Wednesday, April 15, 2020

Interview with a fosterer - fostering in the time of a pandemic




One of my followers on Facebook, Holly, reached out to share with me that she is fostering her first set of kittens during her stay-at-home time thanks to the COVID-19. It has been so long since I have done an Interview With a Fosterer interview and I thought getting the perspective of a first time fosterer would be really interesting.

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Introduce yourself and where do you hail from?
Hi, my name is Holly and I currently live in New York City.

What rescue group, shelter or sanctuary do you foster for and was this your first time?
I am fostering 2 adorable kittens from Bronx Tails Cat Rescue, and this is my first time as a foster mom



What prompted you to reach out to foster?
My youngest daughter and I had gone to Jackson Galaxy’s cat camp last year and we ended up adopting a sweet little tortoiseshell kitten from Bronx Tails Cat Rescue. Sadly Pidgeon passed away in September from FIP Complications and we decided that we were going to wait till kitten Season hit before possibly adopting again. When my mom saw on the news that local area shelters were in desperate need of fosters I got in touch with Bronx Tails again and asked if they needed some fosters and they said yes! I reached out to foster because I am pretty much out of work due to Covid-19. I walk dogs and cat sit for a living which is part of the reason why I love animals so much lol
About 2 weeks after the initial call we were able to bring Sully and Casey home!



How was your experience signing up to foster?
My experience reaching out to the rescue has been great. If I have any questions I can always text or call and any questions I have will be answered right away.

Are you taking any measures to help you from being too attached to the fosters?
I am trying to keep myself from becoming a “foster failure” by telling myself that goodbye is the goal and so far I am failing miserably as we have all grown very attached to the kittens.



What is most frustrating for you as a foster?
The only frustrating thing for me with fostering right now would be keeping my other cats from eating the kittens' food lol

What is most rewarding?
The most rewarding thing is definitely the love that Casey and Sully give us back on a daily basis they are literally the sweetest kittens I’ve ever met!

Do you have pets of your own? How do they respond to the foster animals?
I have 3 cats of my own currently! Siggy who is 10 and my cranky old man. Peyton who is my mini house panther she will be 5 next month! We adopted her from the ASPCA a few years ago and she is the queen of the castle And Maddox who is the baby of the three who is 2 years old and also a rescue. Maddox LOVES the kittens but can be a little too rough when he tries to clean them, Peyton will walk by the room give a hiss and walk away, Siggy is very very patient with them and will let them know gently that he has had enough of their biting his tail by a gentle hiss and running away.

From the left: Siggy, Maddox, Peyton

What advice can you give to someone who might be wanting to become a foster?
I’m trying to follow my own advice Right now but the only thing I can say is goodbye is the goal and if you keep that mentality then you should be good!

When you are not saving animals what do you like to do?
When I am not fostering I am working as a dog walker/pet sitter. When I’m not working I'm spending as much time with my teenage daughters as I can as they are hitting that phase where they think I am not cool anymore haha!


Update, it seems Holly failed in her "goodbye is the goal" and now has two new kitties in her life.



Are you a foster parent? Or have you signed on to help during the pandemic when the world is closed and you are interested in sharing your story on my blog, let me know..

7 comments:

  1. That is the kind of fail I like to hear about :)

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  2. I bet goodbye is the hardest part to keep!

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  3. No failures, when a kitty gets it's furrever home.
    It's called adoption!

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  4. You have new kitties now, that is awesome!!

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  5. Goodbyes? Pssh! Lol
    I'll tell ya, they couldn't have a better momma in Holly!

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  6. I have two older kittens that would have gone to the Cat Cafe, if it was open. One kitten about 5 weeks old that was our bottle baby, another that is 3 weeks old and still on the bottle and a pregnant mommy is my upstairs bath. Full house.

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  7. Oh they are cute! I'm not surprised they ended up being foster fails. :)

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