This is our first foster loss. We had planned to adopt her. She’d been sick since Tuesday and today she had seizures and they said it was FIP and that euthanasia was the most humane option for her. She was only 6 weeks old and we loved her so much. We miss you little girl.

I have fostered several bottle babies over the years and have never had a kitten at this age with this issue. If I don’t stimulate him, he will not pee or poop at all. So, I started stimulating him over the litter box hoping the scent of his pee and poop would at least get him interested in the litter box but he has not once tried digging in it and if I sit him in it he just runs right out. He’s been to the vet twice and they know about this. They said he is 100% healthy and it’s behavioral. Any advice ?

Hey y’all! I foster failed my sweet boy and he’s settled in really well. He’s been in my home for about 5 months. He is the only resident cat and I’m in a one bedroom. I would really like to continue fostering. My concern is that my resident cat sees my bedroom (the only room other than the bathroom with a closed door) as his safe space that he retreats to when needing some solo time. The living room is also his stomping grounds but he doesn’t have any hidey-holes. I can’t see the bathroom working long term as a sanctuary room for an adult foster. What do y’all suggest in terms of set-up that would help my resident cat feel least threatened by a new foster coming into his space?

A picture of my boy for cat tax.

Ok, so I use to rescue/foster and have an amazing track record of adopting out, rehabbing agressives, raising neonates to adulthood, etcetcetc. I got out of rescue about 7 years ago. We moved recently and this complex is INFESTED with intact males and kittens. Like they just follow you around screaming for food. We're working with a local tnr group but it's a long process.

Anyways. On Sept 23rd this sweet little 4wk old ran down a flight of stairs at me so I couldn't not bring him in. 24 hours later, after I STUPIDLY let him play w/ another kitten we found only a month before, we found ringworm spots on him (patient 0), and he infected other new kitten (pt 1) with ringworm. And pt 1 is BAD.

Scrumblo (pt 0) we did the miconhex baths/wipes and ointment on spot we saw. Also put back in isolation. He's been clear of green spots for a few days days now (still doing rub downs with the wipes). But Nibbler (pt 1) is just miserable. Itchy, licking. Losing fur, the whole deal. I have some oral meds we started Sunday and ointment and spot scrub with the miconihex wipes. I really really don't wanna sulfer dip him (he's a wild child) but I swear I find a new spot on him every 24 hours and I'm not sure if just the oral and miconihex baths (q72hr) would be enough. He's also going to go into isolation of course.

I've never had ring worm. I did 10+ years in vet med. And close to 20 in rescue. I'm tired, my everything hurts and is itchy (Yes, I have it too but am being treated). Please, convince me I'm still a good cat mom and let me know if my plan of miconihex baths/wipes and oral will be enough to get this under control.

Cat tax included.

After fostering for 6 years, you’d think I’d have developed a system for assessing a foster’s new medical symptoms and managing my anxiety appropriately.

I’ve found the opposite. Every vomit is a string wrapped around their intestines, every low-energy day is a sign of impending emergency.

I don’t let this paranoia affect me in practice. I reach out to my coordinator when it feels justified, follow her advice (which is usually to monitor), and it almost always resolves without a vet visit.

But internally, it is beyond exhausting. Every waking moment, some part of my mind is dedicated to imagining all the terrible things that might be coming for my sick foster. Every night comes the fear that I might wake up to find them passed on.

I’m sure I’m not alone in this. What has helped you curb these anxieties? Where do you find comfort/reassurance? How do you step back and stay logical when your heart is screaming illogical, unhelpful things?

Cat tax is my sweet foster Wayna, who passed very suddenly from an undiagnosed heart condition. Her forever home was us ❤️

She's the sweetest girl and is a completely different cat now than when I got her in April 2024. She clearly had some trauma and I couldn't even touch her for 3 months. Now she's the snuggliest girl and loves to just sit in my lap and purr. Thought about adopting her throughout the years but she is terrified of other cats and I already have 4 of my own.

I'm simultaneously heartbroken and so happy for her. The adopter is wonderful and patient, so I know she's going to a good home. It's just so confusing to be grieving the "loss" of a foster that I've spent every single day with, while also being excited for her future. Anyone have tips on how to deal with these conflicting emotions?

We’ve been able to share happy news about Bella and Ryzhulia, Nessie’s mum and sister. Both have found families.

We’re hoping that one day we’ll have the same news about Nessie ❤️

She’s a sweet, gentle dog, a little shy and still waiting for someone she can fully open up to. For now, she’s with us at Khvostyky in Vinnytsia, Ukraine.

We’re actually a rescue cat café. Nessie lives separately from the cats, but caring for her is part of our days too.

It feels lovely writing about the ones who’ve gone home. We also want to keep showing the ones who are still here.

You can keep up with Nessie and the rest of our residents on Instagram, "@catcafe.me.rescue".

I’ve fostered plenty of kittens, but never actually had to catch any myself… until today. I knew there was a cat hanging out on top of my roof for the past month or so, today I discovered it’s because she’s got a litter up there. Went from thinking it was a solo kitten in the garden this morning, to realising there was two, to discovering a third in the afternoon, to finding a fourth one this evening. So far we’ve caught two boys, there’s at least two more that we’ve been closing to getting (even managed to stroke one with a finger, couldn’t get any further with it) but they’ve escaped us so far. Pretty sure mum was a kitten last kitten season, thanks to the house that down the road that just lets them roam and breed, and hopefully we can get her babies and get her to stop that cycle.. before moving on to trapping the other cats in the area. When I lived here two years ago there was only two male cats that would roam this street, I moved back this year and now there’s at least five cats that just invite themselves into everyone’s gardens and torment the indoor cats in the street - this litter would’ve nearly doubled that number for our street alone and it’s only the very start of kitten season 😭.

I picked up Koa and Khloe from the shelter a few days ago. They were a little shy and underweight, but so so cute.

They tested positive for feline panleukopenia today and the shelter decided it would be best to humanely euthanize them. The only symptom I noticed they had was decreased appetite. The shelter gave me cleaning instructions and I’m unable to foster for 6 months. I’m so sad for these sweet babies and I just wanted to share their picture.

We captured this little girl in front of our home under one of our cars on Sunday and were taking care of her as best we could. We started calling her Cynder since she had those little orange spots. We took her to the vet on Monday where she got dewormed but she was just so little (353 grams at approx. 6 weeks) they couldn't do anything about her fleas and told us to give her a bath. We did and they took a stool sample to see if she needed another dewormer.

Yesterday we left to get her additional dewormer immediately after they called to tell us and we came back home with a bed and more food bowls to find her unable to stand, cold and barely breathing. We rushed her to the emergency vet where they told us she was extremely dehydrated to the point they couldnt find a vein for ivs and malnourished and when we told them about the worms they said that essentially the worms had just been sucking the life out of her. So we had to make the decision to put her down so she wouldn't suffer any longer.

This is the first time we've ever had a kitten pass and I'm just so haunted by thinking if there was anything I could've done to stop it. At the first vet visit they advised we add kitten milk to her wet food to help her bulk up which we did but she didn't seem to gain anything.

This is my first time really fostering for a rescue, and I'm trying to figure out if my experience is "the norm".

I see/follow other rescues that seem to do a lot to support their fosters and promote their animals as much as possible to get them adopted, but this rescue...doesn't. They post profiles to a well-known adoption website to list their animals, but any kind of social media promotion are only re-shares on what fosters may post. This means some of their animals NEVER get any promotion unless they're photographed at the infrequent adoption events. I try to photo and post our foster several times a week and make sure to tag the rescue to make sure he stays in the public eye. I've even tried to share old photos of their long time fosters to try to help them find homes too.

TBF when I signed the foster contract it was in a rush because our foster was pending euthanasia that day, so when I re-read the contract, I agreed to provide food at my own cost. I didn't mind feeding him what I feed our dogs to keep it simple but, of course, the costs add up and I feed them Ollie, which isn't cheap.

They've given me a collar/tag for him, and a bandana.

The couple times I did request something he made it seem like it was my fault for not asking sooner. I requested a harness at an event and he was irritated I didn't ask prior to the event and there was no follow up so I purchased one. I told him he had tapeworms; the rescue had OTC medication but was driving "the opposite direction" to drop off supplies to other fosters so he couldn't help me. He did actually ask if I still needed it but by that time I had him treated by our vet with our other animals as a just in case.

He came from the shelter having been treated several times for kennel cough but the rescue has not requested a vet trip for him. I mentioned flea medication for him and the rescue said it wasn't time yet and did no follow up. That was months ago so I treated him on my own. I went ahead and took our foster to our vet for a check-up to make sure all was well, and paid OOP since it's not the rescue's vet. He has some skin allergies so I'm now paying for Zyrtec and I use the medicated shampoo I have for my other dog on him as well.

The biggest issue is getting support for the behavioral issues. While overall fairly mild, he barks A LOT (got a noise complaint from animal control, rescue blew it off and said it's fine), he does have some resource guarding issues, does not get along with one of our dogs, and tries to go after our cats, one of whom has cancer and is declining more rapidly from the stress.

At the most recent adoption event I took our foster to, the event coordinator targeted him as a problem and got in my face about him. The rescue ignored it, standing on his phone.

The rescue had me speak to one of their trainers, who is three hours away from both myself and the rescue, who lives in my area, but after a subsequent incident and the rescue offering trainer support I have heard nothing. So, again, I've been taking it upon myself to work hard on training him as best I can. I have shared my concerns with the rescue about our ability to keep fostering and the response was "it takes as long as it takes", and that no one will step up to foster a dog who is already in foster.

I've kind of just given up asking the rescue for anything.

I'm doing over and above because I really would like to find our foster his forever home. He deserves it, and our animals also deserve to have their home back. I've done his DNA test, I've purchased yard signs and put them in friends yards around the county. These are things I'm doing voluntarily and would never ask for rescue to reimburse that.

But even the basic requests just kind of get blown off, and I wonder if that's normal, especially as the rescue continues to intake more animals and advertise they provide "all medical and supplies".

Has anyone else kind of sadly soured on fostering due to a poor rescue experience?

EDIT: To make clear, this isn't our foster dog's fault, and I have made a commitment to him. My husband suggested I drop him off to the rescue at the next event but that's not what's best for the pup, and at this point I don't really trust the rescue to do what's best for him either. He's a sweet fur kid and I wish he meshed better with our current fur kids.

I’m bringing my rescue cat to her new home tomorrow. I wanted to keep her but she doesn’t get along with my resident female. The fighting was escalated in a lot and I just felt like it was red flags for bullying. As it is my two resident males don’t get along .I’ve had her almost 3 months. I can’t stop crying. I feel like it will be a good home for her, but I know this change would be so stressful. I feel like I’m abandoning her. I rescued her from outside and it’s so hard to let go and trust that she will be OK without me. Is this normal? Are they OK in their new homes? She loves me so much. I feel terrible.

I have six, 7 week old kittens. They've been great, I've had them from 1 week old. They went into the clinic to get snipped a week ago, ever since then 2 of them throw up every afternoon/evening. They have been into the clinic, they did stool samples, blood panel and everything came back good. They checked their incisions, checked for hernias. They gave the two that throw up a nausea shot, but they still threw up that evening!!

They had diarrhea too, but they put them on science diet ID and prebiotic and that cleared up.

They act perfectly fine, running around playing and still gaining weight (slowly).

Has anyone dealt with this? The clinic told me to wait 5 days to see how they do, but that means I'm cleaning up puke every evening. (They each puke 3x each)

I have been fostering for 3 days. I'm in college living in apartments. I thought I wouldn't get too attached but I have fallen in love with this dog. He is a puppy and has separation anxiety and due to that he's been rather destructive at times, like tearing up the blinds in the spare bedroom when I left. He's my best friend and helps me feel a feeling of connection with another dog that I lost a decade ago and haven't been able to find in another dog since- other than this stray I picked up that turned out to have an owner so we returned him.

His destruction has led one of my roommates to want to return him asap. I also have to go back home this weekend and next weekend and my family isn't letting me take him with me. At home I already have 3 dogs and 2 of them are troublemakers, and at my apartment I find it hard to take care of him for a few reasons- because he gets into stuff and chews, I have a hard time finding the energy to take him out on walks and I don't wake up easily. The reason that I'm gonn hace to return him is his seperation anxiety and destructive behavior especially when he's left alone/ I leave the house.

The idea of returning him especially now that we're so attached to each other breaks my heart. I can't stop crying and I don't want to let him go. How do I return him to the shelter (spca so he won't get euthd for time/space) when he looks at me like I've hung the moon? I want to keep him but its not practical and I'm absolutely heartbroken.

I need help, I need tips or advice or comfort or something because I'm not strong enough to do this (return him) on my own.

I love you Goose.

Hi, I’m a junior in highschool, my parents are divorced, my mom lives in town near my school and my dad lives 45 minutes away from my school. I have a cat named beets who I’ve had for 8 months now, unfortunately I can no longer mentally take being at my dads house, he is mentally and verbally abusive, and the drive to his house and to school is debilitating and I can’t do it anymore. I don’t want to get rid of beets, I love her so much and my mom won’t let me have a cat at her house, I don’t want to surrender her I’ve cried dozen of times of even thinking about it. Is there a way I can have somone foster her till I graduate and get an appartment? How would I go about this, is this even viable? Please, your answers and advice are much appreciated 💙

The private rescue organization that I have fostered a dog with for over a year and half

DOES NOT HAVE ANY LEGAL OBLIGATION TO PROVIDE ME WITH VETERINARIAN RECORDS

How could any ethical entity in this world have the right hold back health records - this is the most important information to have for getting a pet off to the right start and health care is the scariest part of taking on a pet but if there are health issues, Why would anyone want to keep that information withheld from - this goes against everything that is in the dogs health care interest?!!

Picture for cat tax! I just got in this single kitten and realized I have yet to foster a single kitten this young before. Does anyone have any tips? She's eating well, the only problem I'm seeing is she hasn't quite figured out the litterbox, which I expected, and every time I feed her she'll eat for about a minute, then wander around crying until I hold her for a few minutes then eat again when I put her back.

Again, just making sure that I am not missing something big as far as having a single vs a whole litter.

Edit for Update:

As I talking to people I got an email from the shelter about another single and it looks like she's going to get a friend!! Hopefully that will help her be less lonely. I also ordered a warming stuffie with a heartbeat and some non-clumping litter.

Venting here and sadness. I am currently fostering 4 precious kittens around 5 weeks old. With this litter I will have fostered 57 kittens in total. This has been my hardest three weeks ever fostering. I picked them up from our animal shelter and they all required bottle feeding(which I love) but within an hour of having them all had diarrhea. I immediately started with protocols that have helped over the years with other kittens but was fairly certain they had coccidia which the shelter vet confirmed from a stool sample. They have been on Albon and fortiflora as I transitioned them from formula, to slurry, to wet food , and now mixed wet/dry per the vets instructions. I am certain that they will need at least a second round as there is still lots diarrhea and crying out when using the litter boxes.
2 of the kittens had injured genitalia from nursing on each other and required topical meds and cones and separation and are healing. They also came with fleas that have been treated with baths and combing as they are too little for flea meds. It’s been round the clock for 3 + weeks now and it’s been tough. I can’t seem to get ahead of cleaning the four litter boxes every few hours, butt baths and paw washing, feeding 4 times a day, meds and water, changing puppy pads out as they walk thru the mess as they use the litter box, heating pads turning off each hour(it’s freezing tonight). They remain adorable and sweet and I Kiss them after their baths and they play with their toys and are trying to become lions in cutest ways possible.
Sigh. And tonight during a bath my black foster kitten was flaking skin when I brushed a spot with the flea comb. I got into my supplies and got my black light and his little face and a spot on his shoulder lit up green. I then looked at all the kittens with the black light and they ALL have green glowing spots on their noses and some hairs. So I’m fairly certain these sweet babies have ring worm as well .
I don’t think I can physically add one more treatment or condition and I feel I will have to give up and take them back to the shelter. I have had fosters with giardia, with coccidia, with ear mites, with tics, with fleas, with ringworm, with abuse injuries and myself and my family have handled it. But this time, it’s proving too much and my heart is sad. And I will have to take them back and hope someone will help them so they don’t get put down. 😞
Update:
I will be taking the kittens to see the Shelter’s Vet this afternoon, I am hoping they will help get these babies feeling better.

Update to the update:
Babies saw the vet and according to their testing and woods lamp they do not have ringworm, I am relieved but I had already decided we were gonna keep em and treat em, putting them down for a fungus they could not help getting broke my heart more than the worry of the treatments. They are on a second round of Albon and fortiflora and were topically treated for the fleas. We live to fight another day!
Thank you to all who responded. It was the middle of the night and I was so desperate, your postings helped me keep hoping and going!

Guess who has finally made it past 300grams. Dustmite Dustin the Tiny Grey Guy, that’s who! I haven’t weighed yet for today, yesterday he was 315grams.

He’s always been fairly opinionated but he’s gotten quite a bit more expressive over the past week. Think the enema he had really helped oddly enough. They said he didn’t really feel constipated, but he was much more active the following day.
He’s on medication for Coccidia, he’s eating so much better lately, and he’s playful and silly. Everything you want a kitten to be.

Keeping an eye on his breathing and behavior a lot. A grade four heart murmur isn’t something to measure around with, but a lot of kittens do grow out of them. (Heck, Kiwi managed to grow out of hers!) Without going to specialty, there isn’t much more I can pursue for his medical care. We’ll just have to see what the future has in store.

He likes to sleep in my bed now and when I’m at my desk he makes his way across the room to curl up in the little dog bed next to me.

I scheduled mom and his four siblings for their spay and neuter appointments. Everyone else is right around that 2lb mark so I gotta get them ready to leave. Dustmite can tag along with me and Kiwi a while longer, he’s making progress.

Some weeks ago I was shocked this little guy was still alive. I’m so glad I get to keep making updates that he’s proved me wrong yet another week.

I’m hopeful that someday this Dustmite will be a proper cat.

Hi! I have a foster kitten that has an adoption inquiry and my shelter allows me to have the final say on if the potential adopter will be a good match.

Someone reached out and is asking if the fact they work from home will compensate for her being a solo.

I know it is recommended for kittens to be in pairs so I am reluctant to say yes to her, but has anyone had experience with WFH and solo kitten dynamics?

Naria is about 9-10 weeks old and such a little sweetheart, and I’ve noticed that while she will play with her foster sister, she will sometimes get irritated with her and go off and sleep in her own area. She will sleep on the foot of my bed, but also isn’t a Velcro kitty and is on the softer side with her personality.

Based on their behavior, I don’t consider them to be a bonded pair and her foster sister will be going to a home with another active cat this weekend.

Let me know your experience, thanks!

Has anyone else experienced a kitten not liking wet food or churu? He's around 8 weeks old and the other kittens in his litter are crazy for wet food and churu. He refuses to eat it and even does the cover up like its poop when presented with it. He does love dry kitten food and eats a lot of that, but i've never experienced a cat or kitten turn down wet food or especially a churu?