New Family Members: Aoife and Mack

As some of you may or may not know, I have fur babies rather than children... and this last summer I decided to foster kittens for the first time.  After complete the screening and passing a test about how to care for these precious babies, I was contacted to say that there were four little kittens, about six weeks old and from the same litter, that were needing a foster home as they were at the shelter without a mother and it would be about four weeks until they were able to be fixed, vaccinated and then rehomed.   So, the next day I headed off with my cat carrier (I took two just in case, not knowing how tiny these guys were), and my naïve ideas about what it would be like with four kittens at home.  Let’s just say I was in for a busy summer. 

When I picked them up in early December it was already getting warm here in Ōhope and I never really thought through having to keep them inside for the duration, so it was a very hot summer!  So, I entered into the process of having small babies in the house.  It meant that friends couldn’t really come to stay over the summer break because it was just too hard.   I thought I might be able to keep them in a cat play cage but they hated that and pretty soon started climbing the walls and crying.  They hated being caged in, even if it meant I could open the doors, take them out in the sunshine and get better airflow through the house.  So, I gave up on that pretty quickly.  For the first week or so they stayed in my family bathroom, quite a large room, with everything they needed and lots of toys and things to keep them company.  They explored, hid, and generally did kitten stuff.  Super cute, fluffy little things, with no discernible gender at that stage and funny Christmas themed names made up by the team at the shelter.  I had my theories about one who was definitely a girl, a sweet little tabby with very particular bathroom habits.  And I had a theory about one that was definitely a boy, a little ginger that the shelter team called “spicy” because it had a habit of hissing at everything! 

Pretty much as soon as I got them, they started showing signs of cat flu, which was really sad.  Weepy eyes and sneezes, worse in a couple of them.  I contacted the shelter,

and they said I should make a vet appointment and get them seen.  So, we went on an adventure to the vet, all of them still in one cat carrier with plenty of spare space!  And we ended up with antibiotics and eye cream all round, which was fun because at that stage they were all still pretty hard to handle.  They hadn’t had much interaction with people, so didn’t know how great people could be and were highly suspicious.  Handling them as much as possible was the plan, and antibiotics and eye cream twice a day was a great way to increase interaction!   The only challenge apart from catching each one to dose them was remembering which ones I had done, and which were still to do!  The great thing about taking them to the vet was that she was able to tell me which gender they were.  And all my guesses were completely wrong… the little ginger was a female, and the other three all males!  And yes, apparently ginger females are pretty rare so she’s super special!

Of course, I also did fun play stuff with them as well and pretty quickly a couple of them became my best little buddies.  By this stage they had the run of the house and just went in the bathroom at night to sleep so I knew they couldn’t hurt themselves or do anything too crazy.  They loved curling up together in a blanket in the bathtub or sharing a little cat cave.  So many precious moments with these little guys!  They were growing up fast, and a couple of weeks in I started to despair that the less friendly two would ever come around to loving people… the spicy one was still spicy and there was another super fluffy one that was just too scared to interact at all!  But I kept playing, spending time with them and just letting them get to know me.  Eventually they all came around and the super scared one ended up being the biggest cuddle bug!

Interestingly two of them had a more adventurous nature, super curious and into everything! The other two were much more relaxed and happier to chill and just hang out.   All of them loved a cuddle and a snuggle, but two were definitely more active and keener to explore everything.  Laundry day meant lots of laundry inspectors and whenever I brought shopping home, we had a bunch of shopping inspectors!

I decided that I was going to keep one of the chill ones, who was also the teeny runt of the litter.  He was such a needy little guy, spending lots of time kneading and nuzzling anything soft he could get his paws on, including me! 

When the time came to take them back to the shelter, I was so sad, in five weeks these little guys had made me fall in love with them.  I told each one I loved them and had lots of cuddles, but the time came to put them back in the cat carrier, which was now a little fuller but still heaps of room for all three of them that were headed to the shelter.  (I had already completed the paperwork to adopt the little tabby boy who I named Mack).  The 20-minute drive to the shelter was full of tears and goodbyes, but the time I got there I was a red-faced mess!  Although I knew I was doing the right thing, I definitely couldn’t keep all four, it didn’t make saying goodbye any easier and it broke my heart to part with them.  I got back home to Mack and Rosie and Mack was wondering where his buddies were, but he adjusted pretty quickly, and I became the focus of all his attentions. 

After a few days of bonding, I realised he was going to be super needy!  I also wondered and worried about the other three at the shelter.  At the same time, I also did some research into adopting kittens and the recommendation seemed to be to get two.  I thought this through and after five days decided I needed to go back and get one more of my babies to bring home.  I contacted the shelter the next day and they said that the other two boys had been adopted just that morning.  I had asked for the fluffy cuddle-bug because he loved cuddles and seemed like the right fit for my chilled household.  However, it was really great to know that they had been adopted together.  That left little ginger spice at the shelter all alone, so I knew I had to go get her.  I made a time to pick her up the next morning, and a week to the day since I dropped them off, she was coming home again.  She instantly recognised me and came it for a cuddle and started purring!  On the way home in the car she just looked up at me the whole time, alone in the big cat carrier, and kneaded the bottom of the carrier and purred the whole time!  I didn’t need any more encouragement to know that I had done the right thing!  She made herself at home immediately, and after a speed bump of her brother hissing at her for a few hours (I figure she maybe smelt different), everything finally fell into place, and they became friends again.

I decided that my little ginger girl was going to be called Ryan, which suited her brilliantly.  But after a few days, I found myself calling her Elfie, the name that she had at the shelter.  Ryan just didn’t seem to stick, so I went back to the drawing board for a new name.  At this point I should confess that I have a list of cat baby names to choose from.  On that list was Aoife, a lovely Irish name that sounds a lot like Elfie, so I tried that on for size, and it stuck! People, including family, hassle my naming of Aoife saying it is too hard to say, and many people avoid pronouncing it, but she and her beautiful name bring me joy and reflect part of my heritage, so it is here to stay.

Aoife and Mack are now about seven months old, starting to come out of their gawky teenage phase, all long limbs!  Cattens now, rather than kittens, but still showing signs of being babies occasionally, making a few bad judgement calls!  At other times they’re all grown up and exploring the world!  I wonder at how big they will get, as they have already overtaken Rosie, who is around seven years old, and they still have some growing to do.  They bring me so much joy and many moments of laughter.

Rosie was disgusted at me having brought kittens home, and pretty much ignored them as much as possible for the whole time they were there, is still coming around to the fact that we are now a three-cat family.  She still tries to ignore them sometimes, she is annoyed that the kittens have usurped her place in my bed, and she gets angry with them occasionally, but we have increasingly more moments of peace in the house now, and I have faith that all will be well.