About me:
I am a foster parent for baby animals. The animal shelters of our nation have deployed a volunteer foster parenting program to help the underage baby animals that come into the shelters daily. In the past, many of these homelss infants died. Either they were euthanized for lack of space to house them in the shelter or to prevent the slow demise of death by illness that permeates most shelters. Baby animals have little in the way of defenses to combat common animal ailments that are unavoidably prevalent at the pound.
Often employees of the shelters would take these babies home to bottle feed them and keep them in a safer environment until they were old enough to get their shots and be adopted. These babies also got the benefit of being accustomed to people and became young animals that were much better prepared to be pets. Being able to stay with their siblings until ten or twelve weeks of age also helps to build a more confident and well adjusted animal. Since the primary goal here is to prevent these little ones from even being born, it is necessary that all young animals that are being adopted be old enough to be sterilized to prevent the spread of over population. To safely be spayed or neutered a young animal needs to be a minimum of two pounds. There simply aren't enough employees able or willing to take home all of these little ones, so it became necessary to inlist the help of volunteers. While the foster program covers puppies as well as kittens, it is the cat population that has overwhelmed the system. The majority of young animals needing temporary homes are kittens. This is good! While I really don't prefer cats to dogs, kittens are MUCH easier to raise than puppies.
I started foster parenting in July of 2007 when a friend of mine sent me an email from the Los Angeles Humane Society asking for volunteers. He had done it before and I thought I'd like to give it a try. I went to the prerequisite training seminar and signed up.
On August 28, I officially became a foster parent by recieving my first litter. The experience of foster parenting has been rewarding enough that I want to share it with others and encourage people to volunteer with their own local shelters. My intentions with this blog are to promote a dialogue of advise and story sharing between foster parents and ANYBODY who loves animals. The focus here will likely be on cat care but I have friends who fostered Oppossums and baby birds and other fun things. Whether through organizations or just happening to find a tiny life all alone, taking care of a baby of ANY species is a journey of the heart and it's worth taking.
Babies are the focus here. The homeless pet situation is huge with many topics to discuss. I do not take in adult animals unless I have room for another pet because it could be a very long time before that animal finds a "forever home". I have my limitations. I have four cats, one dog and an eleven year old son. It would be unfair to my son for me to turn my house into any more of an animal way station than it already is. There are people who do provide foster care for adult animals that might otherwise be destroyed . I acknowledge that these people take on more than I'm capable of handling and I applaud them.
I'd like to note that my foster parenting at the moment involves working for the shelters. There are private organizations that need foster parents too. I want to try this avenue as well. I'm sure there are experiences unique to each way; but for now it's important to me that I am working at what I think of as Ground Zero - the pound.
Up until fostering I had never set foot in a pound. Shame on me. I always thought the pound would be too depressing, "I don't want to go there, I will be tempted to take every animal home." Yes, it is very sad. I brought my son with me one day and we were passing all the cages on the way back to the vet's office to get some treatment for one of my charges and my son said "It's like a prison for dogs." I said, "Yes it is, but just think, they didn't commit any crimes. They don't deserve to be here and some will get the death penalty." However, more and more shelters are trying their very best to become "No kill shelters"
I would like very much to dismiss some of the bad image of shelters as being animal death camps with maniacal blood thirsty people in charge who can't wait to destroy another animal. I am always amazed at how much the employees of the shelter system are NOT callouse to these animals. If anything they become callouse to people because they are constantly witnessing humans dumping off their pets like a piece of furniture they've grown tired of.
Whatever reason you are here, you are welcome. Catnip is allowed.
Thank you so much!! The Tonks are settling in. Milo is very chatty but Coco is not big on conversation so far. They are such loves! I put some photos of them up in my photo section. They are so sweet!!
The Prossess has started. There are seven kittens avalable for adoption. At a animal rescue shelter.The place is exactly right next door to my friend's apartment. We got to buy the kitty litter (he'll help me). It's the first step. I got to do it even before I see them. I'll keep you updated. I'm so nervous/excited. This is all your fault Miss Kitten. I may have at least one kitten by this weekend. Lord have mercy. See ya.
Thanks! I love the word "mog" but I'm disappointed to learn that it's origin might come from "a term of abuse for a dishevelled old woman or older prostitute".
Hope you get chance to read Under The Paw. Are you on Facebook? Quite a bit more activity on the Under The Paw group there these days than there is here...
