Friday, November 30, 2007

No Voucher for ME?

My first litter came from the EAST Valley Animal shelter. I ended up adopting two of them, the other two I surrendered for adoption. I heard that I didn't need to have the shelter ship the cats off to be spayed / neutered. I could get a voucher so I could choose a vet near my home. Both of the shelters I foster for are at least a 30 minute drive and that's without traffic which is NEVER the case in Los Angeles. Long story short, the shelter had been busy that day and when they took my kittens back to be micro chipped for adoption, they didn't actually install the microchips. They assigned two but didn't implant them. I found this out in a phone message once I got home. I was in no hurry to drive back out there, and since all subsequent litters have come from the WEST Valley shelter, I've never had the need to even be in the area. As luck, or rather, my stupid brain, would have it, I lost the adoption papers AND my vouchers which were worth $70.00 each towards my kittens' neutering.

I finally got fed up with myself and decided I needed to get my kitteens fixed before leaving for Colorado later in the week so I put them in the carrier and drove them out. Long story short, they got chipped BUT they wouldn't give me new vouchers because surprise, I don't qualify as I don't live in the city! Funny I was perfectly qualified to take care of these kittens but I'm not entitled to free spaying and neutering if I adopt? That is the policy for foster parents. That is the ONE perk we get.

This felt like such a slap in the face. I explained that I had already been given vouchers and the guy said "That must have been a mistake". I got angry and said "With all that we foster parents spend on these kittens you can't pony up a voucher?"
"I don't make the rules Ma'am."

The lady at the other counter was surprised and said "Oh TRY to find those vouchers in your house!" I said "That's not the point. The point is that if I don't qualify for the benefits of other foster parents in the city, this shelter should never have contacted me to ask me to foster, OR I should have been told by somebody." When I got my training and they did a background check, they saw that I didn't live in L.A. nobody told me that I needed to go sign up with the county shelters!

I spent 380.00 on emergency vet care for Cookie when he had his hypoglycemic event and almost died. Without that care he would have died. I know this was not required I know I won't be reimbursed. I CHOSE to do it. I CHOOSE to feed them decent food which I pay for, I CHOOSE to sometimes cook for them. I've chosen to go on TV to promote the foster care program. I don't ask for recognition for any of this but to be denied the smallest form of gratitude the program has to offer really knocked the wind out of me. I'd be thinking of throwing in the towel were it not for returning home and having my five little foster babies purring and mewing at me.

It's for THEM that I'm doing this. F bureaucracy!

A week or so later, I contacted the head of the foster program who told me that this had indeed been a mistake. That really was my main concern but I got my vouchers too which is great! She was super nice and it was great just talking with her on the phone. My cats weren't quite as enthusiastic.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Good Outcomes

I think my little Brian has a new home. I put his bow on him and made him smell good. No sooner had we parked at the shelter when a lady who had parked next to us asked to see what I had in the carrier. We got inside, she held him, he purred. I told her about him and before I could say "I think he'd like to be an only child". she said "I have no other pets or children." She wanted to see the other cats available but asked the people at the desk to not put Brian away. They told me that even if she didn't take him, he'd go very fast. Instead of leaving the shelter upset, I was very happy. I have since looked his ID up and it's not appearing. That tells me he's been adopted. I hope he's adjusting well and is very happy. My passenger seat is covered in little white hairs; kittens shed a lot when they're nervous. I hate to clean them up, they're like little momentos. So weird to think I'll never see my little emo kitty again but I'm very glad I got to know him.

Friday, November 23, 2007

I Like Boys!



First off, Brian is still with me. Life got in the way of me taking him to the shelter on Saturday. I decided to wait until this weekend to take him in so that he can have a full Saturday and Sunday when the most pet shoppers come to the shelter. Getting him in late on Sunday and having him possibly wait all week for the right new parent to come on the weekend, seems pointless although I realize he could be there for weeks. I'm hoping he gets picked within 24 hours like 3 out of 4 of mine have.


I got some ribbon that's about the color of his "points" so I can sew him a bow to make him all the more appealing. It's packaging! I want my kittens to get out of the shelters ASAP!


This will be the first time I've surrendered a kitten that I got very attached to. I will miss my grumpy, crybaby, Brian, terribly. The girls that have been adopted seemed quite confident and ready to go get a new home and a new life. Brian is still very much my baby. But he's a boy; they seem much more like babies than the girls do. My neighbor summed it up in a way that completely makes sense to me. She said, "Females are designed to become mothers, but the males are free to remain babies forever." This seems true of other species as well. It might explain why I'm definitely more partial towards the male kittens. It's human nature, we want to be needed and the boys just seem to need us more. I've been saying that I always seem to like the male kittens best until my third litter where the girl, Lucy, is my little darling.


After taking Cookie to the ER for a near death experience with hypoglycemia and finding out tht she was a he, I've learned not to take the shelter's paperwork too seriously. I usually match the collar with the papers to see which kittens are male and female and then I take the markings or some other physical feature as my means for identifying them by the names I or my son give them. I don't generally greet them by looking at their butts, so I never did my own examinations. With this new discovery about Captain I decided to take another look at my other charges starting with my darling little girl, Lucy.


The tiniest of the litter, so dainty...


Look at that sweet little mouth,


with her tiny squeak of a meow,


So lady like,


those darling little paws,


pretty little eyes...


those adorable little testicles...



WHAT?

Yes indeed! Lucy has nuts! Rather appropriate for the holidays don't you think?

Well let's take a look at Fred, Oh dear, he's a girl. Their brother Ricky, who passed away, I know was a boy because I had to clean his bottom so many times as he was always sickly.

Now we need some name changes and here's where my psyche just can't cut it. My brain functions much like that of a ninety year old. Like a squeaky, slow tricycle on a circular train track, it slowly goes round and round and it's very difficult to get it to change course. I can accept that Lucy is a boy I just can't stop calling him Lucy. Fred will become Frederique, and I can still call her Freddy. But Lucy? My sister suggested "Lucifer" but black cats have enough trouble getting adopted, let's not really put the evil on Lucy. I've decided to call him Louie, after my friend, Louie who passed away in March. I MAY be able to get this to stick in my head. There again, my favorite is a boy.

So there you have it; even though I'm surrounded by rumours of Brady lesbianism and I'm knee deep in pussy; I still prefer boys.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Kittens Ate My Blog

Hello. I'm having a less than rewarding experience with blogger templates and such so bear with me as the type and images may go funky from time to time. I did something perfectly wonderful in Pimp my Profile (really, it's great!) but it won't translate to HTML here.

Enough whining. This is my attempt to get that litterbox smell out of my MYSPACE. I am a foster mother for kittens, I volunteer for the shelters. I found my regular blog was being consumed by stories about my foster kittens. Knowing that not everybody is a crazy cat lady like me, I decided to separate the kitten talk from my regular blog where I scrawl the ramblings of a mildly insane person.
I would hope that this may become a place where information can be shared. I am not a cat expert. I don't even play one on TV (but I'd like to). I'm just a person who is gaining a lot of experience in raising kittens and would like to share what I've learned. Most of all I'd like to learn from others.

So Hello, I must go now and get a kitten back to the pound. He is ready to go, I've taken care of hium since he was four weeks old, both of his sisters were bigger and have already been adopted. I will miss this little guy probably more than I realize right now. But that's how it goes. I knew this job was dangerous when I took it.

-Fluff