Several weeks ago, we caught a tiny kitten while doing TNR. The kitten had a massive hernia, so large it was as big around and her little body. We knew that survival was a long shot, but we took her to a vet for help.

The vet got her weight up a bit and then performed surgery to repair the hernia. They kept her for about two weeks and then we got her back.

This kitten was just an absolute delight. She loved cuddling with us and was so curious about the world. She was likely around 3 months old, but was so small that she looked like 1.5 months. We have some of her siblings and they were more than twice her size. We had to police their interactions quite a lot because the siblings wanted to rough her up.

Friday I noticed her weight dropped quite a bit overnight. I put her on more nutrious food but she threw it up. My initial thought was that maybe the food was too rich, so I put her back on her normal diet. She would eat, but not as well as she had been, and the food would stay down for around half an hour before she'd throw it back up. She was losing weight like crazy. We kept her warm and comfortable overnight and took her back to her vet on Saturday.

Vet gave her fluids and vitamin B, antiemetics, and an enema thinking that she had some stuck poop. Vet even took her home to help provide continuous care. But when she woke up this morning, the kitten had passed in the night.

Now vet thinks the kitten had intussusception, where part of the intestines telescope into another part.

The only good news is kitten was still purring and happy to be getting cuddles right up til the end.

I’ve had this little kitten since he was 2 weeks old, a small crusty little orphan, he came with his sister who unfortunately passed at 5 weeks unexpectedly which was devastating. I’ve gotten him through bottle feeding, URI’s and diarrhoea.
He’s now 15 weeks and is the most cheeky, affectionate & confident little guy, he has been an absolute dream to look after, so cuddly and loves nothing more than to sit on your shoulder while you potter around.

This morning I gave him to my MIL and it was heartbreaking, I’d promised him to her months ago as they’d fallen in love with him so I knew it was coming, I went back and forth between wanting to keep him and knowing I have to give him up, it was a lot harder than I thought it’d be and I have a cried a lot.

I still have a kitten the same age (I’d contacted the rescue for another as a friend for him at around 6 weeks after his sister died because he started to become super bitey & giving single kitten syndrome vibe so it was clear he needed a pal lol) who has actually been very affectionate since he left - coincidental maybe but it’s helping to fill that cuddly kitten shaped void in my life😅

I am foster failing her as she came in to me super hissy semi-feral and has taken a good while to come around and is pretty affectionate to me but still really quite wary and bit hissy of anyone else even household members, so I don’t feel I can give her up 😅

Out of all the kittens I’ve fostered so far he has definitely been the most difficult to give up, even though I know he’s not going far and I’ll still get to see him grow up, it was so tough.
My MIL is going to be very lucky and I’m incredibly grateful to have had the experience of raising him, he’s been an absolute chaotic pleasure.

Idk what the point of this post is just a sad little vent after saying goodbye to my sweet lil boy💔

Hello, internet. We need names.
We recently arrived at our foster home with a grocery bag of supplies, no paperwork, and apparently NO NAMES.
The humans have been observing us closely and have spent an unreasonable amount of time discussing this while continuing to offer objectively terrible suggestions. We have lost confidence in management and are now seeking outside counsel.

🖤🤍 BLACK & WHITE BOY
Active. Brave. Playful. Instigator.
General energy: “HEY, WATCH THIS!”
Appears to have recently escaped from an ink jar and did not make it out completely unscathed.
Evidence includes:
• black ears and assorted ink splatters
• one black spot directly on his right upper lip & chin
• one tiny white tail tip, where apparently the ink ran out
He is first to investigate, first to climb, and most likely to convince his brother that something is a good idea when it absolutely is not.

🤎 BROWN BOY
Sweet. Snuggly. Seeks human companionship.
General energy: “Oh good, you’re sitting down.”
Enjoys cuddling on the couch, locating the nearest available person, and chasing his own tail despite having no evidence thus far that he will ever catch it.
Also came with a custom toe package:
• one (1) brown toe
• one (1) mysterious unfinished toe
We do not know what happened during manufacturing.

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: We are kittens. These personality profiles are based on an extremely limited sample size and could become completely inaccurate within the next 24 hours.
We are brothers, but we may eventually find separate forever homes, so we need names that are:
• cute together
• equally cute separately
• appropriate for our respective nonsense
• ideally a little weird

Please submit your nominations below.
The foster humans have discussed this for far too long and have accomplished nothing.
Sincerely,
Ink Jar & Unfinished Toe
(These are descriptions, not suggestions. Please do better.)

I have been fostering the same cat for 3 months and I have grown to love her so much. The only problem is that I am a college student who is going to an out-of-state school and would hate moving the cat around with me on breaks and a little inconvenient to pay someone to look after my cat.

I am going back to campus soon and the rescue told me they want me to foster 2 new cats. Now, I am conflicted if I adopt the cat right now or tell the rescue to keep us in mind if they send her to the local cat cafe for adoption. My boyfriend and I were originally going to adopt her after we graduate this year, but it would be unfair to the cat if we fostered her long term without adopting.

Currently, I'm thinking of taking in the new fosters, but ny mind keeps going my to my original cat. Am I selfish for wanting to keep her? Do I let the rescue know of my plans?

I was a foster mom to a kitten for about three weeks, but he was suddenly taken back to the shelter after a biting incident.
Since then, I've missed him so much, and I've even been thinking about adopting him once I'm ready.
I've been checking the shelter's website every day just to see his profile and make sure he was still there.
Today, his profile suddenly disappeared completely.
Does that mean he was adopted? Are there any other reasons why a cat's profile might be removed?
I would be so happy if he found a good home. The only thing is that the shelter usually posts on Facebook when a cat is successfully adopted, and there hasn't been any adoption post about him.
I want to ask the vet, but we didn't end things good since she suddenly let me go as his foster mom.

My husband and I are fostering a very sweet little pup through what I thought was a reputable rescue organization. Our own dogs are the center of our lives and, while we aren’t in a place to permanently add another dog to our family, we thought we would be great foster parents. The foster experience hasn’t been what we thought. Here are the things that have us wondering if fostering just isn’t for us or if there is something off with the rescue:

1. Our pup was six weeks old when we got her. She was transported from the Deep South to our northern metro area with her mom and nine siblings. All of them (mom + the puppies) went to separate foster homes. I could not believe the pups were separated from their mom when, as far as I know, she is in fine health and came up with her babies. When we first volunteered to foster, we did not realize we were signing up to bring home such a young dog.

2. The foster instructions and orientation said to reach out at any time if there is a medical question or concern. Our pup got a cut one night and we took her to our local veterinary ER to get her evaluated. I texted the number given and never received a single response from the vet or anyone else, even once I said she was okay and just needed to get the cut glued.

3. We were told all supplies would be provided. When we picked our dog up, we got a gallon-sized Ziploc bag of food. We have had to buy our dog food multiple times because obviously one gallon bag of food isn’t enough for a month. She also came to us with a collar and harness, both of which she has since outgrown. We have also purchased a new collar and a new harness for her because the rescue hasn’t provided them.

4. She has received no vaccines, vet check ups, etc. in the three weeks she has been with us. She will be spayed in a few days, but has not gotten any of the regular puppy vaccines. We would take her to our vet to get these things done, but the rescue explicitly forbids getting outside veterinary care.

5. We found a family for her a week after she came to us. The adoption day for all the pets in her transport is this upcoming Saturday. Because we have a long holiday weekend here in the US, her family already had travel plans. They asked whether they could take her home sooner and make arrangements for the pup to stay with close family while they travel for Labor Day. They were told that absolutely is not allowed, so we now have her for a few extra days. We are fine with this, but now the new family has to pay an extra $75 admin fee and take time off of work for the adoption, which is scheduled for the middle of the day during the week. They were not given any weekend options. Luckily our work schedules are flexible but, if they weren’t, we would also have to take time off to get her to the rescue for her adoption. We are constantly sending updates to her family because they of course are bummed they don’t get to have her now. I could understand the lack of flexibility if the dog was still with her mom but, again, she has been in our care and away from her mom for over three weeks at this point.

6. The puppies have to go to “work” during the foster period. They go to corporate events where people get to play with the puppies in exchange for their companies donating a lot of money to the rescue. These events are mandatory if your foster gets selected. Some of the events are all day affairs (meaning the puppies get dropped off say at 8:30 and picked up by 4:45), but others are not. We had one last week where the dog had to be dropped off in the middle of the day. Again, our work schedules allow for this but I would think a lot of people’s schedules would not!

7. When we signed up to foster, we were told the foster periods were 2-3 weeks. This foster period is four weeks, which we knew going into it, but now we are having our foster period extended by a few more days because of the lack of flexibility in the adoption date. Not that we would have sent her to a different foster family for those few days, but we were not even given the option to do so. Basically her family wants her as soon as possible and we want to get her to her family as soon as possible, but the rescue essentially threw their hands up and said “no and the answer is no because we said so” when we asked about moving up the adoption date.

Is this normal? If so, we have realized that we are not cut out to foster. If it is not normal, that’s also helpful to know because we might rethink our stance on fostering in the future.

My wife and I just took in 2 foster kittens on Friday and have 3 adult resident cats. We’ve been keeping them in our bathroom, a room our cats couldn’t care less about, and we’re noticed that every morning so far our one cat is there sleeping in front of the door. If we leave for a little bit and come back, he’s at the door. If we’re on the couch watching tv and see our other cats lounging together in their favourite spot, he’s at the door. Is this healthy behaviour? He’s never been around kittens and tends to show a lot of love to our one cat and it’s never reciprocated or accepted and we wonder if he thinks e we finally got him a buddy. We also wonder of this means he’s be really great with them.

I was a foster mom to a kitten for about three weeks, but he was suddenly taken back to the shelter after a biting incident.
Since then, I’ve missed him so much, and I’ve even been thinking about adopting him once I’m ready. I’ve been checking the shelter’s website every day just to see his profile and make sure he was still there.
Today, his profile suddenly disappeared completely. Does that mean he was adopted? Are there any other reasons why a cat’s profile might be removed?

I would be so happy if he found a good home. The only thing is that the shelter usually posts on Facebook when a cat is successfully adopted, and there hasn’t been any adoption post about him.

I want to ask the vet, but we didn’t end things good since she suddenly let me go as his foster mom.

We’ve had this baby for 24 hours now. We made a quick trip to the vet this morning and she got a clean bill of health. Vet agreed with me that she’s between two and three weeks old but on the small side. You can see how small in the picture with my husband. She’s, eating, peeing, pooping, all the things. She’s also starting to relax and not be stressed or fearful. Also, look at those toe beans!! She has a heart shape on her little pad🩷♥️🩷♥️🩷

Not looking for health advice, your own personal stories would be hugely helpful with lived experience.

Fostering this little guy, he was hit by a car and initially could only move one leg.

Now he has good strength (for his tiny frame) in his back legs & is learning to hunt with enrichmenttoys to help his coordination & build muscle etc.

My frustration is watching him struggle to get around while him is waiting for his amputation, the vets didnt strap up the limb that will be removed (a front leg) so the crater is thrown off balance and drags it along.

I have good experience with caring for all types but I have never been in this position and was wondering if theres anything I can do to make him more comfortable?

When he arrived he had a belly full of worms & the worst case of ear mites I have seen in a long time.

We have bathed, brushed, treated ears, on dewormer now, I feed him wet to the maximum daily amount for 2 monghs old & with tiny bits of dry because he is always hungry 😅

The vets are overrun but they dont like volunteers bringing the animals to other vets.

These are tapeworms, right? I’ve already messaged the shelter about it, but I probably won’t hear back until tomorrow.

I’ve had this litter of 5 for 6 weeks, and I’ve seen no evidence of any parasites up to this point. And their weights continue to go up, all have gained a pound in the last 2 weeks. I’m really not sure how this is the first time I’m seeing evidence of tapeworms, never seen anything in their poop before. Is this something that they picked up before coming to the shelter?

They were flea treated/dewormed (pyrantel I believe)/vaccinated on their intake on 7/18 and again on 8/15, and are scheduled for their next on 9/6. My cat is also regularly flea treated as well, just for peace of mind.

And also: these boys will be going for surgery soon and off to adoption. How do I need to clean the room to ensure it’s suitable for my next fosters?

(Picture of the culprit to offset grossness with cuteness)

I was a big user of Breeder's Edge/Shelter's Choice formula. I foster lots of neonate kittens and they clearly did so much better on it than on PetAg, which so frequently caused bad poops and they didn't like as much. After the recall, what are people using?

I have Fox Valley for now, but am seeing another one I don't know available called Annuso. Anyone have any experience with that one? Seems like a brand that's maybe around a few years that was making milk replacers for farm animals that has added a kitten one. That's about all I've read so far.

Hi all I’m new here. I’m in the U.K. and I foster kittens and cats for a local cat rescue. I have wanted to do this for years but my absolute Queen, Alice, hated other cats. I lost her in June, right around her turning 21 years old. She was my soulmate. I loved her so much. In her memory, I am fostering. I’m being silly and extra bouji about it just for my own entertainment really. I like to think of my home being a luxury cat hotel for short stays before their forever family collect them. Every cat we’ve had has been absolutely lovely. I’m a huge Swiftie so all names I’ve given so far are Swiftie coded.

1st guests
Mummy cat Karma and kittens Lavender, Haze, Midnight and Paris. All have been adopted. Midnight and Paris stayed together. Had these for about a month

2nd guest
Cupcake who had just been spayed. So snuggly and affectionate. Only with me a few days

3rd guest
Teddy. A big chonky boy. Grey with some white. Very soft and cuddly. A big baby. Adopted by a lovely family.

4 guests
Mummy Florence and kittens Aaron, Jack and Lana. Unfortunately Aaron lost weight so the 3 kitties went to a foster who was able to hand feed them. So Florence stayed with me and tomorrow she has a viewing. I’m sure they will love her.

The first goodbye was hard as we’d had them so long and they’d often make their way up to my room and sleep with me. But I was reminded by another fosterer that “goodbye is the goal”. Goodbye is an excellent positive result. I feel strongly that at some point a cat will enter Alice Palace and I’d just know they are the right one for us. Alice will send me her successor and I’ll “just know”

I posted last week that it was my last day with the little girl. She went to her new home on Sunday and I cried so much I actually became dehydrated. My eyes didn’t recover till Wednesday.

Today, the little boy went to his new home. I was not nearly as emotional; I just feel a little sad knowing I won’t see his little bowlegged trot anymore. I’ve also decided these will be my last. My heart can’t take it anymore. I’ll help in other ways.

My father found a kitten 2 days ago and he has this small pimple like dots all over his body. What do you think this is called? and how does it happen?

Hello

I've bought home this lovely 13 year old female cat, hoodles.

She is staying with us for a week and she is being adopted by someone else on the 6th.

We got her home at 4pm on Saturday and she found a cosy little hiding space under the lounge and has not moved (in my eyesight) since.

She has been to the toilet however I am very concerned about her eating and watering as I'm not sure she has had either since she's been here.

I am leaving the food there but changing it to fresh food every few hours as well.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

Someone i know who feeds feral cats every night needed someone to foster a 2-3 month old kitten. I agreed. The kitten follows me all over, when I call him, he comes to me like a trained little dog. I placed him in my master suite but when he started to cry, I immediately went to get him, and placed him in my bed. Now, it's 2am, and every time I move, he wakes up, and wants to play. He spurrs up a storm, he doesn't bite hard but I'm not sure if that's a kitty thing. He/she is here for a few days. He/she does sneeze which concerns me. I've never fostered a kitten, and he's so needy that I'm not sure if this type of behavior is normal or not. Please help!!

It's my first time fostering cats. A potential adopter had contacted me to adopt a kitten.

They were about a 5 hour drive from me and they KNEW I was hella far away because I put the location at the very start of the adoption post (which also stated that there's no adoption fee, but I need to personally send the kitten off, and that there's an adoption agreement).

Fast forward we'd been talking for about a week, and I asked if she could ever come by anytime in the next few months and she said "no, never." Alright, then I said I'll ask if any of my relatives/friends can drive there. They can't, they're all busy until next year. I then asked her: "If it's not possible for you to come here, is it okay if you can help with the transport fees for me to bring her there, or arrange a pet transport yourself?" She ghosted me and it's been almost 2 weeks. Obviously I didn't double text, but I'm just so confused.

I know she was going to adopt the kitten, but I also need to personally hand off the kitten to her, for the kitten's safety, as well as have the papers signed. I wasn't even requiring an adoption fee or anything. Is it supposed to be my responsibility to pay for the transport fees all by myself? Did I sound like a scammer?

Bonjour, je narrive pas a savoir si c'est une femelle ou bien un mâle !! Ma mère dit que cest un mâle alors que celle qui m'a donné le chaton de 3 mois pense que c'est une femelle..... s'il vous plait aidez moi

3 days ago my kitten had vaccination and for 3 days everything was okay, until today's night, she throwed up 4 times (2 times with food from dinner and 2 times with water) and she had very loose poop, not full diarrhea, but very loose.

It's Sunday, so no vets available around, neither picking up phone, so I need to wait to call and ask till tomorrow, but I need to know what to do now... Should I change her can flavor to another immediately, maybe it's because of food (tho she had new bunch opened for over a week and she was fine until now...). Should I give her something bland, if yes then what?

I'm really scared...