The Kitten Foster Files #3

Hello there and welcome to THE KITTEN FOSTER FILES #3

On 28 November I announced that I was going to become a foster carer for kittens (and maybe puppies down the track – though I’m not so sure now that fostering puppies will work for me. Maybe only if the right puppy or dog for our household comes along) for the RSPCA and I introduced and explained the new item on the blog’s menu bar – ‘The Foster Files’.  I have since decided to rename it ‘The Kitten Foster Files’ for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) purposes.

On Sunday 15 December 2019 I collected my very first foster kittens from Qld RSPCA at Wacol in Brisbane. 

On 19 December 2019 I introduced them to you in a Foster Kittens Litter #1 post.  I decided to name them all in a Christmas theme and they are of course Nicko, Jack, Belle and Holly.

Can you believe that nearly 5 weeks has passed since I collected them?!!  So it’s well and truly time for an update on where things are at now. I have taken soooooo many photos and sooooo many videos.  It’s hard to choose what to include in this post and I can only include some of them.  However, if you’d like to see much more, the best place to look is firstly on my Write of the Middle Instagram Highlights here:  Litter 1 (1) & Litter 1 (2) and then go have a look at the Highlight at my new Instagram account (which I tell you about later in this post) here:  Litter #1

Here they are being weighed when they were still quite little:

The first week I had them there was a bit of worry about Jack and to a lesser degree, Holly.  Jack lost around 36g from one day to the next and was doing some pretty um … let’s just say ‘unstable’ … poops!  Holly had lost around 5g from one day to the next and was also doing some ‘unstable’ poops.  Any loss of weight is cause for concern and whilst Holly’s was not much, Jack’s was, and there was the fact they were both doing those unstable poops.  So, I phoned the foster team and it was agreed a vet visit was needed.  I packed up Jack and Holly (and poop samples from each of them) in their crate and left Belle and Nicko at home in the pen and off we went on the 40 minute drive along the motorway to the RSPCA at Wacol. I had been worried they had worms or something but tests on their poop found no problems which was fabulous news. The vet thinks it was the stress of all the change and their little guts adjusting to their diet.  

From that point on things got better.  I gave them all a bath on two occasions as being ‘late transitional’ kittens (at the latter stages of weaning onto solid food) they got themselves in quite a mess often (face planting and walking in their food) and unstable poops means very grubby butts!

Ok I guess it will tickle your funny bones if I tell you that I got myself lost (kinda) on the way home that day.  Yep – I missed a turn off on the freeway and ended up in Timbuktu totally dependent on my GPS to guide me home.  I swear it took me the longest way possible and I was in such a state by the time I got home that I declared I wouldn’t be cooking dinner and needed to be left alone to chill out!

On Saturday 21 December we went to the RSPCA at Wacol for a Foster Carers Christmas Party which was a lot of fun and great to meet other foster carers and have a chat.

On 30 December it was off to RSPCA Wacol again for all kittens to have their first vaccination.  Didn’t get lost that time!

Medically, apart from the vaccination, I’ve had to give them medication used to prevent and kill ‘Coccidia’, and another for prevention of fleas, heartworm, intestinal worms and other nasty parasites.  They won’t be with me anymore when their next vaccination is due. They’ll mostly likely be adopted and in their ‘furever’ homes.

Here they are a bit bigger now (followed by some of the ‘many’ video’s I’ve taken of them).

On Sunday 12 January the boys (Nicko & Jack) were dropped back to the RSPCA for desexing the next day on Monday. I was then going to collect them on the Tuesday and keep them until Saturday when they would go to the RSPCA’s Pop Up Adoption event at Southbank.  However, I received a call on Monday to say there had been a delay with the desex and they’d now not get done until Tuesday and they would now stay there and go on to Adoptions after.  Woah – that was a hard one for my heart to deal with.  Here they are in the RSPCA crate about to be taken back to the RSPCA. When I took this very brief video, I thought it was a short goodbye but not yet the final one.  I’m not crying, you are!!

The girls (Belle & Holly) are still with me but I’m guessing that they will probably go mid-late next week.  Belle hit the 1kg mark on Wednesday and Holly is finally in the 900’s so it won’t be long.  Once Holly is 1kg I will phone to book them in for desex and then they’ll go on to Adoptions.  I’m hoping that I can pick up some new babies the day I drop them off.  It’ll help my hurty heart and I do enjoy caring for them so much. It’s very rewarding.

I’ve learned a few things from this first experience.  

1. Pay attention to exits on the motorway!!
2. It’s best to weigh kittens when they are sleepy
3. Kittens can get into the smallest of places
4. Just like kids, kittens love routine
5. I bloody love baby kittens
6. My heart will not be able to help itself. I will fall in love with every baby kitten that comes into my care, but I hope that my heart gets stronger at letting them go!
7. I must remember:  Happy furever homes and happy lives for the kittens is what the end goal is and when I let them go, I make room for more that need care.

The Kitten Foster Files posts will be my way of providing an update, to those that might be interested, on what’s happening within the fostering side of my life.  I’ll post on a Friday but not necessarily ‘every’ Friday.  Outside of these posts you can keep up with what’s happening and see cute photo’s and videos at my new Instagram account that I mentioned earlier.  It’s where I can kitten spam to my hearts content.  It’s called Bayside Kitten Foster Files.  I’d love to see you there!

I’m pretty certain that I will no longer have the Christmas Kitten girls when I write the next Kitten Foster Files post.  Stay tuned to find out what and who comes next!

Meow for now,