Fire Pit

Most of the year, I can only take growers who are eating solid foods.  But this summer I asked for some weaning bottle babies.  The Fire Pit came to me already named from their dedicated bottle baby foster.  She brought them to me during one of our Itsie Bitsie Rescue fundraising garage sales.  We were able to show customers why we were raising funds and had a really successful sale!  When they weren't starfish eating, they showed off their cuteness curled up in their pink pet bed.

Shortly after I got the babies, one by one, they started suckling on each other and had to be separated.  Separate plastic tubs worked for less than a week before they were escaping. Next we used plastic panels to make a grid.  They spent most of their time on the heating pad in the center before they began busting through it to see each other.  Luckily, in supervised visits they stopped suckling on each other and we were able to put them back together. 

These babies were instant celebrities in my world.  My kitten loving friends were thrilled to come see even tinier babies than I usually have.  I had lots of visitors the first few weeks.  Somehow I missed taking pictures from several groups- but the Fire Pit was very popular!

EVERYONE wanted to feed the babies!!

But no one loved the Fire Pit more than my mom.  She drove over every morning to help me bottle feed the babies.  When I'd load up the pictures in the online photo album, she'd call me to talk to me in detail about the cuteness of all the pictures.  She had a stomach bug for a few days and couldn't come- she would call them on speakerphone to ask them if they missed Grandma.  Of course they did- it's hard to resist unconditional love.  They did start to resist the bottle, insisting they were big boys and girls and ready for kitten food.  Grandma was happy to introduce them to Churu- the magical kitten treats.  

Mom couldn't get up my stairs, where the babies and I spent most of the day.  I spent a lot of time hauling the babies up and down the stairs in their transport bin for their morning meal and love fest.  

Loving them was incredibly easy, as they were incredibly adorable. Flame was always screaming at us, Ash was always belly up, Cinder purred if you looked at him, and Ember posed at every moment.  

Once they surpassed their eat-poop-sleep phase, they discovered their play until we get tired and pass out on mommy phase.  This was the best phase, though my least productive phase.  Luckily, this tendency to snuggle up has persisted into my grief phase, as my mom passed away very unexpectedly.  The Fire Pit has magnified the love my mom gave to them and shared it back with me.  

The Fire Pit is almost ready to find their forever homes, and I'm a little devasted.  My mom was my biggest supporter as a foster.  Several times I had sick kittens that needed extra love while I was at work, and my mom would take them.  She's the only person I knew would actually read my blog- and she would go back and reread it and talk to me about the kittens over and over.  She got notified whenever I'd add new pictures to my google photo albums and watched some of the videos 5x in a row so she could describe them to me in detail, as if I wasn't the one who filmed them! She loved all of my kittens but spent more time with the Fire Pit than almost any other litter.  The draw of the bottle baby ear wiggle combined with the geographic proximity of my new home gave me some precious last moments with my mom.  I can feel my mom's love in the Fire Pit every time they climb into my lap or arms- not that my mom ever tried to lick the inside of my nose the way the Fire Pit kittens do.  

My dad has moved in with us, and the Fire Pit kittens are also learning the love of dad.  Dad's love comes in delicious bite sized treats.  

As a foster, saying goodbye to my foster babies is so difficult.   Saying goodbye to these babies will feel like saying goodbye to a tiny bit of my mom.  But I'm hoping that their future families will reach out to me and keep me updated so I can see my mom's loving spirit grow and thrive.

9/18/23 UPDATE
Shortly after my last blog entry one of the other fosters asked if anyone had a really social, calm kitten as her friend was looking for a kitten that would want to go everywhere with her. I immediately thought of Ember and announced I could probably harness train her pretty easily.   Ember spent her first 20 seconds in a harness completely freaking out and doing an adorable spasm routine before I could snag her and calm her down enough to offer her a churu.  The first night, all we did was soothe her and feed her treats in the harness.  The next day we went on a walk to the mailbox and back.  Once the construction workers leave for the day, my street is pretty quiet, but she didn't react much to the little bit of traffic we did encounter.  So the next day we went out to Home Depot.  My baby Gizmo was completely offended when she saw me putting a harness on Ember.  The look of shock and betrayal on her face almost convinced me to abandon my quest... but my desire to get Ember a good home edged out my personal despair and I promised to take Gizmo out soon (I kept my promise the next day). 

Ember was an absolute champ in public in her harness.  She remained super calm, sometimes even falling asleep despite the noises.  We stopped to pick up a to-go order on our way home and she just relaxed with me on the sidewalk while we waited for our food. 

Due to scheduling issues, I had time to harness train her before the potential adopter came.  Meanwhile, another foster asked if anyone had super playful and social kittens that were cat and dog friendly.  Their recent kitten Oolong, now Leroy, was adopted by a young couple who were looking for a companion for Leroy. Again, I piped right up because the Fire Pit are just a great crew.  I passed along information and this new couple made arrangements to come the next day- even getting off of work a little early to make it within my available time.  The first potential adopter ended up cancelling their appointment and asking to come on the same day- so all 3 were supposed to come meet kittens the following day. 
Max and Sarah communicated with me regularly and arrived on time and I immediately felt comfortable with them.  They looked familiar, which we later decided was due to their frequent trips to Petsmart and my volunteer hours at the adoption center.  But these enthusiastic Disney fans and I had a lot in common and I had a great time introducing them to the kittens.  They fell in love with Ember but also liked Cinder.  Since Ember had a potential adopter, I told them I'd let them know after the first person came and decided whether they wanted Ember or not.  Shortly after they left, the first person let me know that more unexpected things came up and they wouldn't make it- so I immediately reached out and arranged to meet Max and Sarah at Petsmart- completely forgetting an evening Zoom appointment I had that night in my excitement in finding a home that just felt 100% perfect.  They were really sweet as I listened in and participated on my Zoom call while helping them fill out the adoption paperwork.  Luckily we'd had a great interview and discussion earlier that night.  

They began sending me pictures and videos right away so I could see Ember, now Layla, wrapping Max aruond her little paw and feeling at ease in her new home with her new dog sister Luna.  They were careful about Leroy, who would do well for 5-10 minutes before starting to growl.  They worried about their new kittens getting along and reached out to get tips on how to introduce them.  I asked for videos, whch I shared with my foster community and we all agreed they actually looked like they were doing well, but I offered to drop by and give them more specific advice in person.... totally NOT just because I wanted to see Layla again, but that was definitely a side benefit!!  They eagerly agreed and we made arrangements for me to drop by after taking the 3 siblings to Petsmart Saturday morning.  

But as I was pulling into Petsmart- I got a message from them asking if they could get Cinder too!! They couldn't stop thinking about him.  I quickly got permission from the adoption team lead and asked them how quickly they could get to Petsmart.  I was so thrilled!! After we finished the adoption, I followed them home and got to help them introduce Cinder, now Levi, to Leroy.... another really outgoing kitten who greeted me at the door!  Though they were a littler wary, the introductions went pretty smoothly and soon all 3 kittens were playing.  Leroy is particularly fascinated with Layla and semi-obsessed with making sure both of the newcomers had proper litter box protocol.  Leroy was also one of the most toy obsessed kittens I've ever met!! He played so hard he began panting but refused to stop until we purritoed him and rubbed his ears and head until he relaxed a bit.  They add pictures and videos to my google album every day and I am fairly certain Layla has claimed Max as her personal hoooman.  

I stalked the adoption system all day Saturday, hoping to see my other babies find homes and was a little crushed when adoptions closed for the day and they were still in the system.  I only hear from 25-30% of the families that adopt my kittens, and though I had written an extra heart-felt plea for the families to keep me at least a little updated on these kittens my mom came to see every day, I felt anxious with the unknown.  But that evening my nephew reached out to me, asking if he could adopt "one of the kittens that grandma helped foster".  I was in the middle of a d&d campaign when I got the message, and completely lost focus in the game in my excitement.  But I also couldn't pick one of the kittens for their house... and asked if they'd consider taking both of them if I sponsored the adoption fee.  Then I stared at my phone for the long pause while they probably had a discussion and my heart pounded in my chest.  But they said YES!!  So Flame, now Hanabi  (japanese for fireworks), and Ash, now Obsidian, are staying in the family with my nephew.  They met me at petsmart when it opened the next morning to take their new babies home- and they share pictures of their new babies with their puppy sister, Annabelle, the very first evening.  I found out later that Kyle had been considering a new kitten for almost a year... I'm glad no one told me or I might have foisted an earlier kitten upon him, not knowing that he was meant to take these 2.

All 4 kittens are in fantastic homes and both new households are dropping pics and videos in my google album.  I know my mom would be so happy and she would have called me every day to talk about the new pictures that keep appearing.  Mom could have talked for a full hour, easily, just about the 3 pictures of Hanabi and Obsidian in the chair with and without Annabelle.  If you never met her, you might think I'm exaggerating, but I'm really not.  My mom once met a man who adopted a kitten from my rescue, Turbo.  Turbo was found in a tail pipe, covered in grease and looked like a gray/black kitten but ended up being an orange floof.  The man who found him gave him to IBR to raise until he was ready for a forever home, then came back and adopted him.  I included a before/after picture of Turbo in the 2022 fundraising calendar I made and this guy bought 3 of them.  Mom happened to be volunteering with me the day he picked up his order and spoke to him for a few minutes.  She talked about him, retelling me this amazing story (I was standing right next to her the entire time she talked with the proud dad) in every conversation I had with her for the next week.  And every time he'd post and update on Turbo in the alumni group, my mom would tell me the story again, and then describe every single picture that was posted, in detail, even if I was looking at the same picture at the same time.  She talked to me about Turbo the week beore she passed- about 9 months after she met Turbo's dad.  This is a kitten we never met and a man she met in person for less than 10 minutes.  So I'm probably underestimating how long she could talk about 2 kittens she bottle-fed and wiped their bottoms every morning that are now adopted by her only human grandson.  Imagining the conversation in my head this morning made me giggle and cry. 
I could not have asked for a better outcome for the Fire Pit kittens.  They are all so loved and have all settled into their new homes really quickly.