The Foster Kittens

Fostering Kittens

So, back in March my mum signed up to foster cats through one of our local animal rescue organisations. Her cat Chappie, basically decided over the course of a few months that he was going to move out. He found himself a new home, and started staying overnight, then he’d be back and then randomly go again for 2 nights, until the amount of time he was home was less than what he was here. She thought about getting another cat, but didn’t want to scare him away completely, so decided to foster instead, that way they’d have their own room in the house, and he could still come and go (if he wanted to).

She was given two sisters just a few days into the lockdown – Luna and Mittens. I was hoping that we’d get a pregnant mum because I wanted to play with the kittens (haha). Well the first night they were here, I had a suspicion that Mittens was pregnant. Over time she got bigger and bigger, and not being able to take her to the vets, we just had to get on with it ourselves. Then we noticed that her sister Luna was suddenly showing the same signs and getting bigger. Oh no – 2 pregnant cats!

Mittens had her kittens on the morning of the VE Day bank holiday – 2 beige kittens and a tabby. We thought the tabby was a girl to start with but nope, 3 boys! Luna had hers exactly a week later during the night (my mum stayed up with her all night). Luna had 2 pure black cats, and a black and white, with one of the black cats being a girl and the other 2 boys.

Obviously we picked themes for names (thanks to Ella for suggesting cities). Mittens is a little explorer, constantly trying to escape the house, so we named hers after cities – Phoenix (the beige one with white paws), Oslo (the completely beige one), and Austin (the tabby). I tried to convince mum to name Luna’s after Harry Potter characters, but she wasn’t having it, so we went with space names – Nova, Apollo and Orion (the black and white one).

Oslo, Phoenix + Austin

Mittens kittens are SO cute. Oslo is the crazy one who never seems to sleep – he loves to climb, chase everything and follows Mittens everywhere. He reminds me so much of our cat Toffee who passed away last year, as he’s just so calm and watches everything, though the only difference is he hates to be stroked. These kittens just don’t like it which upsets me so much haha!

Phoenix is the little softie – he’s terrified of everything, likes to just keep to himself and sleep on his castle tower. He does come out and play but he’d rather play on his own and growls if any of the others try to take his toy away from him! Austin is just in the middle – he loves to play, but he also loves to sleep. He’s a little bit more attached to Mittens and although they’re now 8 weeks old, he still refuses to eat and Mittens is starting to get a little annoyed about the whole thing! They’re my faves!

Apollo, Orion + Nova

Luna’s cats are crazy! They were a little slower to get going as Luna was so overprotective of them and wouldn’t let them out of the box. If one climbed out, or we took them out to encourage them to get moving, she’d grab them and carry them back in, so it’s like they’re getting caught up on all of the time they spent being locked away haha!

Apollo is a bit like Austin – he’s playful and will run around play fighting with the other two, but he likes his sleep. Orion is the cutest! He always comes running over to you when you walk in the room, or when I’m outside looking through the conservatory glass, he’s there licking the window haha! He’s such a softie and a bit like Oslo – he seems to be super chill and just gets on with everyone. Nova is insane. She has no fear (I really worry about where she’s going to live – we hope it’s nowhere near a road). She launches herself from great heights, falls down the stairs when she goes running at 1000mph towards them and just gets back up and walks away like nothings happened.

We’ll be SO sad to see them go! We’re having to integrate the two kittens together as the adoption company like to have them go in pairs, and as there’s 3 from each litter, there’ll be one left over from each. So far it’s looking like Phoenix and Oslo will be together, Nova + Apollo will go together and then Orion + Austin will be mixed together as they seem to get on the best. It makes me laugh that they’re cousins!

They’re booked in in a couple weeks to have their vaccinations, then they’ll be off! Luna + Mittens will be spayed after that and then they’ll be off to their new homes too. I wonder what sort of cat we’ll receive afterwards to look after. It definitely won’t be the same without having 6 kittens running around the place!

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