Fyvie and Little Five

These two sweeties were among a litter of six kittens. Their mama was Alexi, a beautiful black medium-haired cat. We fostered the mom and kittens for five weeks and four of the six became very ill with upper respiratory infections. Nursing them back to health meant syringe-feeding them every three hours, administering IV fluids and antibiotics, and "tenting" them for steam treatments to help with the congestion. It was touch and go for these two especially; they were the sickest and had lost half of their body weight in a short period of time. While their brothers Bart, Alvie, Jimmer and George were growing quickly, these guys were behind and struggling. After a lot of dedication and hard work caring for these guys, they are now healthy and playful and fit right into our family.

As a foster, it is very difficult not to keep every kitten that we care for, but obviously we can't do that. We enjoy the experience of seeing the effect lots of love, attention and handling have on the kittens' personalities and how doing this makes them more adoptable. In this case, we did keep these guys but will continue to foster as the need is great. Kittens that are not handled and socialized regularly when they are young have less of a chance of turning into a lap cat.

Submit your own Happy Tail story and pictures.