The Nest

I convinced Mommy that that tight little space was not the best and she moved into the box that I had prepared for her in the closet.  This Mommy was so laid back she didn't mind the move.  My previous Mommy was always a bit nervous moving her kitties back and forth between two spots.  No so this girl

Mommy and kittens have their own room.  It is a bedroom at the end of my hallway and I keep a tall dog gate in the hallways to keep my cats from going to the door and disturbing mommy and family.

The Big Day Finally Arrived!

So, the momma cat that was described as heavily pregnant just kept getting bigger and bigger.  On the last day of her pregnancy the only thing different that I noticed was that her stomach felt a little harder.

I had prepared 3 potential spots for her to give birth.  As you can guess she didn't pick any of them.  She managed to squeeze into a really tight space in the closet and she gave birth there.  When I went in first thing in the morning to check on her, there she was with 5 little kittens!  I was really surprised how little mess there was....

You can see to the right the nice spot I prepared for her.  She obviously felt safer in this snug little spot though.

Stay tuned as I continue the story in future posts!

My Own Cat Jesse

I adopted my first cat when I was 21.  She was very young and I found her lost in the wild near the provincial park I was working at from the summer.  I loved her so much and she lived for 18 years.  When she died we adopted 2 kittens from our local shelter.  They were kittens that had not been raised in a home.  They were found in a shed.

Anyways... although I love those two very much, one year later we adopted Jesse because I really missed having a cat the liked being picked up and snuggled.

Jesse is now two years old.  He loves to interact with our foster kittens.  My two older female cats are not big fans but Jesse LOVES to play with the kittens.  He grooms them and takes care of them.  For some reason as a young male cat he likes to do that whereas my females who are only a year old really dislike the kittens.  Once the kittens are here long enough Holly and Ivy do tolerate them.  Holly more than Ivy.  But in general, Jesse is a replacement mother to them.

Here is a video of Jesse playing with one of my foster cats Percy.

Waiting for Kittens

As I said Mommy Cat (I won't use her real name because she has a loving owner that she returned to spayed of course!) was such a friendly and adorable cat.  I thought my other mom cats were awesome but this Mommy Cat was so amazing.  She never ever stopped purring and she loved attention from people.

Anyways... she was described as being heavily pregnant.  Well, the heavily pregnant cat stayed pregnant for longer than I expected.  The shelter gave me some links to read and they all said keep her quiet which I interpreted as don't visit her too too often.  But I still wanted to know what was going on in there.  So what did I do?  I bought some web cams off Amazon of course!  The web cam that I bought had the ability to see in the dark.  It allowed me keep an eye on her without disturbing her.

She had such beautiful BLUE eyes!!!!

Photo:  View from the webcam

The Mommy of my Current Litter

Two months ago...

In January my Ninja litter (Mom's name was Ninja) went back to be adopted.  One came back again.  His name is Bear.  My husband got super attached to Bear.  I made husband talk to the foster co-ordinator to ask for permission to adopt Bear etc.  Anyways... Not too many days after Ninja's kittens went back to the shelter I saw a pregnant cat on the foster list.  She was listed as URGENT so of course I had to volunteer to take her!  She was pretty much the only pregnant cat on the foster list so I was super glad to help her.  I wouldn't have to spend the winter without Foster cats... Yay!

So, they told me she was heavily pregnant.  I interpreted that to mean that she could have kittens any second!  She sure was round!  She was so beautiful and the amazing thing was how friendly she was.  She purred and purred and purred!   She lived in what we call "the cat room".  It should be our spare bedroom but no people stay in there.  Only foster cats.   We don't let our adult foster cats mix with our own cats.  It is too stressful for all involved.  So on January 13th this beautiful girl arrived and we were so happy to see her!   It had been 5 days since we had given Ninja's kittens back so we felt really lucky to have more kittens and moms to help so soon!

The Hard Part about Fostering

One of the hard parts about fostering animals is the day that they go back to the shelter to be adopted.  Logically I know that this day always comes but it is still sad.  I try not to worry about the people that come to give them a home.  I hope that the people are like me.  People who love animals and will be good to them.  I still miss them though.  And of every litter I always get attached to one more than all the others.

With my current guys it is this little man right here.  Here he is a month ago when he was only 4 weeks old.

I love you Leo!  What will your new name be?

My First Day as a Foster Parent

My first little foster kitties arrived at my house in May of 2014.  They look a little concerned in this first photo.  My cousin who has fostered for years told me about using a baby playpen.  However, I quickly realized that these guys were too old for a playpen and Mom cat was not down with it either.  This is a photo of them in the first few minutes at my house.

I would love to share all my photos with the people who adopted these kittens.  Maybe some will find this blog someday.

From May 2014:  This is Inky (Black), Junior beside Inky, Ruby in the front (all gray) and Fluffy.  These guys went for adoption at the CHS in July 2014.

And here they are with their Beautiful mommy Socks.