When life hands you kittens...

In my recent blog I provided several tips to help alleviate the symptoms of stress. I then followed with a story that emphasized the benefits of helping others. Because of these two postings I thought I'd take the liberty of sharing my own recent volunteer experience.

About a month ago, while walking around my neighborhood, my friend and I found 3 baby kittens. They were small, very small, and clearly had been abandoned. They seemed to be in fairly good condition, so we
scooped them up with the intention of taking them to Pet Smart, giving them to the local pet rescue group. When we got to my house we realized we didn't know the first thing about taking care of baby kittens. But, as mothers, and fairly savvy women, we took out eye droppers and fed them heated milk.
The kittens were happy and slept through the night. We were thrilled!

Our optimism quickly faded when we were informed there were no other volunteers to take care of the kittens. Further, we were told the probability of their living was 50%, given their young age-barely 2 weeks old. What to do? What to do when you have dogs and husbands who are not cat lovers?

My friend decided we would take care of the kitties the first week to make sure they lived, splitting responsibility to make things easier. During that week we looked for other volunteers in our neighborhood to help us  in caring for the kittens until they were ready for adoption. My friend was applying the "It takes a Village" theory and using it to our advantage.

The concept worked beautifully the first 3 weeks. Several families took the kittens from 1-3 nights. The kittens were tiny and had to be bottled feed kitten formula. They ate and slept like babies. Who could resist
such cuteness?!!!! Even better, we successfully "marketed" the kittens and found them all great homes.

Around week 4-5 the novelty of caring for the kittens started to fade. While May, Lake and Smokey (we found them in May, by the lake and one was smokey grey) were still cute as could be, they were now big kittens eating food and getting into trouble. Fewer people volunteered, so my family stepped up to the plate with one of the adopting families and we decided to split the week for the remaining few weeks.

Only kittens right? No big deal.

On the contrary. Keeping these kittens during my "new found time" has been a wonderful experience for my family. There have been several benefits to fostering these kittens:

1. We have gotten closer with a number of neighbors through this common bond.
2. We have learned to appreciate the nuances of kittens/cats.
3. We saved 3 lives!
4. My son learned how to care for baby animals.
5. Watching and petting animals helps reduce stress.

All good!!!

Should the opportunity to help someone or something present itself during your "transitional time", take the leap and do your best. The rewards will far out way the costs.

Best,
Paula