permenant homes.


https://www.harleyshounds.org/get-involved/animals/delaney-and-valentin/

Benm39

They're adorable WezV and you're a star for fostering them. 

The first 3 cats we had when we got our house were feral rescues, sadly only one gorgeous Tabby boy just now but he's kept company by another who adopted us several years ago. 

WezV

The next fostering is a big adolescent boy called Tate.

He's had a couple of homes already bit not settled.

They said he is Maine Coon. I'm not convinced he's full breed, but certainly has a lot of that in him. He has the behavious, size, tail, coat and voice, but not the face shape or ears.... but some of that does sometimes come in later.   

WezV

WezV

Kittyfrisk

Wow, he is a big beautiful boi.
Does he always prefer to drink Australian reds? 

WezV

That's the girlfriends.   We had a fancy South African Grenache just before that bottle

Benm39

He's a gorgeous boy!

historyisjunk

From what I know about them he doesn't look that much like a Maine Coon, but who knows.
He is exceptionally nice.

WezV

Yeah, from the first pics we saw we also doubted it.

Then we met him and it became more obvious. 

We do have a full Maine Coon here too. Tate is definitely not 100%, but has a lot of the features and behaviours you would expect.  

The only thing he doesn't have is the ear and face shape. At the moment he looks like a small cats head on a big cats body, but even our full Maine Coon went through some awkward looking growth phases.

WezV

We lost one of our resident cats last week, D'Arcy.  Only 18 months old but she came to us as a PDSA special, after suffering badly from cat flu and being unable to find a home.

She had some massive operations last year to rebuild her ears and sinuses to fix a lot of the cat flu damage, and recovered really well, albeit immunosuppression.  My wife's job in a vet referral center came in handy here.

We were just saying how well she was doing, then came home from honeymoon to a very poorly cat.   She has picked up pneumonia, lost almost all lung function and had no immune system left to fight it.

The vets tried some strong antibiotics but she didn't make it, but we like to think we gave her the best chance.  


So after that we decided not to foster for a while.

That did not go to plan though as this Maine Coon cross (another one!!) and her 3 day old kittens have just arrived.

Kittyfrisk

So sad about D'Arcy, but you gave her the best chance you could.
What is it with Maine Coons & crosses where you live? Seems to be a disproportionate amount of them near to you.
Beautiful creatures & I don't know how you can bear to part with them, no matter how impossible it might be to keep them all.

LastMantra

DefaultM said:

I got 2 kittens from my neighbour because their cat had a litter and my wife said that if we didn't she was convinced she'd drown them.
She didn't have anything done to the cat after this, it had another litter, but I said we couldn't have any more cats and not to worry as there's no way she'd kill them. Unfortunately I was wrong. Shortly after all the kittens plus the mum cat had gone and she said "Oh yeah, I dunno, they just all died suddenly". Sick bitch.

Unfortunately that's what happens. Can't foster all of them. 

CHRISB50

Sorry to hear about D’Arcy. 

The new fosters are stunning. 

Like @Kittyfrisk said, I don’t think I could part with them. 

Our 2 came from a foster mum and I felt awful when she left them with us. She was in bits. 

You’re doing a great thing. Really admirable. 

WezV

Well the black cat (Tate) came from someone who was sold it as a full maine coon.  They also said he was overly friendly. He clearly isn't the size of a proper maine coon and doesn't yet have the face, but has the fur, build, temperament and voice* of one.

The girl above (Suzi) was abandoned by someone who moved house, along with her mother who looked more like a full maine coon.  Both cats were heavily pregnant at the time.  Suzi isn't even a year old, just had 4 kittens.  Her mother gave birth to 7 more last night.  Hard to tell how much MC is in Suzi as she is still a kitten herself.... she could get big, and has all the features.

*They have pathetic broken meows, and tend to chirp a lot.

WezV

The not so fun side of pet ownership this weekend.

Suzi got a bit stressed and developed explosive diarrhoea.   At one point she left her crate. Stretched herself out, farted loudly in the process, unfortunately following through on all the kittens behind her.

But we got a massive dog crate, lots of feliway and pet remedy on the blankets and moved her to a gastrointestinal diet.

Now back on track and much happier.

Emp_Fab

Is it similar to fostering a dog?

PhilKing

Sorry to hear about D'Arcy Wez.  All your cats were great when I was there last year and it is sad when you know they have fought through problems and they fall sick again.  It's a fantastic thing that you are doing with the cat fostering.   Can't wait to see what you have next time I'm there!