We Are Foster-cat Newbies

I'm not sure which group this post is most appropriate for, but this is close; feel free to move it if there's a more appropriate group.

Well, milady and I have been talking for years about fostering kittens; there is *always* a tremendous demand for foster homes around here, and we love cats, though we've never previously had more than 5 at one time. We live in Fremont, CA.

Anyway, we both recently retired; we're both 66, in good health, and decided to pursue this, now that we have time to devote to them. We've been dealing for years with a local cat-care group named Purrfect Cat Rescue, who are always looking for foster homes; wow were they happy when we visited last weekend!! So now we have 4 kittens here; they are all in good health, appear to be already socialized, and have their shots; I'm guessing that PCR wanted to start us off with an easy first family !!

What I'd like to ask of y'all, is just any advice on being foster parents; any cautions, lookoutfors, or whatever. We don't have any actual issues at this point, except that we are both *exceedingly* anxious !!! Last night's dreams were record-setters for both of us...

We have one adult cat in the house, who does *not* want new four-legged companions, so we've devoted the back of the house to her during the day, got a good quality pet gate (Richell) to block the hallway, and closed the door to the back bathroom. We're hoping that she'll come out the check them out at some point, but we want to be there when she does, so at night we're keeping the kittens in a large cage in the garage; during the day, they have the run of the front of the house.

Does this sound reasonable?? Any other thoughts??

Hi! I don't have any specific guidance to give you, but wanted to acknowledge your post and tell you that other 'expert' members will come along in due time and offer you some advice and support. So, be patient and check back often for new posts!!

You are on the right track with what you have started so far! Just keep your resident cat feeling secure and not threatened by the foster kittens. That is the biggest issue, because no matter who you foster, she will always be your baby!

Hi FeebysOwner; thanks for the quick note !

Yeah, our old lady isn't happy about the change... we've had other cats for most of the 9 years that she's been with us, but the last two (other than her) passed away together in early 2018, both from renal failure, and I think she's gotten used to having the house, and us, to herself. She got a brief glance at a couple of the kittens, and has been very anxious all afternoon; if she doesn't settle out tomorrow, I may go to our vet and get a tranquilizer for her, Buspar or something, just for a few days until she settles. She has more than half the house to herself, and the kittens aren't making any attempt to climb over the pet gate (so far).

In time she will adjust. Cats take a lot of time to accept change. She will eventually become the limit setter, the rule maker, to all these kittens that come into her life. It may help immensly to socialize them fully into living with a family. She may even come to enjoy the excitement that comes from all this activity. But for right now her world is changed and I'm sure she will take time to adjust. Just give her lots of extra attention and assure her that her staus as queen of the house is safe. Hissing, growling, and swatting will all be normal. As long as there are no real fights with blood, it is normal. As long as the kittens/cats come back for more and are not hiding from her, it is all good.
Thank you for taking this next step in your life, I am sure you will be blessed for caring so much for God's creatures. The only 'problem' I forsee, is losing your heart to each and every one of them. After years of saying I won't do that, it happens every time. and try to prepare yourself for heartache and failure, it can and will happen in time. Try to keep foremost in your mind that you are doing so much to help so many more, and for no matter how short of time they may have here on this earth, you gave them what they needed the most, someone to love them and care....I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers and hope you keep us posted on how you are doing and come back if you have any questions at all, no matter how small! PS due to time changes around the world, and many of our experts are overseas, make a small post again if you are not answered in a timely manner, it will bring your post back up to the top.

AHA!! Everything has been going well, except for our strung-out elderly cat (Alana). I had carried her out and held her in my lap so she could see them yesterday morning. They were all sitting under the sofa, and did not react to her at all, but it really caused her a great deal of anxiety, as I described previously. She was better today, but still very upset and doing repetitive, anxious behaviors.

So I called our vet and asked her what she thought about this, and if I could get some kind of tranquilizers for a few days, just to give her time to adapt to the change, since I'm pretty sure she will adjust to them after awhile (she has been around multiple cats throughout her life, up until about a year ago).

Anyway, the vet recommended that I give a try to Feliway... I had forgotten about it. The irony here, is that I first learned about Feliway *here in this group*, many years ago, but had forgotten about it; it was ineffectual for the situation that we had back then (over a decade ago), but an excellent idea...

So I went to Petsmart (which is very nearby) and got a spray bottle of it. I didn't get the diffuser, because it said it would take up to 7 days to work, and I wanted a solution now. I came home and sprayed just a little, on the two places where she's been neurosing between for two days...

And now, she is sound asleep on the hutch above my computer!! I went in to play with the kittens for awhile (which was upsetting her before), and she didn't even budge.

So mayhaps I have a solution for the only issue that we've been having with this new adventure of ours!!

I hope I can paste a Flickr link here... this is Alana in one of her favorite nesting spots, my gaming headphones next to my computer:

Pretty Alana!! If the Feliway doesn't end up working, there are numerous other calming products you can try. Just do an internet search on 'cat calming products' - much better than drugs!!

Cat Scared of Other Pets
10 Reasons you aren’t fostering kittens – BUSTED! | ACCT Philly
Hello, derelict , Alana, family, and fosters, and welcome to TCS! Alana is lovely.
Above are three links which may or may not be relevant to you. It sounds like Alana is already making good progress. All the very best to you all, and just post if you need more information. Jackson Galaxy, "The Cat Daddy" and host of many YouTube videos, author and co-author of several books, and host of Animal Planet's "MY CAT FROM HELL", and Hannah Shaw, The Kitten Lady, are two more excellent authorities on cats and kittens and they have presence on all the big socials.

huh... I don't know if the Feliway *worked* or not... it definitely, immediately calmed her down last night, but she has spent the entire day today, sleeping in the closet. If I go in and pay attention to her, she looks up and smiles, and she purrs when I skritch her, but she hasn't stood up all day. Not sure what this means, but it's not typical for her.

derelict said:

I hope I can paste a Flickr link here... this is Alana in one of her favorite nesting spots, my gaming headphones next to my computer:

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she is adorable, and thank you for stepping up and fostering.

Hi all, wanted to stop in and give an update on our new family ! The kittens are growing nicely, are *very* well socialized and wonderful to have around!

Alana has been making progress, in interesting ways... one of her common things to do is to come out to the living room (we have a 21" barrier blocking off the hall and back of house from the kittens, which they are generally following), and go to the back door to "read the newspaper" in the back yard. The kittens will all initially run over to visit with her, but she calmly just hisses and growls at them (not very convincingly), and remains there calmly reading the yard for awhile. At some point, she then jumps over the barrier and heads back into the back rooms which are for her alone (well, and us!!). The kittens seem to consider this all perfectly normal behavior. I think all is going quite well !

The hard part will begin next weekend; we just got them all neutered, so next weekend we'll start showing them for adoption at PCR's adoption events... it's been so magical having all the babies in the house, it'll be hard to let them go. But we discussed this at the beginning, and we've agreed that if we want to continue fostering (which there is a *tremendous* need for around here), we need to be able to let the babies go when we're done socializing them...

derelict said:

Hi all, wanted to stop in and give an update on our new family ! The kittens are growing nicely, are *very* well socialized and wonderful to have around!

Alana has been making progress, in interesting ways... one of her common things to do is to come out to the living room (we have a 21" barrier blocking off the hall and back of house from the kittens, which they are generally following), and go to the back door to "read the newspaper" in the back yard. The kittens will all initially run over to visit with her, but she calmly just hisses and growls at them (not very convincingly), and remains there calmly reading the yard for awhile. At some point, she then jumps over the barrier and heads back into the back rooms which are for her alone (well, and us!!). The kittens seem to consider this all perfectly normal behavior. I think all is going quite well !

The hard part will begin next weekend; we just got them all neutered, so next weekend we'll start showing them for adoption at PCR's adoption events... it's been so magical having all the babies in the house, it'll be hard to let them go. But we discussed this at the beginning, and we've agreed that if we want to continue fostering (which there is a *tremendous* need for around here), we need to be able to let the babies go when we're done socializing them...

Click to expand...

Huge props to you!!!