Foster Failures

Cindy's thread about Izzy gave me an idea for a thread.

Please show us your fostering failures. By failures I mean that you were supposed to adopt them out/find them a good home, but somehow they wiggles and squirmed and purred their way into your heart and their home is now your home.

This is Annie. Annie was found in the middle of the Pike National Forest, and I brought her home instead of leaving her to be a light snack for a forest critter. We already had 4 when she came home. She was about 6 months old, not spayed, had multiple ticks and was slightly anemic, and very skinny. Poor girl. She was supposed to be our first venture in fostering, and then when there was an opening at the no-kill shelter we would turn her in there. Yeah, right. First and last venture into fostering. We're both suckers. But can't you see why we had to keep her???

I have 3 that we rescued from under a neighbors house( in my siggy Itty Bitty Trouble and Mischief) ( with Mama no where to be found) we intended finding them homes but we just fell in love!I am sooooooooooo happy we kept them!!

Our Lulu is a returned declawed pee cat that came to me back in 2000. She was my first foster and we felt so bad for her because she wanted love but was so timid. She is still a pee cat and we keep her favorite pee objects locked up. And we have no floor length drapes in our house LOL.

Our Pixie is a returned semi-feral cat who was returned because she was so timid. A lady who found a litter in the woods went to the PetCo and did adoptions under our group's name on Xmas eve. Thank heavens I was called when they all went bad. We kept little Pixie because her fear was/is SO great that we felt it would be too much trauma to reintroduce her even to a special needs family (not that we could find one). She has come around a lot, but is terrified of any shoes and will not let you approach her. It has to be on her terms.

And Lola was a foster kitten from a mom cat and litter I fostered a year ago this summer/fall/winter along with 4 teenager boy cats. They were all sick, but Lola was the sickest. After 5 months of medicines and vets and cleaning her sore little butt from giardia, coccidia, and campylobacter, and what a good little baby girl she was at taking all her meds and living in a cage separate from the others. I just could not part with her.

It is going to take me a bit to post their pix but I will be back to do it

By the way, Annie is beautiful. She is SUCH a love bug! I can see why you would keep her!!

The problem I have with fostering is not that I want to keep them all (my boy cat gets so jealous and upset!) but the total complete FEAR I have that the home I am giving them up to, will do right by them. I am close to the point where I will not foster again just because of this. They go to an adoption event and I see the people who come and I get sick to my stomach. I guess I've learned you can't judge a book by its cover. And right now I am fostering but not doing the adoption events/interviews.

Ella was a Katrina cat. Who knows what all she went through? But she had been adopted once, and returned soon thereafter. She apparently has allergies of some sort, and paws at her eyes, causing the sore on her nose. We volunteered to foster her when she went on the PTS list, because no one was going to adopt her looking like that. After she settled in with our cats, Dottie said there was no way she was going back to a cage (which she had been in most of 3 years), so I went down and adopted her.

I don't have any, but I know of plenty of "fosters", that never came back. I always do the quotation marks, for those.

Damita (Rainbow Bridge tortie) & Dorian (buff boy) were my first foster failures








Then there was Molly (tentative foster/adopt so she isn't euthanized type deal)



Then....hmmm....Margo (foster/adopt so she isn't euthanized)



Of course there's The Chairman Squishy Meow (foster/adopt so he isn't euthanized)





....and then there's the one no one will fully admit is the foster failure yet Eden

Annie is such a love as are all the foster failures!

Stumpy was our first foster failure. She had a broken pelvis, and a freshly amputated tail from a car accident, and won me over:



Particularly with her bedroom eyes



She had a thin coat with chunks missing, but big bat ears and a sweet face



Then came Smudgey, who was going to be euthanised if I didn't take her. What would you do if someone said that and plopped this in your hands?



Of course the little runt won us over

Aww, what a load of gorgeous cats!!

I dont have too many foster failures, Molly was my first, and she was cat no 18 I think - helps that they have to get on with my cats to stay, and she was the first - she stopped liking Ginger after I Said she could stay though!! She had been waiting for 8 months at the rescue, and had got depressed, so I offered to foster her to give her a home environment for what little time she had left - that was nearly 3 years ago!!

Then there was Tiger, who hated people so much that no one saw her for the first few months she was here, she constantly hid when people came round, so after Pebbles died, I decided to keep her - she has been at the bridge nearly a year now though, she only had 10 months between me deciding to keep her and having to let her go. She had been here 5 months with no interest at all though.

I suppose I have to include Zia, I wouldnt keep her if it were my choice though, but at 17.5, the rescue she is from didn't want to rehome her. She has been here a year now, but I would still happily rehome her.

And there have been the ones too poorly to be rehomed, so not failed fosters as such, but illnesses that my rescue wont rehome with - there are 2 of those at the moment, and have already had one this year.

Originally Posted by valanhb

Cindy's thread about Izzy gave me an idea for a thread.

Please show us your fostering failures. By failures I mean that you were supposed to adopt them out/find them a good home, but somehow they wiggles and squirmed and purred their way into your heart and their home is now your home.

This is Annie. Annie was found in the middle of the Pike National Forest, and I brought her home instead of leaving her to be a light snack for a forest critter. We already had 4 when she came home. She was about 6 months old, not spayed, had multiple ticks and was slightly anemic, and very skinny. Poor girl. She was supposed to be our first venture in fostering, and then when there was an opening at the no-kill shelter we would turn her in there. Yeah, right. First and last venture into fostering. We're both suckers. But can't you see why we had to keep her???

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I love the piccies of her sleeping on your shoulder. Honestly, how could you give that up?

Halsey and Molly came first - three weeks old and starving. We bottle fed them and taught them as best we could and then, the rescue group couldn't find homes, so they stayed. Three years later...

Then came Gracie, the kitten the neighbor's kids were tossing into the air. (That was when I became known around the neighborhood as "that cat lady"). Gracie's been with us for 2 years.

Then - Teresa and Chester. Mama kitty raised them in the woods next to us, then went on her merry way. I couldn't stand seeing them outside, so they came inside "temporarily." Ha - that was also 2 years ago.

Finally, the same neighbors got Josephine, who I found in our woods last December, skinny and crying. I guess the neighbors left her when they moved.

Anyway, we are now fostering Lucy and her three kittens. Luckily, I have discovered a wonderful no kill shelter and will be working with them in future.

I should add that although Halsey and Molly think they're dogs (very friendly - hey someone's knocking - who could it be!), none of our other cats are really housepets. Chester has only let me pet him once for about six seconds. I love them as they are though, so finding them another home is no longer on the agenda.

Well, that would be a LOT of my cats! lol

Our first ever fosters came from the SPCA at a week old (there were 4 of them) They were also our first bottle babies. When they were about 2 weeks old they developed Coccidea which nearly killed two of them. We ended up keeping them all. Morris, Rocky, and Bubbles are still with us (at 7 years old) and Mr.Orange was "adopted" by our next door neighbor in our old neighborhood and is living a good life there.

Then there is Jack, who was born to a stray in my best friend's backyard. I took momma and litter of 6 in hopes of finding them good homes. I found homes for all but Jack. Everyone wanted Jack because he is very unique (Male dilute calico), but I just couldn't give him up.

Next we have London and Gregory. Someone found them in a construction zone, they were abou 2 1/2 weeks old. They had to remove them ASAP because they would have been killed. But the person who found them didn't know how to care for them, so I took them. And how couild I give up these babies I raised?? They are now a year and a half.

And lastly we have my last foster kittens. I had a total of 8, I have 5 of those 8. Yepp, we kept 5 foster kittens. They are not even kittens anymore, oldest is 7 months and the youngest are 5 months..Completely full grown, huge cats now lol. Monkey was born to Smokette who we found pregnant in an impound lot along with 3 other kittens. All 3 died before they reached a couple weeks old. Definitely some genetic issues there. Monkey is a HUGE healthy boy. Annabelle came from my friend's neighbor who just dumped her and her 5 other siblings out in the yard cause they didn't want to deal with them anymore.They were 4 weeks old. I found homes for all but Annabelle. And then there is Wolfy, who I fostered for a cat rescue along with another kitten, Molly, who were taken from our SPCA. Molly got adopted fast, but Wolfy didn't (She was shy). And then lastly is Rudiger and Margaret who are siblings and were also fostered through the rescue, but we completely bonded with those two sweeties!!

I am a mega foster failure. I haven;t fostered any yet that I didn't keep either all, or most.

All of your foster failures are so heartwarming.
When I found Easy and she started having her kittens, I immediately started thinking "How am I suppose to find homes for these kittens?".
I knew probably within 24 hours that I now permanently had a house full of cats.

This pic is sooooooooooooo sooooooooooo sweet

My only 2 failures (really) were Spanky and Oscar. Someone cleaned out their barn one day and dumped 3 kittens (different litters) on my doorstep. I took them to the Humane Society and told them I would foster them if they helped me find a home for them. Billie Holiday (the black girl) got adopted her first day. Suddenly, Oscar and Spanky got a little sniffle (right), and never made it back to the shelter on adoption days. In hindsight, I made the right decision, as we struggled with Oscar's health for about a year, and Spanky mothered him during that time.

Here they are shortly after I brought them inside while they were in quarantine. They all had a horrible case of coccidia.


Oscar was probably about 5 weeks old, Spanky 8 weeks, and Billie about 14 weeks old when they were dumped.

Originally Posted by laureen227

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Aww, she looks just like Squee!