written by REBECCA DIAMOND. October 4th, 2020
The moment my office, along with the rest of the world, was sent home indefinitely, I knew that I wanted to try fostering an animal. What better way to spend all of this time indoors than to save a life and be around something cute, tiny, and snuggly all day long?
After doing some research, I reached out to multiple organizations and filled out applications, hoping that I’d hear from someone soon with good news. After only a few days, I got a call from an organization called Stray Cat Alliance asking if I knew how to feed bottle babies (newborn kittens who nurse from bottles) and thus began the biggest blessing that’s come out of these past insanely bizarre seven months!
My first fosters were two siblings, one girl and one boy, and they were only five days old. To say I was nervous would be an understatement. Charlie and Frankie were the tiniest breathing, live things I’ve ever laid my eyes on. Smaller than an Apple TV remote. Their eyes were still closed shut and ear canals hadn’t formed. It was my responsibility to keep them alive no matter what. They had to be fed and expressed (that’s right, I had to help them go potty) every two hours round the clock. I didn’t get a good night’s sleep for days. But when I tell you that it was more than worth the long nights and bags under my eyes, I mean it. Those two nuggets broughts so much joy into my life during a time where there was little to none. They saved me just as much as I saved them, and watching them go from these tiny little beings to spunky, playful kittens was the most thrilling and rewarding experience of my life!
I’m not going to lie… It was the hardest thing ever letting them go when it was time for them to be adopted. I cried for days (and nights) thinking about them leaving. I felt like I had practically birthed them. They were my children. But knowing I made a family complete by giving them their new animals is such a special feeling, and if I kept every foster, I wouldn’t be able to foster other animals.
Once they were gone, I just knew I had to do it again. So, only a few weeks after they were adopted, I agreed to take on two more siblings, Milo and Olive. Another fun thing about fostering is that you get to be in charge of what they’re named. My friends and family have so much fun coming up with their names and nicknames.
After Milo and Olive were adopted, I took a few months to myself and didn’t foster any animals. That all changed this past Sunday when I got a call to foster a one-week old little orange bubba (name and gender TBD). I know that these next few weeks are going to be hard, but I am so excited to take on this challenge and give this baby my all.
You are saving lives when you choose to foster animals. If you are in a position to do so, I highly recommend and encourage you to look into fostering during this time. Some organizations I recommend looking into are:
Cats:
Dogs:
whats-the-dish.com 