kitchen … and kittens

by Alison Green on July 31, 2011

Several important updates that have nothing to do with career or management advice:

1.My kitchen is starting to look like a kitchen again!  A photo from Friday (day 5) is here. The counters go in Wednesday, and then I will have my sink back and can stop living on take-out. I cannot wait.

2. As of today, I’m fostering two kittens!  This is allowing me to indulge in my fantasy of becoming a crazy cat lady without actually having the additional long-term commitment.

Now, here’s a public service announcement: Shelters have a particular urgent need in the summer for both adopters and foster volunteers. If you like animals but can’t take on a long-term commitment, but you have space in your home and can care for a dog or cat for a few weeks to a few months, you should look into fostering! You can keep an animal from life in a cage, PLUS get to have an animal around on a temporary basis.

One of these kittens just took a nap on my neck. They are awesome. Call your local SPCA or animal rescue group, and do this with me!

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{ 22 comments }

{ 22 comments… read them below }

  1. Jessica*

    Man, I wish my apartment management let us have cats. I really miss having one around. :( You are so lucky that you get to have your own AND foster different ones throughout the year.

  2. Lynda*

    I think it looks beautiful – can’t wait to see the swirly grey countertops. What’s going in the little niches on the right? Tiny food? Single spice jars? Kittens?

  4. Satia*

    It is my hope, when I have a paying job, to suggest we start fostering pets. We have two wonderful Siberian Huskies and a huge back yard. I’m sure that our home would be a lovely place for any abandoned or homeless dog (who isn’t horribly terrified of larger dogs) to find love and healing. After all, that’s how we adopted one of our beautiful dogs.

    And being a bit of a commitment phobic person myself, foster parenting is ideal.

  5. Ang.*

    WHERE ARE THE PICTURES OF THE KITTENS? (Sorry to yell, but this is important.) I’m glad your kitchen is coming along and all, but I stopped caring about that once I read that you have new kittens. Seriously, get with it–I cannot imagine what you were thinking–and share some kitten cuteness!

    From a mom to four cats who probably is indeed a crazy cat lady but doesn’t care

      1. ImpassionedPlatypi*

        The lighter colored one is really pretty! If I had the space and if I thought my apartment management would allow it, I would totally foster animals. Though how successful I would be at giving them up to their adoptive pet parents I can’t really say… I got attached to our two cats really quick. If we had been fostering it probably would have only been a week or two before I just gave in and adopted them. And THAT is how I would become the crazy pet lady you aspire to be ;)

  6. Ang.*

    Thank you! So adorable. Watching kittens play together is life’s purest joy. So nice of you to help out. (I love it when they stretch out on their backs and show their bellies. Two of mine love to sleep that way; luckily for me, they both like belly rubs, too.) Enjoy your kitten time!

  7. Anonymous*

    It doesn’t look like they blend into the flooring as well as the earlier two cats. Can you dye them to create a matched set? :-)

  8. Karyn*

    I wish I could foster, but John and I already have six of them and can’t afford any more! :( They’re all rescues, though, and are happy and fat, living in the condo that they think they pay the rent for. :)

  9. Joe*

    Thank you for calling attention to the critical need for people to adopt these kittens.

    If you really care about helping our canine and feline population, look closely at how your locality spends money on animal “control”. In so many localities, funds that could be devoted to adoption efforts are instead senselessly devoted to employing “animal control” officers. These officers run around writing people up on “leash law” violations, people who have actually “talked the talk” and adopted animals while also investing in the training efforts necessary so that their adoptees could run free.

    In my county, the Animal Welfare League was innovative and foresighted in dealing with this issue. They lobbied to win a CONTRACT from the County to “enforce” the leash law. That took control away from the Police. The County Supervisors not only told the Police they would do better in more “important” areas of enforcement. The Supervisors also explicitly told Police “HANDS OFF” with respect to people exercising their dogs off-leash on ball fields and parkland. The most popular Supervisor reinforced this message, having his own pet Great Dane “send” a DVD to all “fellow pets and their parents” asking for their support in the election. If THAT doesn’t send a message to “back off”, I don’t know what would!

    Anyway, with funds from this contract, the AWL hires PAID help to boost the animal welfare efforts of the County. The key is to avoid enforcing the leash law, so that you don’t offend generous donors to the Animal Welfare League. Instead, you use the County funds to augment and supplement your donor base, so that you can waive all fees during the summer crunch when you have to make animal adoption as easy as possible. You still have the leash law if you need to ring up someone on a violation with their pit bull–while you check with ICE to see about their immigration status. But otherwise, the leash law is taken away from the ninnies and kept in control of people who actually take the time to understand the canine and feline population’s needs–namely finding good homes for each and every dog and cat in the jurisdiction. In my book, that’s model animal “protection” and “welfare”.

    1. ImpassionedPlatypi*

      “You still have the leash law if you need to ring up someone on a violation with their pit bull–while you check with ICE to see about their immigration status.”

      Well, THAT’S not racist at all…

  10. FrauTech*

    I just wanted to add that fostering cats is totally the gateway drug to becoming a crazy old cat lady. Unfortunately, some cats can become sort of unadoptable if they are too wild, or have too many health problems. Also, it tends to be much harder to find owners for cats than for dogs, though adopting out both has its problems. I commend you but be warned fosters can sometimes turn into permanent when no one wants them and you’re not willing to put them down after housing them for so long. That being said I find it completely commendable (and adorable).

    1. Ask a Manager* Post author

      Oh, I know! Apparently the pair I have has two families interested already, so I suspect this’ll just be a 2-week project (at least this time), but I totally see the risk of that. Especially with older cats, who are harder to place than kittens (which is heartbreaking).

  11. Kathy*

    I got into fostering after a layoff about 10 years ago. I started volunteering at a humane society and ended up fostering about 15 litters since then. I have had litters that were separated from their mom, that I had to bottle feed, which was amazing, they are SO little at that point, it’s almost scary.

    You need to be home a good portion of the day in order to foster kittens because socialization with people is critical at when they are young. I fostered over 100 kittens and only kept one – he came to me as a tiny thing, about 10 days old and had no littermates. I hand-raised him so he bonded to me like glue and vice versa. He’s going to be 10 in a couple of weeks and he’s a big one – 16 lbs. And I got him when he was no bigger than my index finger!

    It’s been over 3 years since I fostered so I have to get my kitten fix volunteering at a shelter. And it is so hard to get out of there every week without grabbing one to bring home.

  12. Anonymous*

    Thank you SO much for the shout out for shelter cats! Volunteering is a great way to get your cat (or dog, or rabbit…) fix, too, and it can even lead to a job. When I began looking for a new job, many of the friends I had made volunteering gave me advice and helped me network. In the end, I actually took a job with the shelter and love it so much more than my old job.

  13. Jennifer*

    The kitchen and kittens are beautiful! Thank you for providing such an important service. This has been a pretty bad year for cats. :(

    We have 8 cats of our own, so fostering is out of the question for me. I do help to spread the word, though, and I donate money, supplies, and food when I can.

  14. A Librarian*

    You think you won’t become a crazy cat lady but I started fostering a year ago and have already picked up an extra cat. Still fostering but now one step closer to becoming the crazy cat lady. (It is a wonderful experience. Have fun!)

  15. Jamie*

    Apropos of nothing – I’m just so excited I wanted to share.

    A beautiful cat, possibly the most friendly cat in the world, has adopted our workplace. She’s clearly a house pet which has lost her way (or was discarded) and a search of all the local registries, agencies, and craigslist turned up no one looking for her.

    Apparently her cuteness is terrifying to some people (?!), so my husband is on his way here now to pick her up and bring her to the vet to get her checked out. If she doesn’t have a chip and we can’t find her owner then we will adopt her.

    Hope our current kitties take to her without too much fussing.

    Perfect (purrrfect) timing, ha, as I scheduled to take a half day today and my husband is off so it’s unofficially (hopefully) adopt a kitty day.

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