July thru December 2001 - foster animals

July 31, 2001 - May 14, 2003 (Friedrich and Brigitta went back to be adopted on 12-12-01)

#33031 Maria (mom) - white and grey, adult, stray, F, shorthair (10-4-01)
#33036 Friedrich - grey/white, 4 wks old, M, shorthair (adopted 12/01)
#33032 Brigitta - grey/white, 4 wks old, F, shorthair (adopted 12/01)
#33033 Louisa - mostly grey/little white, 4 wks old, F, shorthair (11-29-02)
#33035 Marta - brown tabby/white, 4 wks old, F, shorthair (adopted 5-14-03)
#33034 Liesl - black/white, 4 wks old, F, shorthair (4-22-03)
#33135 Gretl - tortie, 3 wks old, F, shorthair (11-7-02)

    Mama Maria is so skinny. She hated it at the shelter, with her 5 kittens and no room in the cage. She is eating ok, but sniffly and skinny and these kittens are a drain on her. I'm hoping they start eating on their own very well soon to give her a break. The little tortie girl Gretl was trapped on 8/1 in the same area mom was found in, they thought she was part of the same litter, but she's obviously younger. Still mom accepted her and she's doing well. She is a crybaby.
Liesl had a bot fly that was removed before we got her. She likes to stand in the middle of the dish and eat canned food. Poor mom Maria has to eat around her!
After our last few groups of fosters, these are a welcome change. They are so friendly and easy going. They run over when I come in and want to climb all over me. It's very fun.

  I got very bad news about these kittens on 9/12/01. I had returned them to be spayed/neutered when three of the 5 older ones tested positive for feline leukemia virus. It turns out all but Brigitta and Friedrich are positive for this disease. Since the shelter usually euthanizes for this I have decided to attempt to find homes for them myself. This is a tough one though. They'll likely have short lifespans and need to stay away from other cats. We are very sad about this, especially considering their sweet personalities. The shelter does test for this, but either Maria was exposed and not positive yet or little Gretl had it and exposed the rest.

November 12, 2001 - November 17, 2001

#? Misty - Dilute Tortie, adult, stray, F, medium hair

I took Misty home for a few days to let the Mounds adoption center bring in another cat while she waited for her adoption to go through. She is a beautiful and wonderful kitten so it wasn't much of a sacrifice to take her home, but my cats were not thrilled. I actually got to meet her adoptors and helped them try to decide whether or not to adopt another cat with Misty. Because Misty was such a wonderful personality, very calm and non-aggressive I thought that even my foster Umma who was then at Mounds would work out. Umma didn't do well in my home, but was adjusting very well to life with other cats in the adoption center. Umma really liked these people and they decided to adopt her along with Misty. They promised to be very patient and give Umma as much space as she needs!

December 13, 2001

Brigitta and Friedrich (see #s above) were retested for FELV and had stayed negative. They went home in early January to separate homes. They got very big, especially Freedy who was just huge. They both stayed rather people shy, but they loved to play and I was glad they had each other during their quarantine. Freedy was a little wild child, but fun to watch.