We've been volunteers at a great shelter since 2017, but according to our lease couldn't have pets (or so we thought). In early May 2021 we got a call from the shelter asking if we could be emergency temp fosters for a litter of 7-week-old feral kittens that needed medication twice a day -- we figured this would be a brief enough responsibility (1 or 2 weeks) that our landlord would probably be ok with it, and he was. So that day we brought home:
Grey Kitten (really bad eye infection/injury)
Longhair
Orange and Orange&White (moderate eye infection)
The first night we made the mistake of providing one (1) litter box and some blankets to sleep on. Of course they all slept in the litter box and pooped on the blankets. That was a messy morning.
Solved that issue by getting a second litter box and putting a blanket in it. At this point whenever we put on or took off the sheets covering their cage we were greeted with a chorus of hisses and spits -- still very feral.
We discovered Orange was a lot more curious about outsidethecage than the others, who still cowered away from the door:
However once we grabbed them they were surprisingly amenable to being purritoed:
Took her to the vet for a checkup and cone. They gave us eye lube to hold over until an enucleation could be scheduled.
There was an initial period of distrust from the boys toward their sister's new headgear, but they quickly acclimated.
Grey also adjusted to the The Cone, a little awkwardly at first:But got pretty nimble within a few days:
She also got WAY more handleable -- as seen in this photo of her on the way to the enucleation:
Enucleation went really well! We gave her a tasty treat and let her nap with her brothers when she got home.
Surgery also meant our foster timeline was extended a couple weeks, which our landlord was surprisingly ok with.
With The Cone, feeding was already difficult enough, but to protect her incision from moisture and bacteria we decided her feeding times would be a little more special.
The brothers eating lunch:
Grey Kitten being spoon-fed:
We also decided to put her in a separate crate from her brothers while the incision healed, but gave them ample time to play outside the cages while supervised:
By this point the boys had become a lot more socialized as well.
Grey finally got The Cone removed and wasted no time snuggling up with her brothers (and me!).
A few days later they were big enough to get fixed -- which meant a night at the animal shelter before their surgeries.
This also meant it was time for them to be adopted out...
But after all the trips to the vet with Grey Kitten I'd gotten quite attached...and O&W was the first to purr for me and had needed some extra care with his eye and socialization too... Soooo, after our landlord astonishingly approved adoption (with NO pet fees!) we welcomed our home officially to Lilac and Horatio
And of course being ultra-protective of Longhair and Orange, I only approved adoption of the highest quality -- by a cat-experienced postdoc in my lab who promised regular updates <3
Lilac and Horatio are now settled into their forever home, being typical cats
As are Fire Hunter and Martin
VERY typical cats
Grey Kitten (really bad eye infection/injury)
Longhair
Orange and Orange&White (moderate eye infection)
The first night we made the mistake of providing one (1) litter box and some blankets to sleep on. Of course they all slept in the litter box and pooped on the blankets. That was a messy morning.
Solved that issue by getting a second litter box and putting a blanket in it. At this point whenever we put on or took off the sheets covering their cage we were greeted with a chorus of hisses and spits -- still very feral.
We discovered Orange was a lot more curious about outsidethecage than the others, who still cowered away from the door:
However once we grabbed them they were surprisingly amenable to being purritoed:
Took her to the vet for a checkup and cone. They gave us eye lube to hold over until an enucleation could be scheduled.
There was an initial period of distrust from the boys toward their sister's new headgear, but they quickly acclimated.
Grey also adjusted to the The Cone, a little awkwardly at first:But got pretty nimble within a few days:
She also got WAY more handleable -- as seen in this photo of her on the way to the enucleation:
Enucleation went really well! We gave her a tasty treat and let her nap with her brothers when she got home.
Surgery also meant our foster timeline was extended a couple weeks, which our landlord was surprisingly ok with.
With The Cone, feeding was already difficult enough, but to protect her incision from moisture and bacteria we decided her feeding times would be a little more special.
The brothers eating lunch:
Grey Kitten being spoon-fed:
We also decided to put her in a separate crate from her brothers while the incision healed, but gave them ample time to play outside the cages while supervised:
By this point the boys had become a lot more socialized as well.
Grey finally got The Cone removed and wasted no time snuggling up with her brothers (and me!).
A few days later they were big enough to get fixed -- which meant a night at the animal shelter before their surgeries.
This also meant it was time for them to be adopted out...
But after all the trips to the vet with Grey Kitten I'd gotten quite attached...and O&W was the first to purr for me and had needed some extra care with his eye and socialization too... Soooo, after our landlord astonishingly approved adoption (with NO pet fees!) we welcomed our home officially to Lilac and Horatio
And of course being ultra-protective of Longhair and Orange, I only approved adoption of the highest quality -- by a cat-experienced postdoc in my lab who promised regular updates <3
Lilac and Horatio are now settled into their forever home, being typical cats
As are Fire Hunter and Martin
VERY typical cats
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