FOSTERS 2022

[kritter]

Looks like we are starting early this year.  We picked up 5 kits about 8 weeks old last Wednesday.  Various stages of friendly from "love you" to "WTF am I doing here?".

[val2525]

Tooooooooo cute!!

[staytuned]

Oooooohhhhh, what cutie pies!

I love the "WTF am I doing here" look on the kit in the middle of the first pic.

[kritter]

Feb 6, 2022 0:12:18 GMT staytuned said:

Oooooohhhhh, what cutie pies!

I love the "WTF am I doing here" look on the kit in the middle of the first pic.

You picked the WTF one. She was the last one that we caught and it took awhile.

They are going to be in person at our Valentines weekend bake sale.  I think we are going to put them on our Seattle and maybe Denver pet adoption websites too.

[val2525]

What happened to the momcat?

[val2525]

I love the one in the third pic. That face!!

[kritter]

Feb 6, 2022 17:13:19 GMT val2525 said:

What happened to the momcat?

The mom and dad are feral and haven't been caught.  The Feral Cat Coalition folks are working on trapping them.  The main purpose for the grab was to get the kits out of the upcoming super cold upcoming weather once we heard that they were there. 

The one in the third pic is the most friendy of the bunch.  Definitely somebody had been interacting with a couple of them because they are not flat out feral.

[val2525]

Do they have names yet?

[kritter]

The kid at their foster home has named them after pies which reminds me of Stacey (Barney's mom) and her "Things found at a fiesta" names like Funnel Cake.

[val2525]

I'm surprised they didn't use names related to Valentine's Day.

[staytuned]

I thought at least one would be named Cupid.

[val2525]

I thought that too! Cupid, Valentine, Sweetheart, Romeo, names like that.

[val2525]

Pies. Like Apple, Cherry, Coconut, Banana Cream?

[kritter]

It is a kid doing the naming so there is that. I think they are Peach, Pecan, Apple, Pumpkin, and Sweetie.

Pretty lame, right?

[staytuned]

The kids named the last two cats the Yuppies had. The Siamese was Cocoa (because cocoa was his favorite beverage) and the other, rarely seen cat I can't remember what he looked like, was Toast (the other son's favorite breakfast food).

Those pie names may be lame, but could be a lot worse. I still feel bad for Funnel Cake.

[chapeaunoir]

No one named Boston Cream?

The DH keeps looking at those photos and "awww"ing. He's always had cats, often multiple cats, and really misses having them. One thing that will get us into gear to tear up the rest of the house and finish the renos is so when that's done, we'll get cats. We don't want to put newly settled cats through home renos, particularly since we're hoping to train them to be indoor cats, though neither of us have ever had exclusively indoor cats. One benefit of cats is they do the pest extermination, but while we still have any coyotes in the area, they have to be indoors.  Fortunately, we have a burgeoning barred owl population here and they've begun taking care of the mice and rats. 

[staytuned]

I was thinking if someone adopts the lot and they somehow get loose, calling out the names of pies might get people to think they're having a bake sale.

[kritter]

chapeaunoir   There really is nothing to "train" for indoor cats.  All my cats are indoor and always have been.  They don't know the outdoors except to look out the windows and none of them even show any interest in going outside.  We have coyotes, owls, and hawks around here too and people on NextDoor are always posting about their missing outdoor cats.  I used to have outside cats too but after the last one passed, I said no more. 

If anybody applying for one of our foster cats indicates the cats will be outside at all, they get turned down.  We do try to talk to them about the dangers but it is just too risky to take a chance.  Two of our Seattle cats have been leashed trained and go for walks and to the beach with their different owners.  One was adopted as an adult cat, Gwen, and one was a kitten.   We are really happy with out Seattle adoptions.  Those kittys have been lucky to find such great homes.  

[chapeaunoir]

The DH adopted our rescues because they couldn't be adapted to the indoors - their previous family tried for months after they rescued them - providing a nice environment, lots of attention, etc.., and particularly Jamie who loved the outdoors would sit in front of the door and cry, sometimes they both would. They finally decided that absolutely had to adopt them out because they were moving to a neighbourhood that might not be cat friendly.  We live in a quiet, woodsy area and our cats had lots of room to roam - they basically were out all day and came in at night (sometimes the fluffy one was out all night, too, but only if she scooted out and we didn't see her). 

Thing is, there have been coyotes coming down from the mountains  in the last years. Neighbours adopted out their farm animals after a big sheep was killed because they didn't want this to happen.  People still keep household livestock like chickens, but they're easy to manage.  So we absolutely want cats that are already adapted to the indoors, unlike our two who just never could. 

The DH wants to leash train them - I thought of having a roofed playpen out back. But honestly, it's better if they just keep indoors and we have a planned environment for them (we don't mind a lot of climbing stuff in the living room). 

[kritter]

My entire living room is cat trees, cat scratchers, cat beds, cat everything. I have a 10'x20'x7' cat pen that is next to the east side of my house with an access from a bedroom window.

The access has been blocked for years because that bedroom is now the foster bedroom and the fosters don't need to be out in the cat pen. We use it now for cat recovery after spay/neuter and any cats that we pick up and need to evaluate before bringing them into a foster situation.

It is better and safer for them to stay indoors.

[kritter]

Angie put Sweetie, the calico, on the Seattle Petfinder site on Saturday afternoon and has been deluged with excellent applications for her. She is the most social of them so we felt good about putting her out there right away.

I am picking up one of the least friendly kits this afternoon so we can split them up a bit. Kittens defintely adhere to the safety in numbers code so time to break up the club.

This is way too early for kittens. It seems like we just got done with the last ones a few weeks ago.

[kritter]

I have the dilute calico WTF kitten in a cage on the coffee table in my den. She is an angry kitten and I have been warned that she is a biter.

Going to change her name because she is not a "pie" kitten.

[staytuned]

Tell her if she doesn't get with the program, her new name will be Liver.

[kritter]

Pretty sure her name is Twila although if she doesn't shape up it will be "Returned to trailer park".

[Tabby]

Kritter, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that you have good luck socializing little Twila.

In the pic you posted, she looks terrified. If I was that scared, I'd try to bite you, too!   

[jandsknight]

Sounds like her name should be Attila.

[val2525]

Fingers crossed Twila wises up fast.

[Shirley U Geste]

With that attitude she needs to be called Karen.

[chapeaunoir]

Twila might be my totem animal.

[kritter]

Peach, the kit in the second pic, is being adopted by a family in Boston. They are flying down here to pick him up when he is ready to go.

Sounds like Boston is another place in need of kittens.

Sweetie, the calico, is being adopted by a family in New Braunfels which is right up the road from us.