Hi everyone, I'm Resie, a dutch girl who immigrated to Canada last year. I joined this forum because it has a subforum dedicated to feral/stray cats. Since I am a foster home for a rescue organization, starting to specialize in socializing shy/fearful/semisocial cats and kittens, I'd like to exchange experiences and tips with other people who do the same.
In 1998 I adopted Zefke, who left the nest too early at 4½ weeks of age. I know... His mother's humans wanted to get rid of this second unwanted nest of kittens as soon as possible so they could spay mom before anything else happened. I started reading books about cats and found out he could get behaviour problems because he didn't spend enough time with his mom, like not knowing when to subtract his claws. I decided that in order to raise him, I needed to act like a cat. I don't know if this is the reason why Zefke grew up nicely and never had any behavioural problems, except with an ex-boyfriend whom he hated. And I think that one was mutual. Fortunately Zefke loves my husband!
In early 2011 Zefke and I went on the adventure of a lifetime when we got on a plane together and flew to Canada to live with my then-fiancé (now husband) and his cat Quantum. Zefke was very calm and collected during the entire process and my respect for him grew even more.
In late 2007 my now-husband Rob had his previous relationship fail with his ex moving out and taking their cat with her. His friends felt sorry for him, and for his birthday in early 2008 they took him to the humane society to meet Junebug, whom they preselected for him. He adopted her and his friends insisted on calling her Quantum. A few weeks after her adoption, Quantum got very sick. My now-husband and I were chatting on msn back then (still as friends) and when Quantum got lethargic, I urged him to take her to the vet immediately! This probably saved her life, because she had bad renal failure and crawled through the eye of a needle. A few hours later and she would have been too far gone. Quantum made it and is in perfect health now. We often joke that I saved her life without even having met her yet. Little did we know that Rob and I would end up dating and getting married, resulting in me moving in with 'the cat I saved without even having met her'! Unfortunately Quantum was declawed by her previous owners. We feel sorry for her, but we can't give her back a ligament that's lost. I wish we could.
Phoebe (previously called Kloey) is one of the kittens we fostered in the second half of 2011. She had health problems and was extremely dependant. She wasn't even housebroken because she had horrible diarrhoea. I nursed her back to health, but couldn't bring myself to let her go after that. So she stayed. She is an extremely affectionate and mischievous little thing who likes to steal hair elastics.
In The Netherlands I fostered cats and kittens in the early 2000s, until my job got too demanding and I quit fostering. Mimí, Pien, Broer, Zus, Oscar, Glitter, Gayle, Joep, Marvin, Lola and Dopey have all found good home.
Once immigrated to Canada, I started volunteering and fostering for a cat rescue again in the second half of 2011. Candy, Cadbury, Crackers, Kelby, Kloey (a.k.a. our Phoebe), Hugo, Nadine, Nikita and Onyx have all found good homes. We are currently the proud foster parents of Kesha, Qadirah (see avatar), Reba and Ruby.
Kesha used to be semisocial, but after a few months of living with us is a lap cat now. She is 11 months old.
Qadirah is 3 years old and does not want to be touched by humans. But she seems to make some exceptions for us, which is why we took her in as a foster cat. Who knows what we can accomplish together?
Ruby and Reba, a.k.a. "the hide-y sisters" used to hide (hence the nickname) in a drawer constantly in their old foster home. Reba came to live with us a few weeks ago. Whe have been working with her intensively and she is coming around nicely. Ruby just came in yesterday and has the same road ahead of her.
Anyways, that was my longish introduction. I hope to hang out here often and to exchange experiences, especially on socializing cats and kittens!
In 1998 I adopted Zefke, who left the nest too early at 4½ weeks of age. I know... His mother's humans wanted to get rid of this second unwanted nest of kittens as soon as possible so they could spay mom before anything else happened. I started reading books about cats and found out he could get behaviour problems because he didn't spend enough time with his mom, like not knowing when to subtract his claws. I decided that in order to raise him, I needed to act like a cat. I don't know if this is the reason why Zefke grew up nicely and never had any behavioural problems, except with an ex-boyfriend whom he hated. And I think that one was mutual. Fortunately Zefke loves my husband!
In early 2011 Zefke and I went on the adventure of a lifetime when we got on a plane together and flew to Canada to live with my then-fiancé (now husband) and his cat Quantum. Zefke was very calm and collected during the entire process and my respect for him grew even more.
In late 2007 my now-husband Rob had his previous relationship fail with his ex moving out and taking their cat with her. His friends felt sorry for him, and for his birthday in early 2008 they took him to the humane society to meet Junebug, whom they preselected for him. He adopted her and his friends insisted on calling her Quantum. A few weeks after her adoption, Quantum got very sick. My now-husband and I were chatting on msn back then (still as friends) and when Quantum got lethargic, I urged him to take her to the vet immediately! This probably saved her life, because she had bad renal failure and crawled through the eye of a needle. A few hours later and she would have been too far gone. Quantum made it and is in perfect health now. We often joke that I saved her life without even having met her yet. Little did we know that Rob and I would end up dating and getting married, resulting in me moving in with 'the cat I saved without even having met her'! Unfortunately Quantum was declawed by her previous owners. We feel sorry for her, but we can't give her back a ligament that's lost. I wish we could.
Phoebe (previously called Kloey) is one of the kittens we fostered in the second half of 2011. She had health problems and was extremely dependant. She wasn't even housebroken because she had horrible diarrhoea. I nursed her back to health, but couldn't bring myself to let her go after that. So she stayed. She is an extremely affectionate and mischievous little thing who likes to steal hair elastics.
In The Netherlands I fostered cats and kittens in the early 2000s, until my job got too demanding and I quit fostering. Mimí, Pien, Broer, Zus, Oscar, Glitter, Gayle, Joep, Marvin, Lola and Dopey have all found good home.
Once immigrated to Canada, I started volunteering and fostering for a cat rescue again in the second half of 2011. Candy, Cadbury, Crackers, Kelby, Kloey (a.k.a. our Phoebe), Hugo, Nadine, Nikita and Onyx have all found good homes. We are currently the proud foster parents of Kesha, Qadirah (see avatar), Reba and Ruby.
Kesha used to be semisocial, but after a few months of living with us is a lap cat now. She is 11 months old.
Qadirah is 3 years old and does not want to be touched by humans. But she seems to make some exceptions for us, which is why we took her in as a foster cat. Who knows what we can accomplish together?
Ruby and Reba, a.k.a. "the hide-y sisters" used to hide (hence the nickname) in a drawer constantly in their old foster home. Reba came to live with us a few weeks ago. Whe have been working with her intensively and she is coming around nicely. Ruby just came in yesterday and has the same road ahead of her.
Anyways, that was my longish introduction. I hope to hang out here often and to exchange experiences, especially on socializing cats and kittens!
