Southern California Sane Cat Lady

CaliFosterMom

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I live in Southern California and just started fostering cats & dogs about a year ago. I first had two feral kittens that were rescued from a hoarders trailer and were still too wild to be adopted after 4 weeks in another foster home. My 8 year old daughter and I gave them patience and love and after 3 weeks they were ready to be adopted.

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Then I fostered puppies, one litter of 2 and then a litter of 4, but I quickly learned that cats were more my passion.

A few weeks ago I was contacted about a very malnourished pregnant cat that was about 3 weeks from giving birth.

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Needless to say just a couple hours before the transport picked her up she gave birth to 3 very tiny kittens. When I met the transport she was worried the kittens weren't going to make the trip.

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But....they did survive. I took good care of mama cat and she has been taking good care of them. I named mama cat Onyx and the 3 kittens were temporarily named Diamond, Pearl, and Jade. They are currently just over 3 weeks old.

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While I wish my life were that simple...it never seems to be...

Abruptly my 16 year old daughter moved in with me last week and with her came her cat, Ash. Ash is a sweetie, she's just under a year old and is spayed. She is a permanent feline in my house and right now she stays separate from Onyx and the kittens.

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But just two days after Ash arrived I was given another mama cat and her 7 kittens...not through a rescue. I just have too big of a heart to refuse. This mama cat was different, didn't want anything to do with the kittens. On night one the new mama cat broke out my office window screen and escaped, after trashing my office area quite a bit.

The reason I have the 7 kittens in the first place is because an 18 year old friend of one of my neighbors thought it would be "neat" to bottle raise kittens. This was her 2nd set from the same mama cat and of the first litter only 2 of the 6 survived, so she decided to try it again. But didn't have the money for formula or the patience to feed them every few hours. The mama cat was a stray and didn't even stay in the house with the kittens, which she didn't bother to mention before I contacted her to tell her that she escaped.

I felt really bad about mama cat escaping, I walked the neighborhood until 4am trying to find her, but I am a stranger to her, so I had no luck. Her kittens are not even 2 weeks old. She has not come back.

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I brought the box of kittens in to my room to bottle feed them and Onyx cried from my walk in closet where I have her set up. I let her out and curiosity got the best of her and she jumped right in and started cleaning them and as she began feeding 3 of them I finally felt they were safe so I could try to sleep a couple hours before work. (I work from home FYI)

But just minutes later loud kitten cries woke me...my exhausted imagination overtook me and I hurriedly jumped up to turn on the light...but rather than a crime scene I found mama Onyx carrying her 2nd kitten from the closet to the box of kittens, she put all 10 together before laying down to sleep. (I obviously was relieved and embarrassed with myself).

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So here we are 5 days later and the older kittens are healthy and playful. And......are all boys. So Pearl became Little Pete, Jade became Jayden, and Diamond became Neil. 😆😆😆

The 7 younger kittens are doing well. They nurse some and get bottle fed on occasion. One little guy isn't gaining weight so he is being watched and fed closely.

Ya. So that's my story. In less than a month I went from 0 cats to 12 cats, and I love love being a foster and helping them out so very much. 💕
 

Tik cat's mum

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:welcomesign:to you and your big foster family. And a big
:thanks:for everything you have done for all these cat's and dog's. Those kitten's are gorgeous and mama cat is just a star, what a good mom. And I have to agree Ash is a sweetie.
 

Norachan

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Hi CaliFosterMom CaliFosterMom Welcome to The Cat Site.
:hithere:

Thank you for helping all of those cats and thanks for posting so many pictures. We love pictures! The kittens look adorable, it was really lucky that Onyx was able to care for them all. I'm sure you're going to be rushed off your feet making sure everyone gets fed, but what an amazing happy family you're going to have.

I'm looking forward to seeing more pictures of the kittens as they grow.

:heartshape:
 

rubysmama

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Hello and welcome to TCS. :wave2: Thank you for giving all those cats and kittens a home when they needed one. Hopefully you'll be able to find homes for some of the kittens when they're old enough to be adopted out.
 

tabbytom

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CaliFosterMom and kitties, on behalf of The Catsite community, a warm
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to all of you.

So glad that you’ve joined this wonderful site and you are in the right place for all things cat and this site is loaded with tons of rich resources and you’ll find friendly and helpful cats around and many of our cats are very knowledgeable in cat related stuffs.

Thank you for taking in these kitties and fostering them and finding good homes for them :clapcat:

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Feel free to ask questions if you have any and start a new thread of your own and post them under the appropriate forums and do check out the many informative articles we have here in Articles | The Cat Site

Enjoy your stay and see ya around :wink:
 

Mamanyt1953

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Welcome to you, Onyx, and that enormous kindle of kittens you have found yourself with! I'm so happy that you and Onyx can help each other with the little orphans. Even if she can't feed them all (and she almost certainly can't), they will be so much better for having a surrogate mama to snuggle with, for pottying, and for "baf time."
 

Purr-fect

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I live in Southern California and just started fostering cats & dogs about a year ago. I first had two feral kittens that were rescued from a hoarders trailer and were still too wild to be adopted after 4 weeks in another foster home. My 8 year old daughter and I gave them patience and love and after 3 weeks they were ready to be adopted.

View attachment 392966

Then I fostered puppies, one litter of 2 and then a litter of 4, but I quickly learned that cats were more my passion.

A few weeks ago I was contacted about a very malnourished pregnant cat that was about 3 weeks from giving birth.

View attachment 392965

Needless to say just a couple hours before the transport picked her up she gave birth to 3 very tiny kittens. When I met the transport she was worried the kittens weren't going to make the trip.

View attachment 392967

But....they did survive. I took good care of mama cat and she has been taking good care of them. I named mama cat Onyx and the 3 kittens were temporarily named Diamond, Pearl, and Jade. They are currently just over 3 weeks old.

View attachment 392970View attachment 392976View attachment 392978

While I wish my life were that simple...it never seems to be...

Abruptly my 16 year old daughter moved in with me last week and with her came her cat, Ash. Ash is a sweetie, she's just under a year old and is spayed. She is a permanent feline in my house and right now she stays separate from Onyx and the kittens.

View attachment 392982

But just two days after Ash arrived I was given another mama cat and her 7 kittens...not through a rescue. I just have too big of a heart to refuse. This mama cat was different, didn't want anything to do with the kittens. On night one the new mama cat broke out my office window screen and escaped, after trashing my office area quite a bit.

The reason I have the 7 kittens in the first place is because an 18 year old friend of one of my neighbors thought it would be "neat" to bottle raise kittens. This was her 2nd set from the same mama cat and of the first litter only 2 of the 6 survived, so she decided to try it again. But didn't have the money for formula or the patience to feed them every few hours. The mama cat was a stray and didn't even stay in the house with the kittens, which she didn't bother to mention before I contacted her to tell her that she escaped.

I felt really bad about mama cat escaping, I walked the neighborhood until 4am trying to find her, but I am a stranger to her, so I had no luck. Her kittens are not even 2 weeks old. She has not come back.

View attachment 392993

I brought the box of kittens in to my room to bottle feed them and Onyx cried from my walk in closet where I have her set up. I let her out and curiosity got the best of her and she jumped right in and started cleaning them and as she began feeding 3 of them I finally felt they were safe so I could try to sleep a couple hours before work. (I work from home FYI)

But just minutes later loud kitten cries woke me...my exhausted imagination overtook me and I hurriedly jumped up to turn on the light...but rather than a crime scene I found mama Onyx carrying her 2nd kitten from the closet to the box of kittens, she put all 10 together before laying down to sleep. (I obviously was relieved and embarrassed with myself).

View attachment 392989
View attachment 392990
View attachment 392991
View attachment 392992

So here we are 5 days later and the older kittens are healthy and playful. And......are all boys. So Pearl became Little Pete, Jade became Jayden, and Diamond became Neil. 😆😆😆

The 7 younger kittens are doing well. They nurse some and get bottle fed on occasion. One little guy isn't gaining weight so he is being watched and fed closely.

Ya. So that's my story. In less than a month I went from 0 cats to 12 cats, and I love love being a foster and helping them out so very much. 💕
Welcome and thanks for all your hard work and love.

Onyx sounds absolutely amazing!!
 
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CaliFosterMom

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How are Onyx and all the kittens doing?
The 3 older kittens are eating some wet food mush now, actually from the bowl, the first few feedings they took it from a spoon, fingers, off of each other's face. 😄
They are also using the litter box more and on their own without me having to set them in it or scratch my finger around a bit.

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The younger kittens keep pushing in to try to get some food so I put some formula in a dish for them and added a tiny bit of kitten food today and they all seemed to leave the others alone while failing to actually eat any on their own.

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My little Mini Man is still smaller than the rest but he is finally over 200 grams. He will take the formula from a tiny spoon now though and tried his taste buds at the kitten food flavored formula today.

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Onyx is doing really well. She takes her breaks from the kittens and visits me on the bed. Talks my hear off. Kneads my pillow...my blanket...my sheet...my knee. 😊
She met Ash, we'll just say it could have gone better...and it could have gone worse. A small slap battle and then I broke them up. This was right before.
PXL_20210902_161632005.jpg
 

klunick

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:welcomesign: and love hearing your story. So happy Onyx took on the other kittens. So so sweet!!
 
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