Foster Friday 2: How Fostering Kittens Made Me Take Up Swimming
Butch and Cassidy having the very best pink toe beans, don’t you think?
You know how many experiences have a honeymoon period? Well, it’s Day 15 of my first kitten fostering journey, and … the honeymoon is going strong! In fact, I am somehow even more in love with Butch & Cassidy. I mean, just look at these two perfect beings. Of course, there have been learning moments and aching backs (all that sitting on the restroom floor!), and my definition of honeymoon has expanded to include “studying poop while wearing a headlamp.” Plus, fostering kittens made me take up swimming. But first —
An update on Butch & Cassidy:
Little mouse Butch peeking through his favorite cheese scratcher box
Butch, once a quiet and gentle boy who would unfailingly answer his sister’s squeals with tiny soft mews of his own and let her hog the plate, is now a super energetic and talkative playing machine. And when he plays, Butch is indubitably an Earth Bender. He runs confidently over various kinds of terrains - tile floor, fleece blanket, scratcher dome - with enough stamina to be an Olympian, often for 20+ minutes at a time. Beneath the rambunctious energy, though, is still that loving baby. He loves giving me kitten kisses, i.e. licks - usually on my hand and face, once on my knee. In fact, a few days ago, he gave me such a long, sweet kiss, then put his tiny paw in my hand, and it was the most romantic experience of my life (hehe, sorry, Favorite Parent!). He has never missed his daily quota of at least two cuddle sessions with his sister on their favorite fleece blankie, and if I join them, Butch instantly turns on the purring machine.
Little lady Cassidy is the very definition of beauty
Cassidy is a fearless little energizer bunny who has now grown to have a more contemplative side. She still loves running around with her brother, and she still takes her responsibility as Pioneer Explorer of New Things seriously, but she also sometimes goes into her kitten tunnel or cheese scratcher box to enjoy some solitude. And, much to my surprise, one of her favorite daily rituals is sitting in my lap and ‘reading along’ — kittens read with their teeth, you didn’t know? — whatever book we are reading (this week we finished ‘The House in Cerulean Sea.’) As I reflect back, this shouldn’t have surprised me so — after all, after her first self-initiated lap cuddle around lunchtime on Day 7, Cassidy became a Serial Lap Sitter that very same day. Her favorite way to eat is sitting on a fleece blanket on my lap and being hand fed (“finger food” has a whole new meaning to me now), though ever the Independent Woman, she will also go to her food station on her own and eat proactively. She also enjoys a shoulder perch, something I discovered by happenstance while giving her booty bath, which she hated and tried to get out off by climbing up and up until reaching my shoulder. And when she plays, she makes it count. She is an Air Bender who has more aerial jump moves than Cirque du Soleil, and no feather, mouse, ball, or ribbon is her match. Five days ago, Cassidy learned to “carry her prey” and can often be seen running around their Kitten Montessori with her fav toy, the crinkly bee, in her mouth and ferocious lioness energy in her eyes.
What I learned this week about fostering kittens:
Growth isn't linear … for any species. And it’s ok. I knew growth wasn’t linear for me, but this fact is hard to accept as a mom! Kittens are supposed to gain an average of 7-15 grams a day. Some days Butch and Cassidy gain 30 grams (this is ok - wonderful in fact, the shelter told me. At their age, the more the better), but some days they lose weight. Thankfully, I have an amazing team of vet techs, vets, and shelter staff who guide me in evaluating their health, and they are very much on track in development. But still. The days when they don’t gain as much weight, my heart feels heavy.
Speaking of vet techs, vets, and shelter staff … they are perhaps the most amazing people on earth. Any person who dedicates their life energy to caring for others is a gift, and those who care for some of the most vulnerable and poopy and unable to articulate gratitude after triumphing through a long and hard journey? And who answer 5-8 questions every other day from anxious first-time foster parents like myself, patiently and kindly educating and guiding? Heroines. However you can, please show your local shelter some love!
How quickly kittens grow up! One day she wants to sit in your lap and have you read a book to her. The next day she wants a cappuccino and some solitude, please. Just kidding - Cassidy still climbs into my lap for reading time every day, but I can see in her eyes the ever growing maturity and understanding of the world and herself. And Butch, my little purring cuddle boy! Every day he climbs to a new height - top of the trash bin, on the shower ledge, etc. Any moment now I’ll expect to find him pulling a Harry Styles and stand on the ceiling. How hard it is for a mother to let go ...! And, of course, their graduation from foster care is just over a week away …
Standing desks, ergo chairs, soft pads are overrated. Who needs all that when you can perch your laptop on top of a tiny trash can and work from the foster kittens’ room, thereby spending as much time as possible with them? And in the same vein, who needs a mattress when you can lay on top of a fleece blanket on the bathroom tile floor, two toasty purring machines tucked against your belly?
Being a good mom to babies of different ages is hard. Junipurr, my five year old cat, has blown me away with how generous, calm, and kind about the presence of little noise-makers in her home. Yet, increasingly, there are moments where she sits in the hallway outside of the foster kittens’ door, silently waiting for me to come out and give her a little love and attention, too. I want to give my 100% to both Junipurr and the foster babies… but how can one be in two places at the same time? Sigh…
Caught my Junipurr trying to peek into the foster kitten room …
Kittens = more time with your favorite people. Under the banner of ‘the kittens need socialization,’ I’ve invited a number of my favorite people over for kitten playdates. Not only do the kittens get to meet different kinds of people and deepen their trust of humankind (which is highly beneficial to being selected for adoption), I may be emerge the biggest beneficiary of all — getting time with dear friends who, especially since the pandemic, I rarely see in person. Animals — they are wellsprings of joy, you know?
Practice may not make perfect, but it does make … easier? As a part of continually acclimating the foster kittens to human voice, I sing little songs to them throughout the day. I still can’t carry a tune, but I can think of little rhymes and stories for them with so much more ease!
Although this is not a learning per se, allow me to share with you how …
How Fostering Made Me Take Up Swimming
As you may recall from last week’s Foster Friday, the foster kitten room - ahem, the Kitten Montessori - is our one and only restroom. You may be wondering, as a few of our families and friends have, where we do our business. Well! We brush our teeth in the kitchen sink, naturally. And since there’s really no viable alternative, we use the commode when we need to — making sure there are no kittens underfoot, and with many awkward apologies to the often staring kittens — but we don’t use the shower. Now, this is by no means a requirement. In fact, for kittens who have respiratory issues (which thankfully Butch and Cassidy do not), proximity to a warm shower is a good no-cost alternative to a humidifier system. However, the unique layout of our restroom and our shower’s propensity for splatters and leaks means that if we take a shower, the kittens will de facto get one too. So! What we do is go to the public pool near our home and use the shower there. But of course, we don’t want to be complete weirdos who walk past a pool full of people just to use the shower. So we dutifully - and now with increasing enjoyment! - swim a few laps, too! Yet another thing I’m grateful to Butch and Cassidy for: making me, an incorrigible couch potato, into a daily swimmer :)
