Month: September 2019

Unable to sleep tonight, so it seems like a good time to catch up here. I have been wanting to post some of the stories of how we got our pets. Hector D. Byrd is the oldest age-wise, at 26, but Logan the cat, has been with us the longest, so I think I’ll start with her.

Logan and I met when I was volunteering at the local animal shelter. I love volunteering and have done many different volunteer jobs over the years.  I’ve walked dogs, cleaned small animal cages, done some Humane Education, exercised and cared for horses, and I’ve fostered cats.

My very first time fostering, I volunteered to take a mom with a litter that needed a foster home until the kittens were old enough to be adopted. I went to classes to learn about kittens and what they would need, I set up an area of our house just for our new guests. Mom cat’s name was Angel.  Angel had come in as a stray and almost immediately gave birth under the desk of one of the administrators. She only had two kittens, so they thought it would be a nice, easy first litter for me. The kittens were just about two weeks old when we brought them home.

Kittens! My kids were ecstatic! Each claimed one and named it, Pirate for the boy kitten, that looked like he had a black patch over one eye, and Logan for the girl, because my daughter had a doll named Logan and she liked the name. Pirate and Logan were so tiny and soft and my kids loved to snuggle them up in their little hands.

Everything seemed fine for a day or two, the kittens were nursing, and Angel was taking care of them. Very soon, I noticed that Pirate’s eyes looked a little crusty. I called the shelter and they said it would be OK, clean the eyes, and keep an eye on them. The next day he seemed a little sneezy. I brought him to the shelter and the vet there thought he had a respiratory infection and gave me some medicine for him. I was very careful to make sure he got all his medicine on the right schedule, but he didn’t improve. I took all three kitties to the shelter to get checked out again. They asked me to leave them over night, and when I called to check on them the next morning, they told me Pirate didn’t make it.

My son was devastated, that was “his” cat, but I felt it was important to continue with what we had started, so I picked up Angel and Logan and brought them back home. I was told what to look for with Logan to make sure she didn’t have any signs of sickness.

Logan thrived. She grew and played. Before we knew it, Logan was 8 weeks old. Time for the kitties to return to the shelter, get checked by the vet, and then get put up for adoption. This was definitely a hard part!

We all said our good byes to the kitties and wished them a happy life in their new homes. I cried all the way home from the shelter. I knew they would get adopted quickly, but they had been in our home for 6 weeks, it was tough to let go!

My daughter and I cried, a lot. My husband said to just go get the cats if that’s what we really wanted. Our current older cat didn’t really get along with Angel,  so we decided just to go get Logan.

I left a message for the shelter saying that we wanted to adopt her, and to please hold her for us. When I picked my kids up from school, I told them I had to stop by the shelter to do some paperwork.  My daughter tearfully asked if she could visit Logan while we were there. She didn’t know we had decided to keep the kitten! We went in, I did some paperwork (to adopt Logan) and then they brought Logan out to us. My daughter looked so confused. I smiled and handed Logan to her. She cried. She didn’t understand what was going on. She asked me why she had to say goodbye to Logan again. “No Silly Goose, Logan is coming back home with us for good.” She buried her face in Logan’s fur and cried happy tears.

Things were great for a couple of days. Logan settled right in and became part of the family. She seemed to be eating and drinking, but she wasn’t using the litter box. I took her to the vet, but the vet seemed very busy, didn’t really listen to what I was saying, and convinced me that the kitten needed diarrhea medicine. My instincts told me something was off. I kept a close eye on Logan. Just 24 hours after starting her on the new medicine, Logan was in bad shape. She seemed very dehydrated, she wasn’t eating, and I still don’t think she had used the litter box. I was devastated and thought we were going to lose her. I stayed up with her all that night. I fed her water from a dropper, and snuggled her in blankets to keep her warm. I brought her to another vet as soon as they opened in the morning.

Logan wasn’t exactly sick. Logan had been eating cat litter, and it had blocked her intestines. The vet kept her for the day and worked on getting the blockage cleared. We were able to bring her home that night, but things were shaky for a couple of days. Nothing like an expensive vet bill to start things off with our new kitten, but we were just thankful that she recovered quickly.

That was 2008. I did foster another litter of kittens after that. There were five or six of them, they were all grey and all looked exactly the same, and they were terrors! They climbed the walls, curtains, couches, our legs, everything! They didn’t snuggle, they ran all the time. I was happy they were almost six weeks old when we got them, so we only had them for a couple of weeks.  We worked with them and tried to teach them the joys of cuddling, but they were intent on the joys of running.

Now in 2019, we still have Logan, and we haven’t fostered again, (yet.)

Have you ever volunteered for an Animal Rescue Group? Have you fostered? Do you have any interesting stories about where your pets came from? Let me know in the comments.

 

On August 13th, I saw pictures of an adorable smooshed brown face that belonged to a French Bulldog puppy named Pammy. Pammy needed a new home. She was the first adoptable Frenchie I’ve seen that could live with other dogs, cats, and even birds! I wanted her. I paid the $10 application fee and carefully filled out their 4 page application. Then I waited.

I knew they would get 100s of applications for a puppy like that. I knew she was located in Pennsylvania and they would probably pick someone closer if they could. I didn’t expect to get her, but yesterday when I received the email saying I was not chosen to adopt her, I was still sad.

Now I’m not sure what’s next. Part of me really wants a 2nd dog. I love seeing two play together and snuggle together, but do I want the extra hassle and expense of a second dog? If that second dog was Pammy, I have no doubt that she would have fit right in and I would not have had any regrets. Now I’m overthinking things.

I may look into fostering. It would give me a chance to help a dog that needed it, and to see how the household reacts to a 2nd dog. It’s been a while since we had more than one. If the foster “fails” and I want to keep it, that wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, but if it doesn’t work out, I haven’t made a huge commitment.

Anyone fostered? I’ve fostered kittens before. I’ve successfully fostered litters, raised them, and brought them back to the shelter for adoption. Only one of them is still here, her name is Logan, and she’s 11 now.