Day 1

Arrived at the Humane Society office to pick up three kittens. All I know is that they are 5 weeks old and I have been asked to keep them until they are 8 weeks old and 2 lbs. At that age and weight they can be "fixed" and then go out for adoption. They are from a litter of 5, but I will only have three, which is good!

At the front gate, it's locked and I don't know if I push the night bell or if I just wait till someone walks by. Someone walks by and lets us in. I brought my kids with me, since I am partially doing this as a summer activity for them, they spend a lot of time in the house. I am hoping we will all learn something, about ourselves, each other, and kittens.

The foster coordinator has all the supplies ready for us, everything we will need, how wonderful. This includes a 4 x 4, completely enclosed cage. She has included toys and told me they seem to prefer fuzzy mice (just like our 10 year old cat at home)! The paper work gives us their names, age and weights. We have the "G" group, Gwen, Gigi and Gandolf. Great names! They are 430, 500, and 500 grams in weight respectively. All a grey-blue color, Gigi is the long hair kitty, but they are all fuzzy balls of fur, and completely quiet. No meows yet. I asked, but did not get any info on where they came from or why they were missing their mother. The paperwork says they were transferred from another shelter so they probably lost their mom and were found by someone and taken into the pound.

Our job is to help them gain weight and socialize them to a human household. They will be indoor kitties so they will get used to indoor sounds, with kids in the house, the TV and Wii going, they will get lots of sounds. We also will be introducing them to a dog eventually, but not right away. I have a feeling our cat will care less about them.

Setting up their cage at home was easy. It was fun getting their playground set up, food bowls, litter box, etc. I was amazed that from this very first day, they know to use the litter box. Sometimes they miss, but for the most part, they are very clean. I was also wondering and a little concerned about how noisy they would be, so far very, very quiet. Their meows are so soft and cute. I think we are going to have a lot of fun over the next 3 weeks...knock on wood!