My gosh, we’ve had a busy few weeks, but it’s almost over. Okay, I lied. The school-busy part of things is almost over, though. The girls are finishing up as we speak. One more half-day and we can call this school year a wrap! I must say, I’m looking forward to summer, even though it means Miss D. learns how to *gulp* drive a car.
Those of you who follow me on Facebook also know that we fostered our very first homeless kitty last week, which was an impulsive and sort of foolish decision. What kind of nutjob decides to make her maiden voyage into the sea of animal fostering when life is 7 kinds of batshit crazy? Me, that’s who.
To be honest, it didn’t go very well. It wasn’t an outright disaster, but there were some sticky moments. It certainly was not the fault of this guy, though.
On FB I referred to him as “the George Clooney of fosters,” and it honestly was true. He was truly a charmer of a kitty–curious and cuddly and quick to purr and butt his silky head against your hands, begging for love. I was afraid that he’d be spooky and skittish, since he was surrendered in Gallup, NM and I had no idea what he’d been through. Nope, not Godzilla-boy. He’s a badass, resilient guy.
The problem was this guy.
And this girl.
They reacted very differently to the interloper, but both reactions were stressful for our foster kitty. Mozz-man wanted to play. He was extremely curious about Zilla and couldn’t help himself from barking and barking and wanting to get right up in his business. Godzilla wasn’t having it. Even when I tried to do everything right (eg: isolating Godzilla at first, getting all of the animals used to each others’ scents, making sure Mozzy was on a leash for initial interactions) things still kind of backfired.
Godzilla’s presence also triggered a jealous streak in Mozzy McGreedySome. That dog was unrelentingly demanding in his need for constant affection and even resorted to sleeping either ON my butt or wrapped around my neck like a whiny, fluffy scarf.
I thought Aria, the world’s laziest cat, would be okay with him, since 3 years ago she adjusted easily to a frigging puppy, for Heaven’s sake, but she was a fluffed-up, hissing mess. Even after we took the testicles away from His Sleekness (and I did wonder if that was the issue), Aria hated his guts.
Didn’t my resident animals understand that I’m trying to do a good thing here? That I’m really needing to make the world a better place in these trying times? No. They didn’t.
In truth, we were all kind of miserable this first time around, and even though Godzilla is now safely at a PetSmart awaiting adoption, I’m not sure I’ll be able to do it again. I need some time to think it over.
However, there’s a silver lining to this little tale of woe. Even if I don’t end up fostering any more kitties, I did discover that I really kind of enjoyed writing interesting/amusing biographies for our little lost, furry brethren. That’s definitely something I’m willing to continue doing and if it will generate more notice for the animals, I’m all for it.
I won’t be able to do much of anything for a few weeks, because once June begins, we pack our bags and our passports. Miss D. is headed to Costa Rica with a group from her school, Miss M. is taking a road trip to the in-laws, and my husband and I (and Awesome Stepkid Ro–who is so not a kid anymore) are headed to Europe. I’m really excited!
We’re starting in London, then driving our way through the Irish countryside (woo-hoo! I cannot wait to pick up swag from Dingle, Ireland!), and then finishing things off in Madrid.
Ireland and England will be a little bittersweet, because I visited those places in the past with my parents, so memories of Mama will most certainly bubble to the surface.
^In Ireland. I’m 16 in the 80’s here, so no judgey the pink raincoat and hair ribbon.
I’m hoping that the promise of making new memories will cancel out any unhappiness. Well, most of it anyways. I know for a fact that I’ll come back with some good stories for all of you, though! Hopefully nothing involving explosions.
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Aw, writing fun biographies for kittens needing forever homes sounds like a fun idea!
I’m so envious of your travel plans–we want to go somewhere, but we haven’t figured out where that place is yet or when we’d go. I’m curious to hear how you find Madrid–I know there are some cool places and restaurants (and I really, really want to see Guernica in the flesh) but to date all of my time there has been spent in the admittedly quite beautiful airport.