Tag: cat

Foster Failed!

Our first fostering experience failed which everyone predicted so.
We have been talking about fostering fur kids in the future and that we have to be firm that we won’t end up adopting them instead. I guess, most times, it didn’t go as planned.

A friend approached me, asking if we could foster an injured cat. She showed me a video of the cat limping and said her estate community neighbors would be trapping the cat for medical care. After discussing with the wife, we said sure. Let’s get her well again after her hospital stay.

We knew how soft our hearts were and kept reminding ourselves not to name the cat. And no, we’re not keeping her. We were both determined to make the fostering a success. Sadly, we failed. She needed a home and we gave her one. It was a long hoo-ha between the rescuers and her previous owner. Eventually, he relinquished his ownership and we adopted her.

The first thing on our agenda was to get her better. Borrowed a soft playpen from our friend, but it didn’t last long as this little girl jailbreak her enclosure. We were supposed to prevent her from moving too much as she just had surgery for her injured paw and sterilization. This active girl thinks she’s all good and ready to conquer her new home. Sadly, the first week was a nightmare. The boys and her didn’t get along well. Weirdly, the boys were aggressive towards one another instead of towards the new pawmily member. Somehow, eventually they started to get better mingling. And today, they’re getting along really well. Thankful there’s no crazy cat fights and injuries during the introduction period. It was tiring for us both physically and mentally, but the end results were worth it.

Initially, we named her Dew, after her eye color. However, when she did something wrong and we were shouting her name out, we realized it sounded wrong. In Cantonese, it was a vulgar word and we knew we had to change her name. And it was another round of scrolling through Google for name inspiration.

We ended up renaming her as Dione, after a Greek goddess. Dione is the wife of Zeus. So yes, our feisty little one is named Dione Mimi. And we’re happy to announce that she’s eating well and on a full raw diet. She’s gaining weight and her coat is getting better too. And hopefully, for now, she’s the last kid we bring into our pawmily till we’re ready for the next one. Things don’t always go as planned, but we’re glad that we’re able to provide a home for the kids that we’ve adopted so far.

Preparing For New Pawmily Members

Out of the blue, we asked my ex-customer if there were any kittens up for adoption as we would like to add a new pawmily member when she visited us for emergency help after rescuing Oogway. And lucky us, there are two ginger boys looking for a forever home! Scheduled a meetup before we decide as we don’t want to promise anything without seeing them. Initially, we wanted to adopt one, but was told it’s good to adopt as a pair especially when we do not have cats at home and it’ll be easier for first time cat owners like us.

Kittens teach each other how to behave when playing and interacting. They let each other know when biting, nipping or gnawing is too aggressive, and they learn to establish boundaries. Kittens also learn cat skills like using the litter box and grooming by watching each other.

lifelineanimal.org

We said yes to adopting both the ginger boys and preparation to welcome them home starts immediately. Lots of things to do and the first one was to do some measuring. One of the adoption criteria was to mesh up our windows and gate, which we will DIY ourselves.

Ordered everything from Taobao except their food of course. Choosing the cat tower that we both like and some wall mounts for the kittens. Yes, we went all out to get all these necessary things though we were told cats might not even use them after we placed our orders. It’s a little late but it’s OK.

Dear researched raw diets and cat litter while I did nothing and just waited for the kittens’ arrival. Yes, I’m that useless. There’s a lot to learn since we’re first-time cat owners and we went all out asking for advice and getting the necessary things. But what surprised us was the fosterer’s sudden call to say the kittens must come home immediately because another cat needs foster care. So we scrambled to purchase some canned food for the time being. We even went to collect giveaway litter box and some scratching post as temporary items before ours arrives. Everything was chaotic a few days before our kittens’ arrival. We were both excited and scared that we’re not fully prepared with the necessary items.

But yes, we managed to get the basic items and we’ve turned our study room into kittengarten for the time being. Stay tuned for the next few posts when they arrived. Might be updating more and abruptly ending this post because they arrived earlier than expected.