Alice

I always love when friends or family members adopt one of my foster animals. One of the hardest parts of fostering is letting that animal go, not knowing where or who they’ll end up with—so this nips that problem right in the bud. Although sometimes you might take on the ‘protective former mother’ mode or get upset if they don’t remember you (“I nursed you back to health! Let me hold you!” ), it is always nice to see them happy and content with their new family.

Alice was a kitten in a litter of five that I fostered almost two years ago. It started off like your normal litter, just fatten ‘em and love ‘em. I kept thinking, “Woo hoo! I got an easy batch!” I named them after the Twilight vampire clan: Alice, Jasper, Emmett, Rosalie, and Mouse. Well, Mouse wasn’t really a vampire character, but she was just so cute and tiny that she looked like a mouse.



My friend came by to visit and just fell in love with Mouse. It was hard not to, since was the runt and had this cute alien-esque quality to her. She said she wanted her immediately, once she was big enough to be adopted.

Shortly thereafter, the whole litter came down with an Upper Respiratory Infections, which is basically the kitty version of the colds that you and I occasionally get. However, since these kittens were so young, they got hit really hard. They stopped eating, had gunky noses and had difficult time breathing. I would come home from work and play doctor: force feeding, fluids, medication, STAT! One morning I woke up and went to check on everyone. I found Mouse lying off to the side. I had lost her during the night — her frail little body just couldn’t overcome the severe URI that it was battling. I was sad for her, for me and for my friend that had picked her out as the kitten that she wanted.

After we talked for a bit, my friend asked me to pick out another kitten for her from the litter: the one with the best personality. I had always liked Alice; she was a little spunky and had very pretty muted calico markings.




The day finally came when all the kittens recovered and Alice was ready for her new home. She made the long, long car ride down to Santa Barbara (with a few ‘accidents’ due to confusion). She grew up to be a lovely and good looking cat and has moved back here to Sacramento. She doesn’t remember me of course, but I make it a point to remind her.
Here are some pictures of Alice today, with her new sister Dinah—also a foster care graduate!!