In Foster Care: Huckleberry Finn

Meet Huckleberry Finn! This handsome little pup went out to foster care after coming down with kennel cough – though you wouldn’t know if from his alert stance and big smile! He’ll be in his foster’s care for a couple of weeks while he recovers. In the meantime, we have a quick update on his status for you below:

“He’s eating well, really nice temperament, and he’s pretty smart as far as training is concerned. He’s not very bitey either and is already quite the celebrity in our neighborhood.”

If you’re interested in fostering pups like Huckleberry Finn, consider joining our foster team! An application, and details, can be found on our website here.

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Available for Adoption: P.K.

P.K. (short for “Puffy Kitten”) is an absolutely melt-your-heart adorable and sweet-as-can-be affectionate little girl.  Don’t let her seemingly timid appearance trick you.

This tiny ball of fuzz is also a real ball of energy, and playing is definitely her all-time favorite thing to do.  She can hear the sound of a toy being taken out for playtime from the other end of the house!  (Her favorite toys are teaser wands, especially the Go Cat Teaser Cat Catcher Wand Cat Toy with the little toy mouse at the end.)

P.K.’s second favorite thing to do is definitely to eat delicious canned wet kitten food – she doesn’t really seem to care what flavor it is, as long as it’s canned.  She can also hear the sound of a can opening for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snack time (but don’t forget other kinds of tasty kitty treats, as she adores those, too!) from the other end of the house as well!

When she’s not playing hard or eating hard, P.K. is sleeping hard.  She doesn’t always like being held (usually because she is too busy wanting to run around exploring and having fun), but she really loves cuddling up in your lap or right next to you during naptime.

P.K.’s foster mom is incredibly sad to be saying goodbye to this wonderful baby, but she is very excited that P.K. will be going to a forever home soon!

Please adopt P.K. today!!

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Tips and Tricks for Feeding Foster Kittens

After three weeks of fostering Mack and Mango,

I’ve learned a few things worth sharing about feeding foster kittens:

Confining the chow hound under the laundry basket with her food at mealtime keeps her from eating the other kitten’s food too! If you want to feed two kittens individually and they won’t cooperate, put one kitten and it’s food under a laundry basket for meal time.  In our case this prevents Mango, the chow hound from eating all of her food and some of Mack’s too.

Kitten kibble ground in blender.  Sprinkle the ground kibble on wet food to introduce the kittens to dry food.

If A/D food has worked for you, here is a very close substitute. Same texture and similar ingredients

If your kitten has been started out on A/D prescription can food and you want a similar but nonprescription food, this baby cat food is remarkably similar to A/D in texture and ingredients. I bought this at Petco.  It’s kind of expensive but when Mack and Mango were not feeling well and were being picky eaters I was really glad to have it.  To offset some of the cost of the baby cat food, I found some inexpensive cat supplies shown below.

Inexpensive cat supplies ~ each item costs only a dollar at Dollartree.

Clay kitty litter, a kitten size kid’s hair brush, ping pong balls and a cat toy wand were all purchased for a dollar each at Dollartree.  Bargain!!

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Available for Adoption: Nugget & Pumpkin

There’s nothing like a fresh batch of foster photos to brighten your day! And that’s exactly what we have for you!

Nugget and Pumpkin are two adorable kittens who just returned to the shelter after a four week stint in foster care. Sent out for being a wee bit too young for adoption – they’re now back at the shelter waiting for their neuter surgery before hitting the adoption floor. Check in to our Adoption Gallery each afternoon to see if they’ve  made their official debut!

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Adopted! Sneak

Here at The Anti-Cruelty Society we’ve been busy – busy caring for the hoards of kittens entering our doors!

Many of these kittens are too young to go up for adoption, which is where our foster volunteers swoop in to the rescue. Snatching up underage, underweight and sick felines, they care for them until they’re old and healthy enough to find their forever homes.

Sneak is one such kitten that went out into foster care several weeks back. Read about how this unique lil’ guy has stolen his foster mom’s heart:

When I first brought him home, my resident cats were terrified of kittens. Within about three days he won both of them over, which was a huge shock to me (particularly in the case of my female cat who is very shy).

He’s very playful with both of the cats, but respectful of space when they don’t want to play. They nap together, clean each other, chase each other around.

I’ve fostered a few different kittens, and Sneak has a stand-out personality. He is sweet, curious, playful – and having been lovingly rough-housed a bit by my adult cats, has great manners. He also has adapted to using the Breeze litter box system with the pellets, which is so much easier to clean up after, though he started with the regular litter when I took him home.

A+++ kitten. I am going to hate bringing him back, and hope my resident cats don’t suffer the depression too!

If you’re interested in volunteering, adopting or even making a donation to support initiatives like our Foster Program, connect with us! You can find information about all our life-saving initiatives and ways you can get involved by visiting our website at http://www.anticruelty.org

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Eat, Sleep, Poop, Play; Repeat. ~~~ Plus, New Foster Gear.

Mack and Mango have settled in to a typical kitten routine of eat, sleep, poop, play; repeat.  Mack has become cuddly and learned that a warm lap is a pretty comfy place for a nap with Mango.  Mango’s preferred spot is still my shoulder and her favorite game when she’s up there is trying to “get” my eyelashes through my glasses.

Mack and Mango have great personalities and  should be available for adoption about the beginning of July.  Contact me or Lydia if you are tempted by these fur balls.

Now that we’ve had the kittens for a while, we decided to supplement our foster gear with two items that other foster homes might find useful also.  The first is a digital kitchen scale with an attachable bowl.  It was $15 on Amazon and is a good quality scale. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001AKVJ6I/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I like this scale because the kittens fit in the bowl and so are less likely to walk off of the scale than a scale with just a platform.  Both of the kittens have had diarrhea since I brought them home 2 weeks ago.  It’s been very comforting and reassuring to see that despite being sick they are in fact gaining weight.  Well worth the $15.

The second item is a pro-biotic paste which helps to restore the correct balance of flora in their guts and helped resolve their diarrhea. http://www.probioticsmart.com/psc/blog/when-to-use-probiotics-in-pets/

The paste must taste great to kittens because they go nuts when I give it to them.  And, it might actually work!  I did see improvement in their stools after a dose.  We purchased Bene-Bac brand, mentioned in the link above.

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Adopted! Lemon

Sweet lil’ Lemon is an adorable 3 month old Shepherd Mix puppy who was admitted into foster care due to kennel cough. After almost 3 weeks in the loving care of a foster home, she was nursed back to health and is now ready for adoption!

Here’s what Lemon’s foster mom had to say about this incredible pup!

Princess Lemon Foster really is the sweetest dog on the planet.

She loves carrots and frozen banana pieces. She wants to meet every dog she sees, although most of them had no interest in being pawed by a goofy puppy. Most dogs would just turn away from her and ignore her; one dog gave her a warning growl, which she heeded immediately and stopped acting the fool. So she does pick up on signals from other dogs if they are stern enough.

The only thing that she demonstrated any skittishness around was a street cleaning vehicle; otherwise she accepted new things with curiosity and interest, and recovered very quickly from being startled by things she had never seen before. It took about a half day to get her to go up and down stairs without a problem, but the promise of kibble made her forget all about being scared of them.

I love this dog. If I knew for sure she would be under 40 lbs fully grown, I would keep her. She learns quickly, is pretty mellow for a three month old puppy, is affectionate but not slavish, is great to sleep with, and is just so sweet and happy and interesting that anyone who adopts her is going to be very lucky to have her.

If you’re interested in meeting Lemon, or one of our many other incredible dogs, visit our adoption gallery here or swing down to our Adoption Center at 510 N. Lasalle. We’re open 12-7pm on weekdays and 12-5pm on weekends. We’d love to see you!

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Meet Mack and Mango

I’m not even a pound yet!

We picked up Mack (black male) and Mango (orange female) on Tuesday and they are with us to gain about a pound each so they can go back to the shelter, be S/N, and be adopted.

They were pretty vocal during the car ride on the way home from ACS but got quiet when I opened their carrier and let them walk around their new digs (our laundry room).  Mango acted nervous and hid but Mack was a bold explorer.

Both kitties have diarrhea so their feet and butts are dirty and so is the laundry room floor!  Who knew such small creatures could make such a big mess?  I checked in with the ACS Clinic today and got them some meds. so the diarrhea should be gone soon.  You would never know that they are sick though; they eat well, run around, and have an unending supply of energy.

Mango turns out to be a lover and not shy at all.  She just wants to be held and will fall asleep in your arms.  Mack takes longer to settle down and isn’t a snuggler.  He does eventually find a good spot on your lap and then goes to sleep.

Mango is at 14 oz and Mack is 15.5 oz — (I got an inexpensive digital kitchen scale today) so I hope to fatten them up by 3 or 4 oz in the coming week.    In future posts I’ll list their # so you can find them in the Adoption Gallery when they go back to the shelter.

Hasn’t quite mastered face washing yet!

 

 

 

 

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Kitten Season Begins!

Here at The Anti-Cruelty Society spring means that there’s two big things on our minds: Bark in the Park and the beginning of kitten season!

As temperatures heat up we will start to see an influx of teeny felines coming through our doors, many who are too young to go up for adoption. That’s where foster volunteers come in!

These dedicated volunteers open their homes to under-age kittens, caring for them until they are at least 2 months old and weigh in at two pounds or more. All of the kittens sent out into foster care have already received a physical examination, a first round of vaccines and are eating solid food. All kitten kibble and veterinary care is provided by the Society. All the foster volunteer needs to do is provide them with a warm, safe and loving space in which they can grow.

If you’ve considered joining our foster team – now is the time! We’ll get you trained and ready to go just as kitten numbers begin to increase. With the foster team’s help – we’ll be sending over thirty kittens a month out into their care. That’s why it’s the perfect time of year to get involved!

To become a part of this invaluable team, visit our Foster info page on our website, which includes an application for the program. You can also contact our foster manager with questions before applying at: foster@anticruelty.org

We hope to be hearing from you soon!

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Adopted! Max Update II

Max is a beautiful cat who has been out in foster care for several weeks and is currently available for adoption! Check out his foster volunteer’s latest update on this sweet hunk:

Max is enjoying sitting by the window, smelling the Chicago air and listening to the birds sing on nice days.  He has a bit of cabin fever, but is easily distracted with petting and playing with a menagerie of mouse toys and balls.  He’s learning to jump higher when we play with the cat dancer and gets a good workout from that toy.

If you’re interested in meeting and potentially adopting Max, send an email to: foster@anticruelty.org

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