Fostered Loves

Fostering animals has been one of the biggest blessings for me. Second to adopting an animal, I’d say it was one of the most rewarding things I’ve done. I admit, I was a little heart-broken after taking Kip back. It wasn’t the same without him but I know it was time for him to go find his forever family.

{By the way, Kip AND Bronson finally found their FOREVER HOMES!!!! :) }

I saw that the rescue league we fostered from was in need of a foster for three 4-week old kittens. 4 weeks old? They’re practically newborns! They were being weaned off being bottle fed and were to start on soft food soon. I knew I had to help.

Three sweet fluffy grey little babies. Ladies {and gents} meet:

Lani is super gentle but will do anything to get the others to play-wrestle.

Kiki is the little adventurer and loves to explore & tickle your feet. She is FULL of energy!

Pearl is the tiniest of the group and loves to snuggle, snuggle, snuggle! She’s my little buddy.

I definitely have my hands full with these three. From bottle feeding to watching their every move {in case of an “accident”} it’s quite a day. Bottle feeding kittens. Must be easy, right? WRONG. When one is being bottle fed, the other two want the bottle and they will do anything to get it – jump and lay their entire body across the bottle, climb all the way up my leg as I hold the other kitten to feed them. Uh, THAT was painful. They’re kind of like triplets except they don’t wear diapers and can crawl up, in, and out of everything. Lovely.

The cat bed was fun for them on the first day but once they saw how comfortable I was, they were set.

Pearl {on top} and Kiki started off like this and ended up like the second photo {with Lani at the bottom}

Here are some pictures from our cuddles seshes. Pardon the iPhone picture quality – it’s all I could really reach for at the time!

In the below picture you’ll find three little kitties all nestled on and around me.

About a half hour later, they rotated positions…

They crack me up. Well, only when their claws aren’t scratching along the surface of my skin as they maneuver their way around. I wouldn’t be lying if I said my arms look like I got in a brawl with Freddy Krueger. Gross.

They each have their own little personality and it’s been fun for me to watch their unique quirks or hear their different squeaks and chirps.

It’s been a great opportunity to foster these little critters. It’s sad to think that they’ll be separated once they get adopted, but that’s just usually how it goes.

I had always dreamt of fostering kittens. I never imagined it would be this grueling but I also never imagined it would be this rewarding. They are such tiny little loves with so much spunk. As I did for Kip and Bronson, I pray these kitties will be able to find their forever homes.

Oh, and in case you were wondering… their temporary names were inspired by towns on Oahu :)

Have you fostered animals before? I’d love to hear your story! :)

I’m linking up with The Shine Project for this post on pets! Go check her out if you haven’t already!

Little Brown Eyes Looking Up–Kip

If you know me or have been reading my blog this past month, you know how I feel about homeless animals. If not, go check out this post from a few weeks ago. You may even know about Kip, a sweet little terrier mix that I was able to foster. If you don’t know about Kip, go here first.

We fostered Kip one Saturday night from an amazing adoption center up in Park City known as Furburbia. Furburbia is the adoption center where rescued dogs and cats stay during the day then, at night, they are all loaded into the van and taken to a ranch, only to go back to Furburbia the next day. We hadn’t been planning on it but when we took Bronson back to the center after fostering him Friday night, a lady who worked there asked us if we’d be able to foster Saturday night as well. Bronson was a great dog, but had a weird relationship with our kitty, Stella. He was very giddy when she was around and liked to get in her face. Stella was just interested in letting this guy know that this was HER house by hissing repeatedly. Lovely. So, we figured we should see if a smaller dog was better for her. That’s where Kip comes in.

The little guy was sitting in a crate with a chihuahua named Clyde (gotta love these names, right?) and my husband suggested we take him out. Seriously? A little white dog with fluffy ears and an even fluffier tail? I mean, I can understand that he doesn’t like little “rat dogs” as he likes to call them, but I thought he would want to take out a Min-Pin or something. Guess not. So, we took out Kip and he was a doll. He had lots of energy and would jump up to put his paws on my knee. We decided we’d foster him for the night and came back a few hours later to get him.

Kip sat on my lap for {most of} the car ride home. I’m sure he would love to stick his head out the window but as soon as we cracked the window to see, he not only put his head out, but started to put his paws out as well. Not happenin’. He climbed back in the backseat to investigate and took a little nap. Then, before I knew it, a little nose was poking my arm trying to figure out how to get back on my lap.

He got along very well with our Stella girl. He was curious about her but only for a few seconds, then it was on to investigate the house and find a nice bed to snuggle up on! Kip was SUCH a snuggler. He snuggled…

And snuggled…

Kip loved car rides. He loved looking out the window…

But really, he just wanted to snuggle! Kip snuggled in the bed in the car…

He snuggled on the passenger’s side on the ground where he could catch some shade…

He snuggled with my arm as I drove…

He snuggled on my lap as SOON as we got in the car {and before I started to drive – don’t worry!}

He even liked to snuggle between the front console of my car!

We watched Kip on Saturday night and when we took him back Sunday morning, we were asked if we could foster again that night through Tuesday morning since they’re closed on Monday. They really needed fosters and we really loved Kip, so we had Kip those two nights as well. As I ventured up to Park City Tuesday morning for, what I thought would be, our last trip, they asked if we could take him that night too since they just got a litter of puppies in and didn’t have room again. “Of course” was my answer :)

However, the day before, we had noticed how sick Kippy was feeling. He had a very runny nose and was coughing. Wiping a kid’s nose is one thing, but have you ever wiped a dog’s nose too? I definitely felt like he was my child. The adoption center gave us some meds to give him. Whew! Don’t worry, although he was a little out of it… Kip still loved to snuggle…

And even snuggled upside-down on newly-washed laundry…

Stella started getting used to having a fluffy buddy there with her each night and the two started snuggling together which just warmed my heart…

Kip even went to find her in her “nook” in the closet and snuggled up right with her. How precious!!!!

In just four days, they became buddies and Kip became my little man. However, I knew we were only fostering him. He was sick and needed to go back to the shelter to 1) be able to be taken into a vet if needed and 2) to find his FOREVER HOME! I wish more than anything we could adopt him and welcome him into our home for a very long time.

It was very difficult for me once we took Mr. Kip back to Furburbia. I knew he was a very sweet dog and would be able to find his new family but it still broke my heart. I was going to miss waking up to seeing him asleep on my leg. I was going to miss him walking all around my car while I was driving. I was going to miss his little short legs scurrying across the kitchen floor. I was going to miss having him stop on the way up the stairs from a walk because he wanted me to carry him.

I do miss all those things. I miss the little guy.

I have been keeping up with the adoption center and it looks like Kip still hasn’t been adopted while the other two dogs that were in his crate with him have been adopted. It makes me sad. It truly tugs at my heart. Kip has such a special little spirit and deserves a loving, permanent home.

Fostering is a beautiful thing. There are opportunities to foster litters of baby kittens, injured dogs that need rehabilitation, or just a cat or dog that needs somewhere warm to snuggle at night. The opportunities are out there and fosters are in high demand. Even if you can’t foster for a prolonged period of time {like us} try it just for a night. You’ll be helping out a shelter and helping an animal more than you know.

I pray that Kip is feeling better and warming the hearts of others just like he warmed mine :)

I love that little guy with the soft, floppy ears and cutest little trot. I miss my little Kippy. I miss those brown eyes looking up…