Kitten Season

1. Kitten Season is a thing.
2. Shelters are typically overflowing with litters.
3. Foster homes and donations in forms of money and/or kitty formula are more in demand than ever.
4. Take a litter at your house, the medication and food and vet followups will be provided by the shelter. Just take a litter in.

And:

5.Never trust a feral mom even though she has spent two weeks with you and is accepting treats and no longer hissing/biting/scratching your way.
6.Acknowledge that syringe-feeding 8 kitties of 2 weeks old is a handful and contact your shelter to get the help of another foster.
7.Especially during periods of high stress (let's say exams and projects) and when you know it will be the case for most of the time (because kitty care is a 2-hours interval care throughout the day)

Also:

8. Don't let the emotional strain and the "caring-for-kitties" syndrome get the best of you. Cry, but cry while sterilizing syringes and making sure the medication is available and cc-correct for the next time, and while studying as well, because somehow that was the first goal when coming here.
9. Don't waste eye serum. It squirts and is precious, so take great care understanding how the syringe works and ask the foster coordinator to show you.
10. Diarrhea phase is normal. NORMAL. Stop worrying. S-t-o-p c-r-y-i-n-g.
11. Don't take kitty cold too lightly.
12. Don't take kitty cold too heartedly . You can stop crying now.
13. Keep up with the eye and nose cleaning. As much as possible.
14. If kitty cold is too hard on kitty and you, fill the bathtub of hot water while keeping the bathroom closed and sit on your toilets with kitty on your lab pondering the innate sufferance that comes with life, the guilt over losing the mother, the purity of such small life beings that don't deserve to come to such a harsh world, the degree of insanity people must have to bring a child to this world let alone care for it. Loop until kitty sleeps soundly and his inhales are easy on his little lungs. Again, stop crying.
15. Not all of them will bury their pee and poop. Therefore, clean regularly and try to teach them to turn back and smell and bury, whenever possible.
16. Not all of them will go the distance all the way through in being independent without accident. Just wash the pee out of your hair and pillow without making it a problem.
17. Not all of them will wean easily. Don't give in the desire of young Eshelby to suckle, and let him figure out chewing through wet food.
18. It doesn't mean the kitty will understand. Stop crying and buy naked chicken wings. Give him some chicken and watch him unravel the marvel that is chewing.
19. Track their weight and stop freaking out if they lose 2 grams.
20. Trick them with treats during bath time so that they come to be indifferent to water (works 3/4 times and the 1/4 is not too much of a handful).

Finally:

21.Look forward to the final step that is dry food and reaching 1kg of weight so they can be neutered, in optimal health and up for adoption.
22. Constantly miss them while out of town and gradually become annoyed with them when they don't let you type a word if you are around.
23. Again, don't give in the little Eshelby's pleas: no more syringe-feeding and milk for him. Either he laps from the bowl or stays hungry until he gives into option 1.
24. Stop crying.
25. Remember that it is all for the sake of bringing up healthy kittens that can be easily adopted and will hopefully find a forever home.
26. Leave it until you are done with these four to decide whether you will never ever do this again.

But then, I lost their mother. That was my fault. Maybe with a mother, it would have been easier.

Today, they are seven weeks old. Technically, once they are 8 weeks old, they should be up for adoption. But they should also weigh 1kg and be healthy. None of my artists is 1kg yet and they all have eye infection, and one is having the flu. Plus they are still nibbling on dry food rather than eating it, and one is still latching per default on any food offered.

From right to left: Mori, Cauchy, Eshelby and Zyshlaw.