Never Look Back

"I hope you never look back, but you never forget, all the ones who love and the place you left."

The time has come that every feral foster person wishes for with all their heart and dreads all at the same time.  It is time for my babies to move on.  Time for me to say goodbye.

Hyde showed me that he was ready to go before Frankie did. He was headbutting, meeting me at the door of the foster room each morning.  Following me to the door when I left. Demanding attention and showing an interest in the world outside of my foster room.  So last Friday I brought Hyde into the shelter to be neutered and go up for adoption.


Now I do not believe in just tossing my feral fosters into the craziness of a busy shelter and walking away.  I ease them into it.  Hyde had his surgery on Friday and then the plan was for him to stay in the relatively quiet office of the shelter for the weekend with only a certain higher level of cat volunteers called the cat task force allowed to interact with him.  If he did well over the weekend then he would move to the adoption floor but still only be allowed to interact with staff and cat task force.

Frankie was not ready to go.  She was still really shy so I decided to keep her alone with me and work one on one with her for a while then put her up for adoption.  But with ferals (or any kittens) things do not always go according to plan.  Frankie did start to open up more to me and get friendlier but she was also very stressed.  Without her brother her stress level shot through the roof.  She was howling anytime she was left alone.  She also paced around the the foster room and did not eat as well as she should.  It was clear that she was not going to be able to succeed without her brother.

Hyde meanwhile was progressing at the shelter.  He was starting to reach out to others for the attention he was used to getting from me.  He was well on schedule to going up for adoption after the weekend.  But his sister needed him.  My option was to bring Hyde back to my house even though he was ready to go or push Frankie's boundaries and bring her back to the shelter before she was 100% ready.  I chose to push Frankie.  Once she was at the shelter in a cage next to her brother (the cages are too small for them to share) she relaxed and started eating again.

On a side note here, for those of you who are not shelter volunteers at the shelter I foster for, I just have to say that I am blessed to foster for a shelter that truly puts the welfare of the animals first and listens to their longtime foster families.  When I contacted the director to say that I did not feel that Frankie could be successfully placed unless she was with her brother he did not hesitate to allow me to make notes that they had to be adopted together even if that meant reducing their adoption fees to make it happen.  Not hesitating to put the happiness of a little feral kitten over money is why my shelter is such an awesome place.

For those of you who do volunteer with me, it may seem like I live at the shelter for the first week my ferals come in for adoption.    What I am doing is weaning my babies off of me and onto the rest of the world.  They need my familiar voice, scent and touch to ease their nervousness and realize they were still safe and that it was OK to open up and let others in.

I expected it to take weeks to find an adopter who would not only want to take on a feral kitten who still had a ways to go in their socialization, but TWO feral kittens who needed patience, time and love to bond with their adopter.  But fate was smiling on my babies.  I brought Frankie in to join her brother on Sunday.  She was spayed on Tuesday and on Wednesday a wonderful women walked into the shelter looking for a younger pair of cats to adopt.  Turns out that her cat of 19 years had passed away recently and the family was ready to open up their hearts and home to new animals.  And the cat they lost had started its life with them as a 1 year old feral.

She totally understood the mindset of a feral kitten and fell in love instantly with Frankie and Hyde.  She was excited to work with Frankie to continue to bring her around and Hyde seemed to like her right away.  After clearing it with her family, Frankie and Hyde have a wonderful, awesome, perfect fit for their forever home!!  They went home to start their forever life yesterday.  And I could not be happier.

When I think back to where we started, (Frankie a terrified little ball of fluff and Hyde so frightened he had to be wrapped in a towel to be put in a carrier), it makes me so happy to see where we are now.  Their body language was hunched, low to the ground and so insecure.   Now the are upright, ears up, tails held high and muscles relaxed.  Even though they still have some work to do with their adopter, as these pictures will show you, they have truly come a long way.

  

I hope I was able to give you some insight into the world of a feral kitten.  And the next time you see a hissing, growling kitten in a shelter cage, I hope you remember a few important facts.  1.  They are dangerous, so leave them to people who are trained to handle them.  2.  They are scared, NOT aggressive.  3.  A feral kitten's capacity to love is like nothing you have ever seen before and if you are ever lucky enough to have one trust you enough to bond with you, you will truly have been blessed.

And I have been blessed to open my home and heart to so many feral kittens.  They have taught me that there is nothing better and more humbling than opening up your heart to a scared feral animal that is not yet capable of loving you back.

So thank you to all of you who have gone on this journey from feral to friendly with us.  It has been quite the ride.  :)