January through June 2001 - foster animals

June 2, 2001 - July 31, 2001 (Umma stayed till 9/13/01)

#31851 Umma (aka Puma)- brown tabby, 4 years old, F, surrender, shorthair
#31921 Phineas - orange, born 6/2/01, M, shorthair
#31922 Phoebe - grey, born 6/3/01, F, shorthair

    Umma was surrendered because the children she lived with were being mean to her. She is a beautiful and sweet brown tabby with gorgeous green eyes. Umma surprised us by giving birth the Saturday night we brought her home, but she only had one little orange kitten. Since we didn't know her well and she seemed healthy and not straining we let her be and didn't try hard to feel for more kittens inside. She was fine all the next day, but sometime before Monday morning she gave birth to another little kitten. This kitten is dark grey and has lots of curly fur already. Maybe she's a longhair. Perhaps the stress of a new situation or the other older kittens in the room made her hold back for another day. When you foster a pregnant mom you are never sure what you are getting into, even more so than a regular foster case. So we were happy that there more than one kitten for socialization, but pleased that she had a small litter. Two is perfect.
I rarely take two foster groups at once, but I know that mom's and their kittens don't need a lot of room or attention the first few weeks (usually!), so I decided to help this mama out. She has been very accepting of the curiosity, friendliness and playful wrestling from the 7 week old boys who are sharing a room with her. She has a separate playpen area that I have been keeping closed off to give her privacy but I don't think she'll miss the boys when they leave.
Umma is so protective of the kittens that they are very difficult to keep socialized. She teaches them to be afraid of us, even though she isn't afraid for herself she reacts strongly to any perceived 'attack', even if we mean well. We eventually had to take the kittens away to another room and worked on getting them friendly on their own. As soon as they were weaned we set up their own area and did intensive socialization too. They missed their mom, but made much better progress this way. Within two weeks they went from terrified of everything to pretty brave and searching us out for attention. Phineas is big on head butts and body leans. Phoebe loves to play with every toy she meets, while Phineas takes awhile to get the hang of things sometimes.
Update (8/8/01): All three were spayed/neutered on 7/31/01. I decided to leave Phin and Phoebe for adoption. They were much friendlier than I expected already and there was lots of room at the shelter for a change. When we visited on 8/4 Phoebe had already been adopted and Phineas was going home the 7th. We visited him for awhile and he was doing great, not upset at all by the people/noise/dogs at the shelter. He melted in my hands and definately remembered me, but he also headbutted the volunteer who helped us visit him. Good luck little ones!
Umma is staying with us for awhile. She is doing well. It turns out she was really just very very scared and that turned into aggression. We've been taking her out for desensitation visits. She is slowly getting less ballistic when she sees one of our cats. With us she is as lovey as can be, with no more biting. She will be a great pet for someone!
Update 9/13/01: Due to some extreme difficulties with the other litter I had at this time I had to abruptly return Umma. She spent several weeks in the shelter (with several holds falling through due to landlord problems or other things), then she was fostered somewhere for a short while to recover. When I saw her there I recommended that she be moved to the smaller satellite center. I had tried her there earlier and she did ok there. She spent almost a month there and gradually started to feel at home. She was adopted on 10-17-01 with Misty to a wonderful home!

May 12, 2001 - June 25, 2001

#31378 Pukini - grey/white, 4 weeks old, M, shorthair
#31379 Kiko - grey tabby/white, 4 weeks old, M, shorthair
#31380 Kahuna - Beige, 4 weeks old, M, shorthair
#31381 Puzzle Duck - tan and white, 4 weeks old, M, shorthair

    These little men were VERY VERY upset at first that humans wanted to hang out with them. They were adorable, so tiny and fierce. They had very sincere and very insistent hiss-spitting fits whenever we got near. Happily we have come to a truce. After a little forced love, the hiss-spitting changed to squeaking...and the squeaking quickly turned into a strident request FOR attention. Pukie is the loudest and most demanding. Pukini is Hawaiian for pudding and it just seemed to fit. Kiko is spot in Hawaiian. Kiko reminds me of Appaloosa aka Looie whom we fostered a few years ago. He has similar spots and likes to eat while standing in his food just like Looie did. Duckie always was a good snuggler, even when he was spitting mad! Now he just tucks down in my lap and purrs, even while I am putting eye ointment in his eyes! Kahuna is a strong climber and a playful guy. He doesn't sit still for long. All four are very interested in everything we do. They are a handful. At six weeks they were already able to scale both of the baby gates I had set up. These are the first young kittens I've ever seen that like catnip. Most kittens don't respond to it until they are much older.

January 5, 2001 - March 24, 2001 (boys) and April 21, 2001 (Keiko)

#29404 Kerwin (Baxter) - black, 4 months old, M, shorthair
#29405 Kiyoshi (Felix) - white/black, 4 months old, M, shorthair
#29405 Keiko - white/black, 4 months old, F, shorthair

    These siblings have mild URI's but mainly they are in foster care to get more friendly. Once you can catch them and hold them for a minute they start purring, but they are pretty skittish. Their little eyes always look pretty distrustful of us. They have beautiful shiny coats and are so soft.
    We have had longer to work with these guys because they ended up having coccidia which didn't show up at first. Kiyoshi and Kerwin were fast to warm up and now you can't keep them away from you. But little Keiko is still in need of some work. I've been carrying her around in a sling so that she can get used to things happening without running away and hiding so much. This made a big difference, but she remains shy.
    They seem to have some other problem besides coccidia. The medication didn't get rid of all the symptoms, but the tests don't show any problem of any kind (not even coccidia). That's good, but we can't send them back with these symptoms. We found a good home for the boys. They were willing to take them 'as-is'. They were adopted 3/24. They wanted a crazy really friendly cat so they're thrilled with our nutcase Kerwin! The boys are now Felix and Baxter. They love their new home and follow their new people everywhere. Apparently Felix now steals money and Baxter steals trinkets!
    After the boys left Keiko did doing well except she developed a lump under her spay incision (thankfully it went away on it's own). I took her to meet my sunday school class (10 year olds) and she liked that. She was gradually getting friendlier, but she'd still hisses at other cats. She went to the adoption center at Mounds and that was good for her. She got to the point of not hissing at new cats and interacted with lots of people. She was happy there. She was the 500th adoption at that Mounds location! Her new home is with a nice young girl to look after her and 2 other cats. They promised to be patient with her.
Update: 8/7/01 I just heard that Keiko is doing great at her new home, she's come out of her shell and they love her!

January 5, 2001 - January 15, 2001

#29199 Tony (aka Loverboy) - black and white, 4 years old, M, longhair Manx declawed
#29200 Emmy (aka Callie) - calico, 4 years old, F, longhair declawed

    These two sweet and very beautiful cats were surrendered due to 'unrealistic expectations'. They are a little shy, but it doesn't take much encouragement to have them melt into your arms purring. They both have cat colds. Tony is adorable with his little bunny fluff tail. They are both very photogenic and complement each other's looks.
Update: Tony and Emmy went down to Mounds and were adopted on Feb. 2. Tony is now called Onyx. They are getting along great with their new feline siblings and like to follow their people around the house.