Those of us in the foster program at Mohawk Hudson Humane Society weren’t entirely sure what to expect from “kitten season” this year because of the extremely mild winter we had here in Upstate NY. Last year’s kitten season was pretty slow. We optimistically chalked it up to all of the humane education we’ve been doing – maybe people have finally gotten the message and are spaying and neutering their cats! Will that trend continue this year? Will the warm weather bring out all of the unaltered cats early and we’ll get hit hard and early with kittens?
So far no. I’ve had an empty kitten closet for a pretty long time!
But it’s occupied now! Not with kittens, but with a four year old long haired black female cat previously named Splenda. We changed her name to Theia – the Greek Titan goddess of eyesight. Theia is blind, but that’s not entirely why we’re fostering her. She is very shy and has some trust issues, which I imagine somewhat stem from her inability to see what or who is coming at her. We have never fostered a blind animal before, so we’re learning as we go. Theia is very sweet (I’m guessing that’s why they called her Splenda at the shelter) and is making the learning process very easy!
A lot of my Humane Society friends told me that they weren’t surprised to find out that Jay and I took Theia in for foster. We’re becoming pretty well known for taking on the “difficult” cases! I don’t think they’re difficult; just different…a learning experience!
As for Steve, my niece and nephew are getting old enough to understand that Steve is different from most cats because she has 3 legs. They were over here for Easter and were asking questions about her. I explained to them that even though she’s missing a leg, she can still run and jump and play with her brothers. I told them that her missing leg doesn’t slow her down any. I showed them that the only problem that she has is that she can’t scratch her right cheek, so they gave her lots of scratches there! Maybe it’s a little silly, but I’m hoping that the more they’re exposed to her and the more they see that she’s not really different, the more they’ll be able to accept other people’s differences as they grow older and experience the world. 🙂
