Foster Cats of Denver - 2020

So, the thing that happened in 2020 was, there was a pandemic. And I thought, like every single other person in America, "I should get a pet to keep me company during the pandemic." I also decided to start fostering through Dumb Friends League instead of RMFR...DFL is literally 5 minutes from my house, RMFR is about 25. It's not that big a deal if you're going there once and adopting a cat, but I'm going there a lot, to pick up cats, take them to vet appointments, etc. It took a while for them to approve me to foster, partly because of the pandemic, but eventually I started fostering with them. 2020 ended, but the pandemic didn't. Here's my pandemic pets of 2020.

March 12- March 22, 2020: Louise

Louise was a sweet little thing who didn't stay with me long (adopted!) but I liked her. She was cute and cuddly. She liked to be by me while I was working from home, but I was trying to have a standing desk, so I found a way for her to still hang out close by. 

Those eyes, though!

Who doesn't love kitty snuggles?

Kitty in a drawer- the work-from-home solution!

Trust me, she could have gotten out if she wanted to. It's just a laundry basket.

July 19- August 8, 2020: Small Eyes (Earl Grey) (Nameless kitten)

Now that I was working from home, I decided I was ready to try fostering a kitten. I never wanted to before, because it would be alone in the house the whole day. I'm still not ready for a kitten kitten, so I got a 3-month old kitten, who could eat food and use a litterbox. And ermegerd, was this kitten cute. He arrived without a name, and the shelter said I could name him. I held a poll on facebook, with the following name choices, which were suggested by family and friends: 1.Mushroom 2.Toby 3.Small Eyes 4.Garth 5.Noodle 6.Simon 7.Thin Mint 8.Earl Grey 9.Tiger 10.Peter (Pan) 11.Spock 12.Frank or Frankie 13.Nermal 14.Seaweed 15.Pesto

Earl Grey won the facebook voting, but Small Eyes won my private voting, because Orion thought he should be named that after they got to meet each other on zoom. I will always commit voter fraud if it involves a four year old naming a kitten.

Small Eyes was so cute and so kitten-y.  I confined him to the hallway and bathroom, and eventually let him into my room as well, but I just thought he could get into way too much trouble out in the main room. He loved hiding under the footstool in the bathroom, and he was so adorable when he cuddled. Kitten claws are ridiculous, though. Why so sharp!? It was fun having a kitten, and I think I could do it again, maybe once a year, and only if I'm working from home. Taking him back was almost heartbreaking, he could sense he was leaving and he hid in the teeny gap between my mattress and headboard, in a last-ditch effort to stay with me.

Kitty calendar- July?

I can't even.

oh.my.god. 💚

 

His favorite hiding place.

He enjoyed watching Kimmy Schmidt...

But he did not like reading!

If you can't reach me, you can't make me leave...

Aug 28- Sept 8ish, 2020: Windsor and Sammie

Windsor and Sammie were a special fostering situation. Denver Dumb Friends League offers a program called Pet Assist which is a short-term fostering for people in crisis- if you've been evicted, hospitalized, etc, you can foster your cats for up to a month. So Windsor and Sammie came to stay with me while their person was getting things in order. I also have never two cats at once before, but it was great! They played together, kept each other company, and weren't any more work than having one.  

Windsor on the left, Sammie on the right

Sammie: So, you want to work? What are you gonna do about it??

Windsor: Your mom told you cats are scared of cucumbers? um...okay...

Sleepy friends

October 4-13: Hope

Hope was one of the best cats I fostered. She liked belly rubs and cuddles, but didn't cling to me, and stayed off the counters! She was only with me briefly, because she was getting treatment for a cold and got better quite quickly. I almost adopted her, but I just wasn't ready, and someone adopted her right away. 

Belly rub ready

Working from home goals achieved

The cat spilled everywhere.

Dec 13th, 2020- Jan 8th, 2021: Oreo

Oreo was a great roommate cat for me. He had all my favorite cat characteristics- he didn't bother me while I was eating, using the toilet, using my computer, or sleeping. He didn't wake me up in the morning yowling for food. He was tidy around the litterbox and food. He was pretty great. Oreo was extremely shy, and spent the entire first 10 hours with me in his crate. Then he spent the next 3 days hiding under a shelf. After that he slowly warmed up, and by the time he left, he was choosing to come sit next to me on the couch for a cuddle. He liked the laser pointer and he really liked dirty laundry- I'd frequently find dirty socks up on the couch with him. He was a good boy. He was with me for a little while, but someone saw his info on the website and adopted him!

He loved a good belly rub.

Look at those eyes!!

Cozy little kitty baby

His first favorite hiding place- under the shelf.

Just keeping an eye on things.

He's acting like he didn't bring those socks on the couch from my bedroom.

Foster Cats of Denver - 2018 & 2019

 When I got back to Denver, I started fostering through Rocky Mountain Feline Rescue. They're really easy to start fostering with. The bigger challenge was that I was living with my parents, who had always said no cats, and Brian was living there too, and he's allergic to cats. But I convinced everyone that I could keep a cat in the 2nd floor bedrooms & bathroom, and Brian lived in the basement, and never the twain should meet. I rigged up plywood doors, screens on the hallway railings, all kinds of things, and they let me get a foster cat. 

Aug 19, 2018- Oct 6, 2018: Pumpkin

Pumpkin was a nice cat. He was mellow, and cuddly. He discovered a cat-sized hole in the bathroom wall that led into the inner workings of the house- that was close call, but fortunately he came out on his own. Even Brian liked him, and would come upstairs to visit him now and then. He was a really pretty cat (I've always loved orange cats) and well-behaved. 

Taking a break from working hard.

I'm sorry, have you ever seen something so cute!?

Please, I'm just trying to get a little shut-eye here.

Pumpkin really liked sitting on towels, in particular.

May 18- July 14, 2019: Apollo

Apollo was my un-favorite cat. He reaaaaally liked being by humans, which meant he followed me everywhere, tried to eat my food when I was eating it, needed to sleep on my head...Then he started having litterbox issues. When I took him back to RMFR, they said a young man adopted him like the next day and Apollo was happy and relaxed there. I'm glad, we were just not a great fit. He was also pretty fat, 17 pounds, and the shelter wanted him to lose weight while he was with me, but he didn't. 

 

Not a little dude.

Awww!

He didn't like that I was such a pillow hog.

Oct 23- Nov 21, 2019: Houston/Astro 

The Rocky Mountain Feline Rescue gets lots of rescues from a Houson shelter. All these cats are named Houston, but then they have real names. This cat was named Astro, but I liked to call him Houston. He was lovely. He was a beautiful color (I think it's tortie? tortoiseshell?) and he had a nice personality. I was considering adopting him, when he got sick. I took him back to RMFR to get checked out by the vet, and unfortunately, he didn't live. So he wasn't with me for a real long time, but we enjoyed the time we had. 

He had good work-from-home behaviors!

Houston the lion!

Yea, here's a good spot to sit.

Here's lookin' at you lookin' at me, kid

Look at that pretty face.

We agreed that this was close enough while I'm cooking.

Foster Cats of St. Cloud

When I moved to Minnesota, I started fostering cats from the Tri-county Humane Society. In my first apartment, no pets were allowed at all. In my second apartment, I could have a cat, so I got several in a row!

October 31st-Dec 3rd, 2016: Emory the Kitten

My first foster cat in St. Cloud was Emory the Kitten. He was actually about a year old, and I kind of think the foster folks gave him to me in hopes I would adopt him, because he was super cute. 

Curious kitten- he loved exploring new places.

Catnap!

This was his best hiding spot ever. He had me panicked, I couldn't find him ANYWHERE.

Foster Cats I Have Known- Luna!

I thought it might be nice to do a little write-up of each cat I've fostered. At this point, I've fostered a lot, and I'm starting to forget a lot of them, so this way, I will be able to remember them! 

Luna!

 

I'll do posts that group them, but this first one was my first foster cat- Luna Lovegood! Luna belonged to my friends Lindsey and Brian and their kids, and when I lived in Tucson for grad school, they lived an hour or so south of me, in Patagonia, AZ. I fostered their cat when they went to teach abroad in China (I think? Might have been Korea that time), so I had Luna from November 2013 to the end of the school year in 2014. Lindsey and Brian and the kids returned and took her back.

Luna was a big fluffy cat who liked belly rubs and hiding out in her forts. (Yes, I made her forts.) I have to think she sprawled out belly up like this because it was SO DANG HOT in that apartment. It really was very hot in there. 

Waiting for a belly rub? Wishing she had less fur?

She was a big fan of the computer and printer.

She also enjoyed the bathtub.

Hiding under the covers

Here's a fort I made her, she loved this fort.

Birds of Cherry Creek

Snowy Egret getting his plumage up....

 

This morning I went for a birdwalk alond Cherry Creek, near where I live, by the Cherry Creek Country Club.  It was a pretty good morning for birding! To start you off, here's a video (embedded below) of two Snowy Egrets. I think it's worth watching the whole way through- first the Egret nabs some breakfast out of the creek, then gets fiesty with the other Egret. 

 

 

 

Besides the Egrets, there were plenty of little birds - doves, finches, a downy woodpecker, some hummingbirds, sparrows, flickers, and swallows, and plenty of mallards.  

One cool bird to spot was the Spotted Sandpiper. These birds are so little! Much smaller than I expected from the pictures in field guides. This guy was bopping along the sandy bank of the creek. The butt bobbles up and down as it walks. Adorable. 

I kept on farther down the creek than I usually do, and I discovered a secret, yet somehow well maintained and accessible, forest glen.  Okay, it's probably not secret since the city built a bridge to get to it, but there were definitely no people there and it was kind of magical. 

In the secret glen I saw a giant catfish in the water! Like, 2-foot! I was looking out for the Great Blue Heron that haunts the Creek, but I did not see it today. However, I did see a hawk cooling its butt in the creek! Yup, just sitting there in the water! 

I feel sure this is a Cooper's Hawk, but the eye color is throwing me off, because the pics in my app of a Cooper's have red eyes. But I think that might be an indication of the bird's age rather than species, so let's assume it's a younger Cooper's Hawk and not a Sharp-Shined, which looks almost the same but isn't expected to be seen around here right now. 

Just before this pic, the hawk was actually sitting in the water.

Let me know when you want to come birding with me!