Fostering

Introducing “Colonial” Kitten Fosters

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(I started this post 2 weeks ago. The pictures and the descriptions are from then. I will share updated pictures and personalities in a separate post)

Quick Backstory

There are 8 in this foster crew, 2 girls and 6 boys! They are a mix of two litters. One litter was born on March 6, and the other on March 18. Their mothers were a semi-feral mother-and-daughter duo who raised the kittens indoors together. I do not know which kittens are from which litter.

The human couple caring for the cats provided food and a safe place for them to raise their babies, but the kittens were never handled or socialized with people. As a result, they were terrified of humans. They would hiss, swipe, and run whenever anyone got close. If you managed to catch one (which required moving furniture), you could feel their tiny hearts pounding with fear and your hands stinging with cuts.

They came into the rescue I foster for after being posted for free on a local neighborhood Facebook page. I reached out to ask if they had been vaccinated or spayed/neutered, and they had not. Our rescue took them in to socialize them and prepare them for adoption. Each kitten will be microchipped, combo tested, vaccinated, and spayed/neutered before adoption. We also conduct background checks on all potential adopters.

In addition, we’re helping the couple trap the remaining adult feral and semi-feral cats in their home and in their yard. They are all being vaccinated against rabies and spayed/neutered.

The Girls

Virginia “Ginny” – AKA Pugsly AKA Puggie

The littlest of the foster crew. Distinct due to her big eyes, short legs, big belly, and BIG personality.

The biggest little eater. Will growl to defend her wet food. Will bop a sibling on the head with her paw to defend her wet food. She’s the reason I started serving wet food on 8 separate plates Puggie has main character energy, that’s why she has so many nicknames. I fell in love with Puggie fast. She also was one of the first to come out of hiding when I took them in, she couldn’t avoid a plate of tasty Fancy Feast Kitten Pate! She’d keep as far away from me as she possibly could, but crane her tiny neck out to reach the plate.

Felicity or “Fehissity”

The only other girl in this foster group of 8. The only solid grey tabby (no white on face or paws) of the bunch.

Hisses the most when I pick her up and while I pet her. She looks right up at me while I hold her and hisses softly (and sometimes silently). She reminds me of a cobra. I guessed she was a girl from the first day we got her. She’s got a sweet and petite face.

A picture is worth a thousand words, or in this case a nickname. Poor sweet Fehissity.

The Boys

Chester

Looks a lot like his sister Pugsly, grey tabby with white feet. I tell Chester and Puggie apart by Puggie’s big eyes.

It was difficult at first for me to figure out who is who with the Tabbies with white feet bunch, so I’m still getting to know each of them as individuals. But so far I’ve noticed Chester is a playful guy. He loves to wrestle all his kitty friends. He’s one of the smallest of the crew alongside Puggie.

James

James is another kitten in the gray tabby with white paws bunch. However, James has much more white on his nose than either Puggie or Chester. He also has beautiful green eyes.

James is a timid little guy, and quite feisty when I go to pick him up or pet him. Still getting to know this little cutie.

Coal

Coal is solid black, with the tiniest white tuff on his chest.

He is a brave, bold and feisty little guy. A fighter when afraid, lots of hisses and scratches. Coal is the only one who has made mad little spits at me. Definitely the hardest so far in socializing. I’ll admit at first his noises, and wild little claws had me a bit nervous. He’s never bitten, but I’ve thought he was about to. Was the first of the group to start exploring when I took this group in, and first (alongside Puggie) to start eating again during the transition. On the bigger side of the crew.

Smudge “Dusty”

This blue grey boy looks very similar to one of my forever cats. So my son named him after our kitty, Smudge. But, he’s also called Dusty. He is the largest of the crew, and at 3 pounds is ready to be neutered. (No worries about his squinty eye – I have since applied eye ointment to it with great results.)

Poor little Dusty shook in fear for the first couple days when I entered the room or picked him up. He broke my heart. He’s gotten past that stage, and now I see his curios side shine. Dusty is ALWAYS watching me closely, and will get close to get a better look as I clean litter boxes or sweep. First to jump onto the bathroom vanity to explore what’s up there.

Thomas Jefferson “TJ”

TJ is a white kitty with tabby splotches.

TJ is a shy guy. TJ isn’t a fighter, when I pick him up he collapses in fear in my arms (poor guy). As the days pass, and kittens start coming out to play with the wand toy I still never see TJ. He always sits behind the toilet or at the back of the crate. Even wet food or Churus don’t tempt TJ out of hiding. However, when I check the camera he’s always out playing and eating. So he’s simply very nervous about me.

Henry

Henry is a blue grey boy with large patches of white.

Henry is another shy guy. He cuddles up right beside TJ when I’m in the room. Henry, like TJ, also collapses in fear in my arms when I pick him up. Henry looks the most like his Momma, or out of the two Momma cats who I assume is his Momma.

Follow us on TikTok

If you are interested in following these kittens journey to their forever homes and/or learning about the day to day fun and work of fostering you can follow them on my TikTok page. I’m @meowyfostertails and my username is Squeak & Purr. I try to share tiktok posts and lives of them throughout the week. 🙂 This week I introduced a new scratching post and tunnel (both for 5 dollars each from 5 Below) to them on a live- the kittens absolutely LOVED them.

New Foster Kittens

/ Squeakandpurrcrochet / 2 Comments

I picked up these kittens on Saturday. They were advertised as free on facebook. I reached out to the poster and asked if they were vaccinated and fixed – he responded they were not. I asked if they “liked humans” and “could be pet”. He took awhile to reply, and he was vague in his response so I knew they weren’t super affectionate kittens. However, I wasn’t ready for what I found when I went to visit them.

It ends up he has 4 adult cats in his home, all unfixed. He also lets the females go outdoors. The 8 kittens he had in his home, were from 2 litters. Their moms were mother and daughter. They were born and have been growing up completely indoors, however he and his wife haven’t handled them. The kittens sat content on the couch or kitty condo, but were terrified of me if I approached.

Me and 2 other ladies with my rescue foster group caught all the kittens Saturday. It required flipping furniture, putting up gates, and getting scratched and bit (unless wearing thick gloves). We were there for around an hour.

These are the “spiciest” kittens I’ve ever gotten. And there are 8 of them! I have my hands full, and all scratched up already. 😅

More pictures coming…..🐈‍⬛🐈

I LOVE…Foster Cats

/ Squeakandpurrcrochet / 2 Comments

Hi, you’ve stumbled on my journal.

Here is where I will document my life & all I love.

The title of my page, “Squeak & Purr Crochet”, is the name of my recently opened ETSY shop. Currently it’s only offering an ALIEN & UFO crochet stuffy, but I have made many different patterns for my first ever market in May. Most of the stuffies I’ve crochet have been CATS so far.

Which will lead into my first post about something I LOVE which is –

FOSTERING CATS

Meet Sylvester. He’s about 3 years old. He appeared at a feral cat colony at the end of last year. He wasn’t neutered and had no collar or microchip.

The kind lady who cares for the colony noticed how sweet he is. She wanted him to have a family of his own to love on him and an indoor home to keep him safe. (The average life expectancy of an outdoor cat is 2–5 years, whereas an indoor cat on average lives 13–17 years.)

She reached out to FELT (For Every Living Thing) of VA. I picked him up early Friday morning (4-11-26). He hid all of yesterday under my bathroom sink (very, very normal for a new foster). I visited him throughout the day. Each time, I got down on the floor, spoke to him, and gave him lots of slow blinks (a kitties way of saying “I feel safe with you, and I love you”).

By the afternoon, he would gently meow to me. He never left the safety of the little bathroom sink cave, but the meows felt like a conversation.

By evening (since he had enjoyed head scratches when I picked him up in the morning), I slowly put my hand under the sink toward him. He stretched his little face over to sniff my hand, which I took as a great sign. Before I went to bed, I tried this technique again. This time, I gently scratched near his ear. He leaned into it, but when I moved my hand away, he stayed in his spot.

This felt like a good first day. 🙂

The next morning, this morning, when I visited, he meowed to me and crawled out from under the sink to greet me! He leaned into all the pets (he adorably stands up on his two back legs to soak all the pets in) and did lots of little biscuit making steps. I snapped some adorable pictures of him, including the one shared above.

Seeing how happy and comfortable he was, I let my 7-year-old daughter come in to meet him. She is my foster assistant and has been eagerly waiting. When she first entered the room, he hid again, but with some soft words, he came right back out. He was thrilled to have 2 friends petting him and telling him how good of a boy he is.

I’m excited to get to know Sylvester better and help him find his forever home.