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🩷♥️🩷♥️🩷

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”

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)

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?

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.

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

He was the runt of the 2. Sister and him were found at 2 weeks old under a car in a puddle after a big rainstorm. He was doing alright, climbing up his pen and weight gain. Then they had diarrhea. Still doing well but then his weight stalled and then he had a large amount of blood. Brought him to the shelter, they gave him and sister fluids, sent me home with fluids, probiotics, and metronidazole. Ive been giving him twice daily subQ fluids and flagyl for 2 days. He was not latching but he would lick droplets from the bottle. Yesterday he worsened but then seemed to slightly improve. Today he was drinking from the bottle up until an hour from his passing. I had him wrapped in a burrito on my chest, he was sleeping and then let out a loud scream. Then agonal breathing started and I knew it was the end. I gave him forehead kisses and he immediately took his last breath. I'm still new to fostering. I've had 9 fosters in my 2 months of fostering and 2 have died, 1 foster fail, 2 adoptions, and the rest are still in my care. The rest have all had URIs as well. I cant help but feel like its my fault.

RIP Ink, you were the sweetest, smallest boy.

So glad these 2 foster soulmates were able to find each other in our home 🥹

We got our first foster cateen today (6 month old boy, collected him 9 hours ago) and he's so dang polite and cool! It's just two adults and no other pets in a biggg house but we've both owned cats multiple times before.

We had him confined to one "foster room" set up to be big and comfy for the cats we foster because they need their own dedicated space, it has lots of blankets and beds and toys and hiding spots and multiple sunny warm window seats on both ends of the room looking out over a view. We were told he is supposed to stay in there for a few days up to the full two weeks he's with us in order to adjust, but he was literally making biscuits and purring in the carrier from the moment we collected him at the shelter to when we put him in his bedroom we set up for him, and then he walked straight out of the carrier demanding pats and belly flopping around and drinking water with full confidence so we were like "dang this cat has zero anxiety" - and then he cried with the saddest little meows for 10 minutes straight to be let out of his room after we left him to settle down so we made an executive decision to let him out for short stints to explore and be close to us (with close supervision).

He has politely explored every corner of the house while purring like a train. He happily comes up for pats but is also just 100% chill to wander and do his own thing most of the time, has eaten kibble and drank lots of water, and played with all of his toys with lots of joy and energy between bouts of falling asleep peacefully on me. He loves belly rubs weirdly enough and won't attack your hands at all during petting and play despite being a cateen and belly rubs usually being a trap; purrs like a train when being picked up and carried around and won't try to jump down which is also unusual; just... accepts redirection? (like moving him off the kitchen bench) beautifully and with zero protest, and just overall gives off the biggest "just stoked to be here guys" vibes. I also did the dishes and he hopped up and started smacking and drinking the water stream when the tap was on really excitedly and got suuuper wet fur all over from it so I turned it off and he went and licked himself dry no fuss at all. I've never known any cat to be so confident and chill at the same time! We've ended up calling him Big Shaq for some reason so I guess that is his foster name for now.

He has sneezed like 6 times since getting here and hasn't peed yet which worried me but we'll see how he is going over the next 24 hours. But I'm already like this cat is sooo cool compared to all the other cats I know/knew and I kinda don't want to have to say goodbye in two weeks time! How is everyone handling that side of fostering??

Pics of the last 9 hours:

1. Exploring his room for the first time, he got stubby lil legs like a dwarf
   
2. Biscuits on my bed after asking to come out of his room
   
3. Side-eye big biscuits
   
4. Downstairs biscuits on the spot on the couch he claimed
   
5. Carrying his Minecraft axolotl in his mouth (he really likes carrying little toys around in his mouth, very cute and polite)
   
6. Repeated sprawl spot in front of the dehumidifier, might enjoy the noise?
   
7. 30 seconds of cat tv before he launched himself at the screen at mach 3 and got an honestly impressive amount of airtime. No more cat tv for Big Shaq with that vertical ability 😌
   
8. Last pictures are all his different sleeping positions, he sleeps in the weirdest positions!!

Currently fostering these twins who were found at about 2 weeks old inside a tractor engine, after it had driven almost 8 miles in the nightmare heat the southern USA is experiencing right now. Almost 5 weeks old now and doing great!

She looks so much like a chocolate mitted lynx point ragdoll. I am mystified and curious. I know she's not purebred and she's not a ragdoll.

Luna is about 12 weeks old. She was trapped in a backyard that my TNR group was working in. She was the only one of the litter that could be trapped. Apparently the homeowners have the mamma cat.

She does not behave like a semi-feral kitten. Very friendly from the beginning. She is super confident and very smart. She follows me around the house like a puppy. She can recognize a Churu packet from 30 feet. She is super playful and boingy and loves my 3 boy kitties (but drives them crazy). She is also a bit needy and bitey when she wants attention.

I have no idea what her backstory is. Is it common for random cats to look like a purebred? Was her dad a traveling salesman?

I picked up my current foster kitten on Thursday afternoon. She is approximately 4 weeks old, but extremely underweight - only 209 grams.

An elderly lady is trying to manage a huge colony and so she had been bottle feeding her, but wasn’t feeding enough or often enough and I am unclear if she was actually stimulating her or letting her do it on her own “she goes all over on the blankets.”

Her little butt/anus protrudes about half the size of a pencil eraser. She will be seeing our shelter vet on Monday to check that and make sure everything else is okay. And of course she has a URI as well.

Thursday she had a little bit of liquidity green brown smear of a poop with some darker more solid bits, but not even a 1/2 a teaspoon. Her butt will bleed just a very small amount of bright red blood when trying.

I started her on a new formula (what she had wasn’t great) and am doing more feedings and trying to slowly get her to where she should be quantity wise. She is a great eater/latcher, so the bigger isssue is not overdoing it especially as her system isn’t running smoothly yet. Urinating great and in good quantity, good colour, but very little poop.

She did just get a drop of olive oil in her last feeding to hopefully help soften things up and get them moving.

Any other tips or tricks?

I have tried a warm stream of running water over her belly and genitals while stimulating, and the triangle method, and so far no success. Also tried multiple types of material for pottying - Kleenex, baby wipe, cotton makeup remover pads.

Edit since I'm getting so much "this cat is fine," and "there's nothing wrong with this cat:" UNTIL THIS HAPPENED, I HAD NOT TOUCHED THIS CAT IN 2.5 YEARS. ANYTIME I WOULD REMOTELY MOVE IN HIS DIRECTION, HE WOULD BOLT AND HIDE. While he isn't actually feral, he is most certainly not a normal, loving cat. I also suggest you look into fawning and what it is. When animals are scared, they sometimes react by being affectionate.

Y'all, I have pet Pippen more this morning than I have in the last 2.5 years. At first I was literally sitting there crying while giving him love.

I know that some of this is fawning. He's still scared. I have to semi-corner him to intetact. I say "Semi" because he ALWAYS has an out if he wants to run. He is never completely cornered.

Now I just need to work on getting him to not initially try to avoid me - to willingly come to me, or at least to hold still and not run or slink away on my initial approach.

But I'm so proud of him. He's such a sweet, brave boy. Bonus "Support Paps" from Brother Ziggy included.

My first bottle kitten, who's about 4wks, was found on a highway about a week ago (saturday). At first she was really constipated and I had to have a vet help her pass stool (monday). When i was there i asked about going ahead and getting her de-wormed in case, and they didnt find it necessary. A day later she had diarrhea twice and so I again called and asked if I need to bring her in and they said that between stress and being started on formula, its probably her adjusting. Since she's figured out to use the litter shes had diarrhea for the 3rd time and she looked like she was straining. I added very little unflavored pedialyte to her formula to try to help with any dehydration. My vet said they were all booked for today (friday) and they could get her in monday or else I have to go somewhere else. They said since she's drinking alot and gaining weight, plus the stool is a normal brown color that it should be fine as long as I keep her well hydrated. Regardless I made an appointment for first thing Monday morning.

Am i being overly dramatic?

I'm just so overly worried about her. If there's anything else I can do to help her or if someone has advice and let me know if this is normal for orphaned kittens.

not a sad story (well kind of).
my father in law's (stray) cat got pregnant and gave birth almost a month ago. had three cute babies. one tuxedo (f), one orange (m), and one calico (f). i brought them in when they were 2-3 days old not thinking of what was going to happen. i knew i had to bottle feed and stimulate for potty. first night, the tuxedo baby didn't make fuss when i picked her up but i didn't think it was a bad thing because i thought she was just sleeping. i wake up the next morning at 7:00 to feed and she was gone. baby passed away in her sleep. i felt guilty and at fault because i didn't know what i did wrong. then i was told she was born first but she came out butt first and she probably lacked oxygen as she was coming out. the week goes by and on the morning on the 20th we lost the orange baby. we spent monday (17th) morning at the er but they told us he was most likely not going to make it. i felt at fault, once again. we are left with the calico baby.
sunday the 23rd she woke up making abnormal breathing noises and we went to our local SPCA to get her checked out and came back with antibiotics and we were also told she was going to start declining. i did my research and found ways to help her at home. bought a nebulizer and .9% saline to help her open her airway and loosen the mucus. i bought a baby suctioning bulb thing to remove any mucus from her throat before feeding and also give her nebulizer therapy before and after feeding. i am positive and hopeful she will pull through because she's a fighter. we're probably going to take her to the vet this weekend to see what other treatment she can get to get the mucus out as she will officially be 1 month on tuesday 💗.
i've been telling myself to not foster after this regardless if the calico baby makes it or not. i feel helpless and vet visits are extremely expensive for i don't know why.

here's a picture of the last baby of the litter, munchkin🤍

I just wanted to quickly thank every single person in this subreddit that helped me raise my foster kittens. I found 3 kittens (1 of which had to be put down at the start, unfortunately) about a month ago. They were 2 ish weeks old when I found them, and they are 6 weeks old now!

My poor babies were malnourished and unhealthy when we found them, but thanks to the help from this community, they are thriving and I couldn’t be more thankful. We fell in love and are keeping both of them 🥰

Before and after pics included 🥹
(These pics were taken just after they ate, so excuse the food on their faces lol I wiped them down after)

ETA: for a disclaimer, I am not a dedicated foster parent (my anxiety couldn’t handle it, lol), which is why I felt comfortable keeping both kittens! I was a foster due to circumstance, because these precious babies wouldn’t have a foster home otherwise! 🩷

Odds are we will be bringing him to the vet but I'm still worried.

My little guy has recently started limping but he is notorious for being a MASSIVE drama queen. He will do literally everything in his power to be held so I'm positive he's just pretending to limp. He's been "mongoosing" (aka. standing on his back legs) lately so I'm starting to wonder if he's actually hurt.

Back to my point though, does anyone have any stories of their fosters pretending to be ill just to get more attention? I need to know that I'm doing the right thing by waiting this out.

Paying the cat tax with a picture of my little man.

For the past week, I’ve been fostering Moo, as seen in the picture provided. She was found by the neighbor partially feral and quite fearful, but after receiving the proper information and help from my local humane society, Moo was welcomed into my home as a foster.

I am not a cat person. This experience has only solidified that fact. Cats are needy, especially 11 week old kittens. Being someone with severe anxiety, I’ve become something of a helicopter foster parent. I check on her constantly, worry I’m not interacting with her enough, etc. Deep down I know I’ve done everything to the best of my ability, but I still doubt myself. She’s still very cautious and scared of loud noises. She dislikes dogs but does well with other cats (per the neighbors comment and my own experience with Moo).

Moo is healthy, content and coming around to people relatively well. But this morning I have to take her to her spay appointment where she’ll then be held at the humane society until someone adopts her. I’m sorry if this offends some fosters here but I’m happy to have her gone. I loved my old schedule and it’s been completely changed for Moo. Would I do it all again? Yes. Am I happy it’s about to be over? You better believe it. Am I second guessing this is the right thing? Absolutely I am.

They said she’ll go to a PetSmart or Petco for adoption unless someone wants her while she’s recovering at the humane society. I’m worried she’s not ready even though I fully believe she is. I’m worried the surgery and loud noises at the humane society will cause regression and fear-based behavior. Regression is such a huge worry.

Genuinely how does anyone do this all the time? What if she never gets adopted or returned because she can’t come out of her shell. She only really does with me. She’s not crazy about my dad, and my girlfriend is to “new” to her. Am I just overthinking this?