Y’all remember Kelly, who comments here often, who adopted a senior black cat (Norm!), and is awesome. She left a comment last week, saying:
My arm is healed, my company is gone, and I told my husband that I don’t care if he wants to or not… We are fostering. I have an empty room in my house (pretty much empty of everything but a couple of nightstands). Wood floors, huge windows, french doors that can close them off from the permanent population. I’m going to scout craigslist for a rug to cover the floors and we have an old cat tree in the basement that I’ll bring upstairs. What else do I need and what should I know before I start? I’ve had cats my whole life and yet I feel like I don’t know what I should be doing to get the room ready for them.
I’m doing the total unexpected (for me) and asking for kittens. You all know what a proponent I am for the seniors. They will always have a home with me, which is part of the problem. I fear they will be here longer than kittens and I will have a huge difficulty giving them up. Also, I don’t want to disturb the senior permanent population more than necessary and kittens can be locked away in a way that I wouldn’t want to do with older cats. A blog or a facebook page may be in the plans if this goes well. I’m thinking “Teeny Tiny Tabby Town” Let me know if you come up with something better!
I cannot tell y’all how much I am looking forward to Teeny Tiny Tabby Town (T4!)! I can’t think of anything to suggest at this point (my excuse is that my brain is still fried from my vacation. How long can I use that excuse, do you think), but I know there are lots of other fosterers who read, so y’all jump in and give Kelly some suggestions, if you can think of any!
So, my vacation is done and over, and I’m still struggling to get this house back in shape. It kind of helps to have the kittens out running around the house, because they like to follow me around the house and snoopervise, so if I’m annoyed by whatever housework I’m doing, I can grab up a Nom and get some kitten snuggling in.
When Fred and I got home from the airport, all four of the Noms were hanging out in the computer room. They all ran from me at first, but it didn’t take long before they were coming around, sniffing, and trying to decide if I was going to be mean to them. They decided I might be okay.
Razzie on the Room with a View, and Sugarbutt above her, in one of the many cat beds in the computer room.
They REALLY like the cat tree in the front room.
A LOT.
The girls on the cat tree, and Newbery all “Oooh, a box!”
“I should check this out!”
::FLOOP!::
“WHAT?”
Did I mention that they like the cat tree?
A LOT?
Fred reported that while I was gone, Logie would climb up on him when he was watching TV in the evening, and she’d march and purr and eventually flop over on her side and purr and purr. He said she was “Just like Mikey!” (Aka Mike Teevee from the Wonkas, who we absolutely loved. It’s a very good thing that the people who adopted Gus decided that they wanted to adopt Mike too, because he surely would have ended up staying with us.)
Fred’s still calling Logie “Whipper” due to her tail-whipping ways.
Yesterday afternoon I was sitting at my computer when the doorbell rang. I went up and looked out the window to see that it was our next door neighbor. When I opened the door, he turned around… with a tiny brown tabby in his arms.
“Is this one of yours?” he asked.
It wasn’t.
He’d been outside fuming over the mole trail in their side yard when he looked toward the road and saw this tiny tabby walking hurriedly alongside the road. It came down onto our lawn and hid by a bush, and he was worried that it would go back into the road so he made sure he was between the kitten and the road before he approached it. It got scared and ran into our front flower bed, where he caught it. The kitten appeared to be in pretty good shape and was scared but not terrified. He wasn’t struggling to hold onto it.
I told him I’d take it (I mean, whatcha gonna do, right?). But as it turned out, his mother (who owns the house next door) had been wanting a kitten, so he was going to see if she wanted it. He was just making sure it wasn’t one of ours. Fred talked to the mother yesterday, and she said that she was planning to keep the kitten, and his name is now Tiger. (I’m guessing he’s about 5 weeks old.)
This is the same guy who found Dorothy, by the way. I’m starting to think he might be a kitten magnet.
I spent a good long time looking in all the places I could think of where more kittens might be hiding (we have a bit of an issue with people dumping cats and kittens in the field across the street, stupidly believing that they’ll run free and take care of themselves because they belong in the wild, RIGHT? Grrrrr. Oh, it makes me SO MAD.) I didn’t find any, but I’ll go out again in a bit and look some more.
That kitten was seriously lucky, because our road is busy during the day, and the traffic goes by here fast. I shudder to think what could have happened to the poor little thing.
I wish Maxi could relax a little. What a stress ball.
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Previously
2011: No entry.
2010: No entry.
2009: Scheming.
2008: BRATS.
2007: I think the shirt is broken, though. No one ever offers me chocolate!
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
That picture of Razzie and Sugarbutt is like an optical illusion! I can’t believe how tiny she is!!!
You type faster than I. When I started typing, there weren’t any comments.
By the way, great minds think alike!
Ditto. I guess I’m not the only one waiting like a hawk for the new posts!!
🙂
I was just about to say how tiny the ‘Noms” look when they are near an adult cat. It must be wonderful to watch how their purrsonalities are developing. Have they decided who their “buddies” will be among the permanent cats? Thanks again for the wonderful photos. Any videos of the “noms” and their new cat tree?
No videos yet – I’m working on it. 🙂 And they’ve decided that Tommy isn’t bad – for that matter, except for Kara (who has NO use for kittens), all the permanents are pretty tolerant of the Noms – and the Noms don’t pay much attention to the big cats.
Wow! That photo of Razzie and Sugarbutt shows how little the kittens are still. They look huge in comparison with Emmy, so I guess Emmy really is a tiny thing.
Speaking of which, how is Operation Tame Emmy going? Is Fred working his magic? Is it time for the crate?
I’m certainly glad to see photos of your kittehs, even if they show the terrible stress they are under every single day at Crooked Acres!
Just wanted to add that your neighbor is a very caring person. Anyone would be happy as heck to have a neighbor like him!
Amen!
Love the pic with Razzie and Sugarbutt. It really shows the size difference. Great cat tree! Now I think I need to get one! 🙂
I must have missed it somewhere, but what ever became of Emmy? I know she went off to the vet’s for spaying, but then I lost track of her. Did she get more comfortable with people finally or what do y’all do with cats who never take well to humans?
No pics of the tiny brown tabby? 🙁
No, I didn’t think to grab the camera, and now I’d feel like a weirdo going over and asking to take a picture of him. 🙂
LOL!! I can just picture it!
“Hi, I just wanted to take a photo of Tiger for my fans.”
Thanks, Robyn! I nearly ended up with a mama and kittens on Mother’s Day. Got a call from the rescue that someone in the neighborhood had a mama and babies living in their garage. But when the rescue went and checked it out, the mama was completely feral and the babies weren’t quite babies anymore. They went to a rescue that specializes in the feral population instead. Needless to say I’m a bit bummed not to have kitteny-goodness bouncing off the walls in my spare room… but I’m next on the list and it’s kitten season so I shouldn’t have to wait long.
In regards to my T4 name… anyone else see that Laurie at IBKC just brought home Tabby Town? I’m trendy and didn’t know it! 😉
I’m with the crowd that’s wondering about dear Emmy. How’s our girl doing?
Welcome home, Robyn. We’re excited you’re back!
I love that there’s a rescue in your area that specializes in ferals, though. How neat is that! I’m keeping my fingers crossed that you get your babies soon – I bet it’ll be a matter of days, if not hours!
I always knew you were trendy. 😉
I got offered an adult cat today who needs a respite from Petsmart. Trying to decide if I want to close off yet another room in the house…
Hurrah! For the lucky little tabby kitten rescuers. 🙂
And welcome back from your holiday, the kittens on tree pictures are so cute!
I’ll do an Emmy update in tomorrow’s post, y’all, thanks for asking. I’m still a bit scattered and had meant to mention her, but vacation brain is still in full effect. (She’s still here, though.)
Kelly:
Yay for you!!!! No advice – just praise!
Funnily enough – this weekend I forayed into the fostering side myself. We brought one baby home on Saturday to see how the two permanents would do (answer REALLY not well!) and went and picked up 3 friends for him last night so he won’t be alone in the room all day. I have war wounds from the two permanents now though. So the only advice I can give to anyone who has permanents and foster – pick up the permanents in a blanket if you’re moving them to a separate room to keep them away from the fosters!!!!! Anyone who’s been through this – suggestions on how to get the residents to adjust easier would be appreciated!!
Robyn – glad you’re back! You’ll also have to tell us how awesome the vacation was. (if it was!)
Yay Sherry! Thankfully my permanents aren’t quite territorial and they’ve adjusted quickly to each other and our “foster” who hangs out with them. But I know they will be chomping at the bit to get through the door and check out the kittens. This room has french glass doors. I’ve put up a curtain rod to cover the windows (we’ve used it as a guest room with an aerobed, so the curtains were for their privacy). I’m just waiting to see how long it takes kittens to discover they can go between the curtain and the glass door to see the big guys on the other side. 🙂
The little tail disappearing into the box!
Razzie’s tiny tailio!
Maxi, mid-sprawl!
So much to love today! Welcome back!
I’m not a fan of rugs for fostering.. mostly because I’ve had too much diarrhea and vomiting over the years and rugs aren’t washable.. not to mention fleas and coccidia and other parasites that can hang out in the fibers.. But that’s me, I take higher risk fosters. Lower risk fosters simply need food and a litter box and you and they are far ahead of the game of where they were prior to being put in foster. Everything else is just icing on the cake.
Good idea about the rug. Actually the rug is probably more my own issue in keeping the wood floor a bit nicer. This particular room is the nicest room architecturally in the house… relatively new wood floor, gable windows… but we just haven’t had enough furniture to fill it since the move (and won’t until I’m back to work again). So it’s selfishness on my part with putting the rug down to keep kitten claws from scratching the floor. I’ve got a bunch of old quilts that I thought about throwing on top of the floor like a rug and they would be washable. Perhaps that’s the way to start.
The room my “isolation” fosters are kept in is carpeted – I put a bunch of small throw rugs (thrift store) on top of the carpeting – I can pick up the rugs and throw them in the washer when needed. If you’re doing kittens, you’ll need tons of towels and washcloths (again, think thrift store). If you can put some cheap furniture (Christmas Tree Shops sells cheap chairs, etc.) in there, that would be great – it will help them make the transition to their forever homes when the time comes. Put the furniture by the windows so they can see outside.
If the fosters haven’t been vaccinated yet, you will need to sanitize your hands between handling them and your permanents – I get hand sanitizer at the dollar store and keep it on both sides of the foster room door. Food/water dishes should be metal, so they don’t develop feline acne from plastic dishes. Again, Dollar Store for the dishes.
Oh, and toys! Paper grocery bags and cardboard boxes are always a BIG hit – and they’re free! and little ones LOVE to bat around ping-pong balls. And if you stuff some old socks with other old socks, they’ll have a blast rabbit-kicking them. Anything with feathers is always popular. I always keep a radio on in the foster room during the day to keep them company. (Choice of station is, of course, yours! Just avoid the thrash metal …)
Oh, and make sure you have an emergency contact number from the shelter or an emergency number for the vet that they use – that way, if something goes flooey in the middle of the night, you’ve got someone to call …
Sorry, didn’t mean to write a book …
I like books, RockyCat. Thanks for all of the helpful information! I’m going to need to find more cardboard boxes… the permanents spend most of their time bouncing in and out of the ones I have spread throughout the house and they give me the business if one is “out of place” (one of the geniuses “snacks” on the cardboard, lovely). The previous owners of the house left us an old sofa in the basement so that will be moving upstairs for the bitties to climb all over. I’ll be checking the thrift shops tomorrow for the rest of the things on your list. Thanks!
Really good suggestions, RockyCat! I particularly like the sanitizer on both sides of the door. As it is now, we usually run for the sink in the bathroom before we go in, and then again when we come out. Sanitizer’s so much more convenient. Can’t believe I never thought of that!
Kelly, what about interlocking foam squares for the floor in the kitten room, so you can protect the wood? My sister has them for her toddler’s play areas, and they are fully washable and can easily be disinfected. Similar material to yoga mats. This is what I’m talking about:
http://www.madmatterinc.com/SF_Interlocking_Tiles.html
I like the interlocking foam squares, BUT I’ve found that the kittens will tear them up and try to eat them.
Toddler hasn’t tried that yet, but DOES enjoy taking them apart (like a giant puzzle!). I’ve also seen smoother rubber-like ones at my gym. Will look for a logo next time I’m there, and report back…
And I forgot to add… Thanks, Connie! I appreciate your thoughts on this.
Stumbled across this tonight and thought of you. Could be handy for fosterers too. 😉
http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/e96a/
I’m thinking that maybe your entire neighborhood might be a kitten magnet! Either that, or you’re rubbing off on your neighbor! 😉