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By Tracy Kirsten
COLTON KEEPS FOSTER KITTY HARRIET WARM AND COZY AFTER A BATH
Webster's definition of "foster:"
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): fos-tered; fos-ter-ing 1 : to give parental care to : NURTURE
2 : to promote the growth or development of : ENCOURAGE
As I sit here thinking about all the kitties my family has fostered, my heart becomes filled with love. My family has a fairly long history of fostering kitties and I don't think we will ever stop. The foster kitties have shown my family what unconditional love is.
I started fostering cats for Folsom Feline Rescue in 2000. The first cats I fostered were Samantha and Clyde. Samantha was about a year old and we actually ended up keeping her because we wanted a second cat to keep our cat Morgan company. Samantha fit in perfectly with our household. She is friendly, humble and loving. Clyde was a black kitten and was adopted by another family who named him "Midnight." Others I remember are Monique, Tiffany, Gracie (she died of FIP), Hope, Alex, and Tippy, just to name a few. I took about a two-and-a-half year break from fostering when my son Colton came along. After Colton was old enough to know how to be gentle with kitties and not open the front door to set them free, I dabbled in fostering again.
It has been such a joy watching my son experience fostering kitties. He remembers all of their names and frequently talks about the fosters, taking inventory of who we have fostered and how they are not with us anymore because they got adopted. Colton fully experiences the foster kitties, from preparing our laundry room for them with warm beds, litter boxes, fresh food, water and toys, to when they arrive, watching them receive their vaccines, trimming their nails, giving them medicine if they are sick, to letting them acclimate by being sensitive not to talk too loud, and petting them gently, to playing with them, bathing them, holding them softly and lovingly, to bringing them to adoption events and saying bittersweet goodbyes knowing that they will probably be adopted by a permanent family. Colton still talks about our last foster, Rocky, who was adopted a few weeks ago. "Rocky got adopted, Mommy," he says matter-of-factly like he was truly a part of making that happen. And he was!
My husband Jeff has become very sensitive over the years to the fosters, which I am so grateful for. Jeff does get annoyed at times about the unpleasant odors that lurk in the laundry room, as we all know that kittens can sometimes poop a lot! But he is so supportive and genuinely cares about the kitties and their well-being. My husband is teaching my son the valuable lesson that sometimes even when you don't like the smell you love them anyway!
Our current foster, Harriet, is a seven-month-old black kitten that has some pretty bad medical problems. She is about the size of a four-month-old and has a severe bowel problem. Needless to say, she gets a lot of baths and medicines, which Colton has become very familiar with. Colton helps me by preparing Harriet's towel to dry her off after her bath, and he has become quite proficient in syringing medicine to her, with my supervision. Then he gently holds her in a soft towel to keep her warm and cozy after her baths. Colton has also become very conscious of my morning cleaning duties of the unpleasantries that Harriet doesn't have a lot of control over. Colton often offers to help cleaning the unpleasantries but this is where I draw the line with him! So now he just talks to me from outside the door of Harriet's laundry room and asks me if I'm cleaning up the poop and then proceeds to tell me, "Mommy, I can clean the poop when I'm older and bigger!" Well, of course he can, but will he I wonder? I'm sure I'll find out because we will probably still be fostering when Colton is older and bigger! I don't have my hopes up that he will still want to clean up the poop though.