The Animal Welfare League of Alexandria hopes to share a wide variety of viewpoints from all of our community through this blog, and today we are pleased to share a guest post written by one of our amazing foster caregivers.

Like so many, I adopted my first cat in college, and we were together for nearly 17 years.  Kira (a spoiled rotten tortoiseshell or “tortie”) accompanied me from my first off-campus apartment in Raleigh, NC, to Arlington, VA, then to Washington, DC, and finally to Alexandria.  She was with me through a series of roommates, a few boyfriends, and eventually moved with me and my husband into our first home.  The one constant, amidst all my life changes, was her refusal to abide any other animals in our home.  No kittens, no cats, and definitely no dogs!  For 17 years she was my best friend, but I have to admit I thought a few times, “My next pet is going to like other animals!  I will make sure of it!”

After Kira crossed the rainbow bridge in late 2014, we spent a few months chatting about our next pet.  We thought we would immediately adopt a dog, but after much back and forth about our schedules and my frequent travel for work, we agreed we were still “cat people” and a dog wasn’t in the cards quite yet.  But how to select a cat that wouldn’t rule the roost? Should we adopt two cats together?  We had so many questions and a desire to rescue as many cats as possible.  Luckily a friend worked at the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria and encouraged us to check out the shelter, and also mentioned the idea of fostering.  We were intrigued!

Fast forward a few months: In the spring of 2015 we brought home our first foster kitten – Peanut.  She was frightened and alone at less than six months old and needed a place to socialize and put on some weight.  A few weeks later, the AWLA suggested sending home another small single kitten, Boomy, to hang out with Peanut.   We weren’t certain what would happen but they hit it off famously and even “bonded” to the point that AWLA adopted them out together.   For a while we were not sure how we could give them back to the shelter, but they were our first fosters and we knew it was too soon to adopt.  So now I just think fondly about Peanut and Boomy, around four years old now, and how they are likely lounging somewhere in Alexandria in a sunbeam, giving each other a bath.

Back in 2015, my husband and I were complete foster novices – we really had no idea what we were doing. AWLA sends you home with everything you need in terms of supplies – litter, food, blankets, toys, carriers.  They also provide you with foster training, but each foster is different, so sometimes, we learned more as we fostered more.  For example, when we started, we just let the foster cats or kittens roam freely around our 4-bedroom house, but after a few adventurous fosters and at the advice of the AWLA, we always settle a new foster cat into my office, which is pretty “cat proof”, for at least a few weeks, and kittens are usually contained overnight inside a playpen inside the office.  We make them a nest of blankets or beds and they all pile onto each other for a snuggly warm night.  It is pretty adorable!   And the best part about fostering kittens is that right about the time AWLA wants them to come back for spaying and adoption is when they grow sharp little nails and start destroying things.  Time to find your forever home, you adorable little menace!

If you get into fostering, you will quickly learn the term “Foster Fail” – a pet that started as a foster, but you inevitably adopt (or they adopt you).   Here are the short stories of our two foster fails, and what made them so special. *

Luna was part of an animal neglect case investigated by the AWLA’s amazing Alexandria Animal Services officers. Seven cats were found abandoned in a trailer in their carriers without food and water, where they had presumably been for several days.  Luna was terrified of people and hid in a closet for weeks before finally venturing out to explore the bedroom and finally our house.  After several more weeks, she seemed to have rebounded well enough to return to AWLA for adoption.  But at the shelter she immediately reverted to hiding under her cat bed.  She was moved into a staff office where she promptly made her home under a desk and refused to interact with anyone.  I kept asking the staff for updates, hoping to hear she was adjusting or that someone else had taken her home to foster.  I knew how sweet and silly she would act in a home environment but that didn’t look like an option for Luna.  After three months of worrying about her constantly, we decided it was time to rescue her from self-imposed solitary confinement and give her a permanent home.  She has lived with us for three years now, and makes us smile every day with her silly, well-adjusted antics.

In early 2016, the AWLA contacted us about another potential foster, an “old guy” that had been surrendered by his owner.  Tony was 15 years old and seemed pretty depressed, but otherwise healthy.   He was a bit underweight, needed thyroid medication (which the AWLA provided as part of their foster supplies), and he stole our hearts almost immediately.  After a few weeks, I told my husband that I’d be happy if Tony lived out the rest of his days in our foster care; after all, who would adopt a sickly 15-year-old cat?  Truthfully, we didn’t want him to leave!  So one Saturday morning when the AWLA adoptions associate called and said “We have someone that wants to meet Tony,” I immediately responded “He’s already home!”  We adopted Tony that afternoon.

Tony will be 18 years old in February and currently weighs 14 pounds.  He sleeps a lot, loves to eat, and he has personally fostered several cats and kittens on his own!   He was especially fond of a little black kitten called “Bookworm” last summer, and this year he formed a very special bond with our recent long-term foster Dusty.  Dusty was a stray who was in terrible condition when he was brought to AWLA; his ears and paws were damaged from frostbite and his fur had to be shaved due to the serious matting.  He was underweight, had a limp from an old leg break that hadn’t healed properly, and he was completely terrified of people.  He hissed and hid for weeks, but Tony and Dusty became best buds almost immediately!  Tony gave Dusty a ton of badly-needed baths and taught him the critical importance of showing up promptly when the treat bag comes out.  As that friendship grew, Dusty learned to trust people as well, and to our pleasure and surprise, he was adopted a few weeks ago and is now learning to enjoy the life of a spoiled housecat in Alexandria.

This week we brought home foster cat #30: Mistletoe.  She is hiding in her bed on the bookshelf next to my bed as I type this, staring up at me, scared and unsure of her surroundings.  At the AWLA, she was too overwhelmed to even eat regularly, but yesterday we discovered she ate every bite of her wet food while we were sleeping, and she then enjoyed breakfast as soon as we put it down.  Pretty good progress already!   Depending on how she’s doing, maybe this holiday season, your family might be looking for a little Mistletoe?

*Note: The AWLA does not consider these or any foster adoptions to be “fails.”  How could it be a failure, when a pet and a person each get the opportunity to expand their family?