The lovely Miss Emmy

We hear a lot on Twitter about rescues and shelters, but not so much about another important part of animal welfare: Fostering. My dear friend @EmmytheCat, a pretty jellicle cat from England, allowed her hoomans to start fostering kittens for Hounslow Animal Welfare Society last year, and she was happy to tell me about it.

Hello Emmy! Could you please tell our readers why your hoomans decided to start fostering? Was it difficult for you to get used to having other cats in the house?
Hello Morris. I was abandoned with my four newborn kittens, and because I couldn’t settle in the cattery, I was fostered by a very kind lady. I was adopted a few months later by my humans. After I had been here about a year, my huMum saw that a local shelter was looking for foster carers and decided to foster a cat in honour of me. I wasn’t too sure about a new cat in the house, but when she and her eight one-day-old kittens arrived, they were kept on a separate floor in their own room. I did a lot of sniffing at the door though!

Hee hee, I can imagine! So what does fostering involve — does it depend on the ages of the cats? And do you mix with the fosters, or are they kept totally separate?
To foster, you need a spare room where the kitties can feel safe. We have fostered everything from a lone cat to orphaned newborn kittens. When the fosters have been here a while, I do get to meet them, but only the older kittens and adult cats. Wee Heidi on the other hand is always trying to meet the fosters. She is super-friendly and actually helps to groom our current orphaned kittens. She also curls up and goes to sleep with them.

Anipals can help with fostering

Could you tell us about the kitties you’re fostering just now, Emmy?

The orphans were found when they were just a few hours old, and our neighbour’s dog helped to look after them for the first week. Their story appeared in several newspapers and even on television! The orphans just turned seven weeks and are reserved for adoption: they will go to their new homes at nine or ten weeks. We also have two older foster kitties of eight months, Pixie and Kiki. They had a bad start in life and are nervous of anyone they don’t know, but very loving with my humans. Sadly, Jellicle (black-and-white) and black cats are the hardest to re-home, which is so unfair because we are just the same as all other kitties. I call it fur prejudice.

Do your humans find it difficult to give up the foster kitties, after having looked after them for so long?
HuMum does get attached to some of the fosters, and some she would like to keep, but the foster carer has the final say on who can adopt the animals in their care, so she sees them go to good homes and hears back from their new families. They send photos as the kitties grow so she knows they are happy. Most of the kittens are adopted in pairs, unless the people have another friendly cat at home or are home during the day.

Wee Heidi when she was *really* wee!

Finally, you mentioned Wee Heidi earlier. How did she come to be your new sisfur?
I was always going to be an only kitty, cos that’s what the rescue told the humans when they adopted me. The fosters are kept on a separate floor of the house — right up at the top. Heidi was from a litter of eight. She moved in with her mum and siblings when she was just a couple of days old. All the kittens were gorgeous, but Heidi was a bit naughty too. All the potential adopters who saw the videos of them on YouTube (TheFosterCat) liked Heidi the best, but when they came to see the kittens they chose others cos Heidi was such a scamp. The humans thought it was fate, so before anyone could adopt her, huMum asked if she could adopt Heidi. Luckily for us, and for me most of all, Heidi joined the family. I love Heidi. I didn’t think I would want a kitty sister, but we are great pals. We curl up together in my favourite cat bed (which really isn’t even big enough for me on my own), we always seem to eat from the same bowls at the same time, we groom each other and play a lot, inside and outside. Heidi loves the garden and bunny hops really fast across it in joy when she first goes outside!

Emmy and Wee Heidi curl up together

Thank you so much, Emmy — I have learned a lot about fostering. I hope that some of our readers will be inspired to try it too. Please let The Anipal Times know if your hoomans decide to foster some anipals!

Tagged as: @EmmytheCat, animal fostering, Hounslow Animal Welfare Society