Foster Family, Day 1

So with the help of drakonlily and crankyoldman and some other friends, we have collectively rescued a mama cat and five babies from the wilds of a porch in Columbus. One of the babies was adopted out; the other 4 came to live with me until they are old enough to leave mama.

Mama is 1-2 years and incredibly smol. The 4 babies are around 3-4 weeks old. I know it's gonna go quickly, so I'm gonna keep a record here of what we do each day that's cute and noteworthy. I've been up there maybe 6-7 times today, making sure mama has enough food, making sure everyone is adjusting. Here are today's benchmarks:

- all the kids run to greet me when I come in the room, with tiny squeaks
- I had four amazed and confused kittens breathlessly watching me scoop their poops
- mama realized she could get away from the kittens by jumping on the bed; she then proceeded to take a half-hour breather-nap while I babysat
- for the first time since they've been here, mama lay down by me and let them nurse. I've never been able to actually watch a mama and litter nursing from that close and for that long before. The purring as the kittens feed reaches incredible volumes, and mom alternated between dozing and giving me this worn-upon look that's the cat equivalent of rolling eyes. I was just surprised and impressed that in the short time she's been here she came to trust me enough to feed the kids less than a foot from me. <333333


Tomorrow we start clipping kitty claws, and introduce some new toys. As for tonight, I'm curled up on the couch (where I've been sleeping bc my bed is covered in stuff, but that's another story) with my cats on and near me, and we're off to bed. They aren't mad yet, just a bit needy and kind of resigned.


Obviously pics will be coming -- it's hard to get great shots in that room, but I'll manage. :3

foster family: day 2

So today has hit some small pros and our first major con, so i'll get that out of the way first: even though the kids are taking splendidly to the litterbox, Mama Rosa for absolute definite sure is not litter-trained. She has been very polite about it, albeit rather weird -- most cats don't want their business near their food, while Mama has, uh, used whatever I have under the food both times -- so while i get to manage these terrible little twits, i also get to litter-train mom. woo. done it before, yeah, but was really hoping mum would take a hint from kids. especially as i'm changing their litter over to a non-clumping natural litter, because babies lick tons of it off their feet when learning how to poo and i'd rather not have one of my darlings need an emergency run from blockage. tiiiiiime to line that side of the room with newspaper so i can use it to t r a i n.

some good moments from the day: apparently all 4 kids have decided that Big Mom is the greatest thing in the world to climb on and romp on. I'm covered in tiny little claw scratches - today, we introduced the concept of claw-clipping - but i CAN say that Potato sat on my shoulders for a good deal of the morning. I open the door and get flooded by tiny bodies fighting over who reins the magical Land of Lap. i finally got mama enough food that she isn't scarfing down everything she gets (this will, unfortunately, be a fact of life days i'm near work, until i can convince her that dry food is in fact tasty and will be okay to nom). Mama comes out to greet me and purrs when i pet her.

i am desperately in love with all 5 of them, and i already know that this separation is going to be really, really hard. i've fallen for two of them already, hard, but today the other two really worked on my heart, and of course a not-so-secret part of me is hoping Mama shapes up to be a merge-able friend to my existing family -- but as always i keep telling myself that fostering is to make other families happy and that taking a foster needs to remain a last-resort option in my back pocket for true emergency situations. my cousin today asked about them on facebook and i think my heart broke thinking of not being able to keep them.

i had low-key anxiety all day; i woke up exhausted, 3 hours of sleep according to my Fitbit, had a dr appt this morning, just a "check up" which ended up being generally useless AFTER being late because the power was out in the entire area, so i was later than expected to work and never pulled myself out of the hole; the latter half of my day was full of anxiety that someone would shock themselves or swallow too much litter or make it out the door of god knows what, and i couldn't get home fast enough ALTHOUGH i HAD to stop for more supplies to keep this crowd going.

also not helping the fact is that i'm still crying about Marzy - around every 2-3 days, something will strike me, and i am suddenly Not Okay again in tears on the floor. (i've built a tiny - shrine makes me sound crazy; it's a little memorial area, with the three cards from his vets (that made me cry again) and his ashes and the bit of fur they saved for me and some flowers and an offering bowl of water, of course, with a hairband in it, because he was an asshole.) these cats are in no way a replacement for him, but it's like a double-whammy-gone-bad: i feel like i'm desperately trying to plug something in the hole, except it's more obvious now that nothing is ever going to fill that hole and all i can do is wait for time to smooth out the jagged edges.

i'm starting to realize that this isn't all about the loss of a piece of my heart, and that it's more about the desperate cry for help of someone who's at the end of her rope and has been for a while and is compiling issues on issues because she has the emotional range of a tree stump



ANYWAY, let me see if i can upload some photos, and you all can meet the kittens, enough with this sobbing ass bullshit

FAMILY PORTRAITS ARE GO

This is the Mama, known as Queen Rosa (because queen is the term for a mama cat with a litter of kittens). She's made huge strides even in the two days she has been in my house, although not in pooping.



This is Noctis. He likes to zoom, and chew on my fingers.



This is Prompto, the only lady. She likes to romp and climb on me.



This is Iggy Alton Brown. He likes to romp, but also likes his solitude. He tries to climb my sleeves.



This is Potato. He likes to sit on me, and refuses to eat because he likes nursing the best. He is pretty clumsy.




This is a lap party: see from top down Prompto, Iggy, Noctis, and Potato.