Foster and adoptive homes for cats and kittens desperately needed

WASHINGTON –  Inside a small laundry room in a home built in the 1800s lives a makeshift family of five kittens, including a tiny black one that is blind and a mama cat.

The living situation is temporary and the fate of all the animals remains unknown.

The little blind fellow is called Sweet William and he definitely lives up to his name.

He wrestles with his kitty siblings, crawls around the small laundry room and is very healthy in all ways except being unable to see.

Carol Lew is the foster volunteer currently caring for the kittens and the mama cat. All of them need permanent homes. Interested parties can call the Eleanor Sonsini Animal Shelter.

How the five kittens and mother cat got to be a family is quite a story. This is how it happened:

A volunteer at the Sonsini Shelter (located at 63 Downing Parkway in the Downing Industrial Park in Pittsfield), Mrs. Lew was on duty one afternoon recently when a phone call came in.

Three motherless kittens

The caller had found three motherless and abandoned kittens and was attempting to bottle feed them. They were about two weeks old at the time.

The caller brought the kittens into the shelter. Because they too small to be put on the adoption track and required bottle feeding, Mrs. Lew took them home with her.

It was not a decision she made lightly since she had just finished caring for three other kittens, all of whom had gotten adopted.

The laundry room, however, was not to remain empty for long. Mrs. Lew brought the  three motherless kittens home and the laundry room became their temporary home.

One of the little kittens had a severe eye infection from the time it spent abandoned and uncared for. Unfortunately, the kitten could not be saved.

Mother cat needed and found

Mrs. Lew continued to bottle feed the other two tiny creatures.

She knew they needed a mother cat to care for them. Amazingly, Mrs. Lew found out that a mother cat, with of her own three kittens, had been brought to the shelter. The babies were covered with fleas, she said.

She wondered if the mother cat would give milk to the bottle-fed kittens at her house. There was only one way to find out. Carol Lew brought the mother cat with the three additional kittens to her laundry room, where they met the other two kittens in residence.

“She took them on as if they were her own,” Mrs. Lew said of the mother cat. “Now they are one big happy family.”

The foster volunteer said she got to name all of the kittens and their mama. The hero mama cat, who Mrs. Lew calls a “saint” for feeding the stranger kittens, is now called Chrysanthemum.  Her three biological kittens are Azalia, Coral Bell and Huckleberry.

The two adoptees are Sweet William, the little blind fellow, and Ivy.

10,000 homeless cats in Berkshire County

All of the animals have different personalities and are quite delightful to observe.

“There are approximately 10,000 homeless cats in Berkshire County, “ Mrs. Lew said.

Both adoptive homes and foster homes are badly needed. People who, for whatever reasons, cannot or wish to not adopt animals might consider becoming foster volunteers. They would take in the animals on a very temporary basis, until permanent, adoptive homes are found.

Foster volunteers can help once a year or on a regular basis, Mrs. Lew said. The amount of time kittens or cats would stay in a foster home could run from a few weeks to a few months. Mrs. Lew has been a foster volunteer for eight years and has cared for literally hundreds of cats and kittens.

Lots of sagas and scenerios

“There are so many sagas and scenerios” involving the cats and kittens, she said.  “Some are sad, touching and so much work.”

The kittens in foster care are usually not ready for adoption. They may be too young to be fixed, which is one of the requirements for adoption.

If cats are not fixed, they can have up to three litters of kittens every year, adding to the problem of too many cats who often become abandoned, Mrs. Lew said.

Animals who come in to the shelter must also be immunized, dewormed and flea-treated before becoming adoption eligible. They must also be tested for feline leukemia and AIDS.

Kittens must be at least three months old before they can get rabies shots.

A lot of veterinary assistance is needed to get cats and kittens adoption eligible. Consequently, it costs $125 to adopt a kitten from the Sonsini Animal Shelter. It’s $100 for an adult cat. If a person adopts two adult cats, the cost remains only $100.

The fees are well worth it since the cats and kittens adopted from the shelter have had all the necessary immunizations and are already fixed.

Shelter needs people to help

“The shelter has room for 12 cats but has a heart for greater service,” Mrs. Lew said. Everything depends on people helping.

When a person calls the shelter to inquire about adopting a cat or kitten, they will be asked several questions, such as whether they have time to socialize the animals, if they have experience with kittens, if they have room to keep them and whether they already have pets in the home.

People who want to adopt a cat or kitten should call the Sonsini Animal Shelter.

Those who have a soft spot in their hearts for kittens or cats, but who are unable to adopt, could think about becoming foster volunteers.

When it comes to abandoned kittens and cats, every little bit of assistance, no matter how small, helps.

Posted by Susan M. Wicker Guerrero on October 4, 2012. Filed under Community News,News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry