So...I love animals. Everyone who knows me knows that I love animals. I don't eat animals, I have several of my own as pets, and I do whatever I am able to support rescues and shelters, whether it's sending money/donating things, transporting animals from shelter to rescue, or fostering. Most people I know think it's a little weird, but those involved with animal rescue know how rewarding and fulfilling it is.
The last foster we had was Alice. We found her fifteen months ago, cold and pregnant. We took her in, raised and adopted out her babies, and ended up keeping her. So, as rescue people say, we failed as fosters, because we kept her.
This time, we can't fail as fosters. We seriously can't keep any more animals without risking our sanity/finances/general wellbeing. We seriously don't have the space or the resources. But a few weeks of fostering? Why not?
So last Saturday I was walking Cal. I walked up the sidewalk, looking at Cal. When I looked up, there was a little cat directly in our path. I thought there was a dead mouse in its mouth, but when I looked a little closer, out of morbid curiosity, I realized it was a teeny tiny kitten. Momma cat was moving her kittens from a bush to a box on our neighbor's porch. I tried to approach her, but she hissed, growled, and spit at me, even when I was five feet away. She was totally mean! So I dropped off some food for her and left her alone. I came back later to check on her, and I saw her moving her kittens again, this time into a different bush. That's when I knew I had to do something. She was stressed enough to move her babies twice in one day, plus I knew how cold it would get that night (low 40s).
So the following Monday Chip and I borrowed a humane trap from a fantastic rescue here in town called Town Cats. At about 12:30 on Tuesday morning, we finally had success. There was a mom cat in our trap and she was PISSED! She was thrashing, growling, hissing, and generally being angry. I carefully carried her back to the apartment and woke Chip up. We went out and gathered up the kittens. There were five beautiful little babies. We quickly set up our gigantic dog crate for them with a bed, food and water, a litter box, a scratching post, and newspaper to line it. Chip spent seriously two or three hours fashioning insulation for this thing, since it's on our porch. He taped cardboard boxes to the outside, then he taped trash bags outside of that, then he lined the inside edges with cardboard so we'd have no escapees, then he whipped out an old shower curtain to cover the side that might get rained on, and THEN he made a flap in the shell into which we could put food. He's hilarious. Such the proud dad. Things like that are why I love him so much.
Since Tuesday, we've been learning all we can about socializing ferals, and trying to figure out what the hell to do with this cat. The first time I saw her, I figured she'd been a house pet, but that her owners had moved out and left her behind. That seems to happen pretty often in apartment complexes. Then I realized she wanted to claw me to death and maybe give me rabies. I thought maybe she was completely feral and wouldn't be able to be rehabilitated. If that were the case, we would have to keep the babies with her until they were weaned (about five weeks) and then spay and release her, while continuing to socialize and raise the kittens together. That's not ideal, because kittens learn a lot from their mother between 5 and 12 weeks of age, like bite inhibition, litter box manners, what to scratch, how to behave toward people, etc. But if the mother is feral, she just can't stay with the babies, because they will be feral too. I was afraid that would be the case.
But...we're totally making progress. And I've figured out why "Jill" was so bitchy before. She totally had good reason, aside from having given birth five times. I made a catster page for her where you can read about everything. I know I'm a dork, but it's a fun site and lots of people will see her and maybe one of those people will want to adopt her. Check out her site for updates on her progress and that of her kittens, as well as pictures (too cute). It's gonna be a crazy ride, but I'm totally ready for it again!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment