Living in a Foster Family

Today's guest blogger is my 13-year-old son Aidan. He currently holds the rank of Life Scout in the Boy Scouts of America, just one rank below Eagle. He's working on a merit badge in  Communications. One of the tasks is learning how to create content for the internet (or blog posts!). While he isn't required to publish his work, I figure what's the point of having a mom with a blog if you can't take it over every now and then? He will be back again later this week to help me with a very important post. I will return tomorrow with the Madison Munchkins. They think it's been too long since they've been in the spotlight.

*****************************************************

We live in a unique family. Fostering cats at our house makes us different than most any other families I know. There are good and bad things about helping out with the cats. Overall, the good and bad balance together to make it worth fostering kittens though.

The Bad Part

1. One of the worst things about fostering kittens is all of the work you have to put into it. You have to feed, water, clean up after, and occasionally medicate the cats. It's extra hard to feed a kitten because they climb your leg while you are filling their bowl. They dump their water everywhere. Have you ever seen the floor of our foster room? Litter and kibble everywhere. It gets stuck in their fur, in your socks, and in between your toes.

Baby kittens hang out in the litter box and make a mess of themselves.

2. Foster kittens are adorable but they're not always healthy. When a kitten is sick, we spend a lot of time at the vet. We have to medicate them and risk having medicine spit out all over your hands. We worry about them an awful lot and we have to keep them away from all of the rest of our animals. The kittens are in quarantine in our foster room. Have you ever tried to keep kittens in a room when six of them are running at high speed towards the door? 

The worst part of sick kittens is having to give them baths.

3. Giving the kittens up is a bittersweet experience. When we give a kitten away, it's sad because you know that you will probably never see them again. But you know it's better for them because they will be treated well and will get lots more attention than they would if they stayed because there's not as much kitten competition in their new home.

Saying goodbye can be hard.

The Good Part

1. Foster kittens are fun to play with. Older animals are nice but kittens have more energy to expend on games. I love to play with teasers and laser lights that get them running and jumping around the room. It's good exercise for them and lots of laughs for me.

Playful kittens keep us on our toes.

They keep themselves on their toes too.

2. Foster kittens give lots of extra snuggles. With five people in our house and three family cats, there aren't enough cats to go around. Not to mention that cats aren't known for snuggling on demand. With fosters, there's a better chance that everyone gets a snuggle whenever they need one.

Snuggling kittens makes everything better.

3. Helping foster kittens is a good experience for life. Caring for cats is practicing responsibility. I can apply the lessons I learn to my school work, my scouting, and other things at home to help my family. I'm learning how to be a kind, trustworthy, and responsible adult just by playing with kittens. 

4. Every once in a while, you get to keep one of the kittens.

She made us keep her.