January:
2017 started out kittenless and I was grasping for things to blog about so I talked to you about
an unconventional rescue I was a part of and learning about
the unicorn I adopted. I also performed major
surgery on Raffe and then poof..
I had another kitten to take care of.
Rupert. Rupert was a stealer of hearts and super adorable, unfortunately, he was very ill and we could not fix him. After caring for him for several weeks he was returned to the shelter to make a final determination as to what could be done for him and it was decided it was kinder to let him go.
Eli started showing signs of illness that didn't turn into anything (which happened this January too, so I will have to keep an eye out next January) and I had a little fun with a feather
Jack got stuck in his tail.
February:
I went to the shelter to take some
photos of shelter kitties. I also did a recap of
life with my cats and their various health concerns. February is notorious for being kittenless so I usually do a found of
Former Foster Friday posts and this year was no different. I also was able to offer my foster room to two former fosters who needed a place to hang out while their mom went on vacation
at the very end of the month, another set of
kittens were bestowed upon us.
March:
Max and Trina were brought up from Mississippi and had some fun adventures here including their first taste of
raw food.
Jack had a little issue with a toy mouse and the magnet on his collar that had me laughing so hard. I then did a little house cleaning of some sponsored posts I wanted to talk about before heading down to Florida.
Jack fell in love with a Polar Bear rug Rachel sent us, and the amazing Julie from
Cats Going Places offered to put me up so we could go to
Global together. It was a very interesting and nearly overwhelming experience. It was so nice to be staying in a home with cats to decompress each evening. We even went to a
cat cafe.
April:
I was without kittens most of April, so I went back to the shelter to take more
photos of shelter cats. Once again, I talked about
not gifting rabbits for Easter. While I do believe it is possible to give a pet as a present responsibly, too many people believe rabbits are fully capable of surviving on their own so they get them with the intention of releasing them when they are tired of dealing with them.
I learned of the loss of a former foster
Abby, who came into the shelter because she was diabetic and then never found a real home. She was fortunate to have a serious of foster homes in her last years and I am very grateful for that.
I tried to keep the blog interesting by sharing a few amusing things that happened like
losing the auto duster and
Jack being all handsome on the polar bear rug.
May:
I decided to
reorganize the kitten room, which was a project in and of itself. I am of the belief that when I clean and set up the kitten room, kittens will come and low and behold...
Sherlock and Watson arrived at Casa de Gato and they had some fun. They were only meant to be short-term fosters, and when Watson was having a hard time fighting off a bug, after one trip up to see the vet they decided to keep them just to make sure they got over it before going up for adoption, and we were given
Aloe and Aaron.
June:
Aloe and Aaron had just arrived and we were getting to know one another. They were a fun pair of kittens and I enjoyed having them immensely.
I took my own
cats to the vet, which is always an adventure, and also went back to the shelter to take more
photos of shelter kitties.
Aloe and Aaron were adopted and I brought home another set of kittens nicknamed
the SuperHero Kittens.
They were another set of short-term fosters while they reach size to be neutered.
July:
I didn't think I would have kittens again for a while so I started with a series of "Then and Now" for my cats letting you see them as kittens as they all started life here as fosters.
Jack,
Muffin,
Eli,
Twee,
Fleurp,
Skippy. I had to interrupt that series though because we were able to get two more fosters
Yukon and Potato gave me a lot to work with in regards to amusing blog post titles.
Muffin and Fleurp had a canned food eating contest. They both have been clamoring for a rematch ever since.
Yukon and Potato went back for adoption and we received another set of super adorable kittens.
August:
These kittens were very short-term, but we had a couple of Nebelung lookalikes in the bunch so it was a lot of fun.
I created another "What I Know" post about
dealing with mouthy kittens, I volunteered at a performance of the
AcroCats in Portland and celebrated
Black Cat Appreciation Day
I then brought home
four more kittens who needed a little socialization
September:
The kittens came down with a touch of something that was making them feel wonky. I brought them up to the shelter to be observed and they improved rather quickly so the shelter kept them and put them up for adoption. I finally admitted we were looking to move to Vermont after having spent months looking for a new home. We were having such trouble because the CatMan was going to cover the whole state and there was no one location where there would be an office (but there will be one day and we were trying to guess where that might be) We both had some pretty specific requirements too - mine being a kitten room and a shelter to foster for and a vet nearby - and we probably looked at 100 homes. We finally settled on a house just outside of Vermont in NH - but that is for a different part of this review.
It was hard for me to not have kittens so I started blogging about caring about the Monarch caterpillars that were in my garden. I even tried to bring one in to watch it hatch.
October:
October was a little slow. I blogged about my cats, about a piece of tartar I pulled off of
Twee's tooth, and the hatching of the chrysalis I found outside
I had started packing and doing so was stressing the
cats out pretty bad.
November:
We were still packing and were dealing with moving into the new house. We had some issues that delayed our original move date of November 11th (the anniversary of Kit's death)
We ended up
moving the Monday before Thanksgiving and we have been attempting to adapt to new work schedules, new home, new stores, new everything. I thought it should be a while before I started fostering as the cats really needed to get used to the house first. This left a huge hole in my heart as well as this blog, only having ten posts in November and ten more in December.
December:
The Crew took this move much harder than the last one, I am assuming because they are much older. We have had a few trips to the vet to make sure they are in good health, and we spent most of the month attempting to finish moving out of Casa de Gato. We are 99% finished at the end of the month and basically just have to get the realtor to the house to take photos and put it up online. I really need it to sell quickly if for no other reason to be done with this whole thing. It hasn't been a full year we are dealing with it, but it feels like it.
I wasn't sure we were going to put up the
Christmas Tree this year as the one we have is nine foot and our ceilings are much shorter. We found a place to put it and we once again decorated it in my favorite way.
And for those of you keeping track, it was Fleurp who was the first one to remove a toy from the tree.
Christmas was quite special for The Crew, as
Santa brought them a real live mouse!!
I have been quite paranoid in the past week thinking they have found another, but each time it ends up just being a 'practice' mouse and they are so annoyed that I interrupt their training. Twee even worked on ambushing her mouse by putting her training mouse on the stairs to the bed and 'ambushing' it.
I will be going to the local shelters in the next couple of weeks to introduce myself and sign up for kittens. Hopefully, I'll find one that is importing kittens and needs help during the winter. I'm guessing not as it will be April or May before I have kittens again. Only time will tell.
I hope you enjoyed this small recap of the year and may the next recap find us all still together.
2017 Foster Stats: 23 kittens, two caterpillars, one unicorn.
Year in Review:
