Fierce little kitten
Somewhere in May 2023, another foster lady with a big heart sent a message in the foster group from the organisation we were helping. It was a video of a little warrior kitten who was loudly calling for help while being stuck under the laundry service building, which was actually just a container turned into a laundry room. She tried to lure the fierce little lady with some food, which she gladly accepted but she didn't allow herself to be caught. This actually sounds a lot like the rest of the year that follows, Maesi is not fond of being picked up, although nowadays she will allow it when I do it (not happily but at least without struggle, lol) or sometimes when my daughter does it. In the beginning though, this would always go hand in hand with warrior wounds on our end, lol.
But as she didn't allow herself to be caught at the time while being stuck under that little building right on the premises of a car wash service, new measures were needed because these cars were not only a danger while on the car wash terrain but also the main road next to all of this where they can drive quite fast. It was a disaster waiting to happen. This foster lady lives around the corner and picked up a cage to trap the fierce kitten. I read that while we were out for tapas and as we had to wash our car that evening, I told my boyfriend that I was going to check if the kitten was caught already to let the foster know that she could pick up the cage.
Trapped
We asked the guy on the premises to check and he came out with a cage and scared little kitten. I let the foster know and she arrived within 5 minutes. She asked us if we wanted to come with her while they'd get her out of the cage, do some first checks and then move her to a temporary foster. This was actually the second lady who joined and lived in that building across the car wash. We followed her into that building where they had a bathroom in the communal garden as it used to be a tennis court if I remember correctly.
Getting the kitten out was not easy but the other foster clearly didn't bounce back for a fierce little kitten, she checked to see if she had any injuries but the little one looked quite healthy. My daughter and myself already fell in love and saw an opportunity here because the five first foster babies were going to leave our home in just days time and we were not done with the adventure. I told her that we wanted to foster her but it would take a few days until the others were moving to the next home.
The first day of Maesi in our home, look at that tiny fluff ball
Foster to adopt
The five first babies had two kittens that I'd want to adopt without a doubt as they were special to me from day one, but they were all adopted. We were hoping that next time, we'd be able to first foster a kitten and then decide if he or she was the right fit for our home. This is what happened with Maesi.
She was full of energy and definitely wanted to be in control and check everything happening around her. It didn't take long until she started to snuggle up with us as well though. She didn't have much time to get used to us alone because I think in her very first week, Percy arrived and this was not something she was having at first. I remember her being a big bully to Percy while he was just trying to make a friend.
Percy and Maesi sleeping together
Percy was a sweetheart but very tiny and insecure kitten vs Maesi who was very confident and felt Percy's insecurity. As you can see in the picture above, Percy cracked Maesi's code and when he did, they were all friends. Eventually, Percy left us and we were left with the two final kittens we adopted:
Hide!
Looking back at these old folders with kitten pictures, I found quite a few pictures of Maesi hiding in the sofa or under blankets. Not every time when the doorbell rang though, that's something getting worse over time, strangely enough. She's just not fond of new people in her home, especially not if they come close but sometimes she already races to hide behind the toilet in the bathroom when the doorbell rings without the door being opened. I never expected her to be the scared one of the two as Luna was so fragile when she arrived. Fragile but sweet. Maesi always seemed like the protector of the house, lol.
Hiding, June 2023
As you can see back then, Maesi still had scared big eyes when she was hiding, nowadays (see header image) she is at least relaxed with us, but just want's to hide out of sight for the strangers. The only person she really trusts and loves outside of our family is my daughter's tutor but she spent a lot of time in here. Nowadays she even crawls on her lap and falls asleep there when she's here to help our daughter. Trust has to earned, clearly.
Trip down memory lane
I didn't realise I still had so many unsorted pictures of those foster months, this was a nice trip down memory lane and reminder that I still have tons of pictures to sort through even after today. I'm trying to make it a habit to do some sorting every day, not only in the house but also in folders with pictures, videos, downloaded documents that I never sort after but also email boxes that are neglected for a long time. After doing this for a month straight, so many stuff got organised and lots of things thrown in the bin and deleted forever. Feels great! The best sorting moments are these trip down memory lanes and finding all these kitten or family pictures that are connected to fond memories.
Although we didn't foster this year, we surely will not forget that adventure and it's something that we will probably do again in the future one day. I'd recommend everyone who loves cats and/or dogs to try and foster for a little while so you can help one (or maybe more) in need while they find their forever home. It's not easy saying goodbye but it's also a rewarding job to help more than you'd do when adopting them only.
All pictures above are mine.
Cute.
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Nice! We miss our last cat (cyperse just like in above pics) but decided not to take another one because of the frequent travelling nowadays.
Haha, they seem to come in bulk these cyperse kittens, it's by far the most seen one here anyway. I love them, they are so handsome and have personality.
It's sad to miss a pet, but I can imagine with the traveling that it's a lot of hassle to have one. If you want to have some cat love in the home again, you could always temporarily foster one for a few weeks because foster homes are overloaded constantly.
A friend of ours is single and already has 11 cats (many from keeping after fostering or needing lots of medical attention and hard to adopt), and she keeps fostering one after the other, even when she has health issues herself because no one else can take them in. That's a situation I wanted to avoid at all costs for us, so this year we said no to fostering.
Boundaries are important, which you have to set yourself, of course.
Hope you had a good summer! I'm glad the normal school routine starts again next week, new school, new class mates, so it's a bit exciting :)
Kittens are too cute haha. This one sounds like a real handful, it’s interesting when the feral cats never really leave most of the feral behind even though they can. Cute fur ball though!
Well, all of these three (Percy included I mean) were really small when taken into foster homes. Luna was one of a litter dumped in the garbage (so was the 5 headed litter we fostered first) while Maesi probably just went on adventure and got lost.
We even suspect that her mother was on the other side of the gate (the opposite of the road side) as there's a mother cat there with kittens in the school yard and she has the same pattern as Maesi.
Funnily enough, our first summer here, we were trying to see if we could adopt one of her kittens (so a year before this adventure). We often laugh that we possibly ended up exactly as we requested only a year delay, lol. But with medication, cutting nails, she's a handful for sure while Luna is such a doll and would never try to escape or sharpen her nails to get out of your grip, she accepts her faith and is happy with whatever treat she gets afterwards. They're night and day, lol.
The older kittens (3-6 months old probably) we had before the foster adventure were still feral in a way, hard to get the street out of them, thus they escaped out of the window to explore. I didn't believe my boyfriend when he told me these are already too old. And we were both right in the end because with determination and patience I was able to have a deep connection with both and they were tame but the need for the streets was what eventually killed them, at least they had a good time inside as long as it lasted.
I learned that I would never ever, catch a cat on the street again to adopt if not a small kitten anymore. I would not say no to an adult cat if coming from another person and seeing how tame this one is, but to catch them with all the street behaviour still there, that's a hard no for us. We tried twice and it was painful to lose them so that's the end of that..
It's a bit sad to read, but the photo is so cute. I hope she learns to deal with strangers in her house.
I hope so too !PIMP
que lindos, me gustaría tener uno, pero con los perritos locos que tengo no creo que me dejen xD pero son una ternura de verdad
how cute, I would like to have one but with the crazy dogs I have, I don't think they will let me xD but they are really cute!
Jaja, me imagino que puede ser complicado. Yo tenía perros hace décadas y definitivamente no se llevaban bien con los gatos. Eso habría sido un desastre :)
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