Faxlandez Family Blog

After Snuffy passed away in September, we took a brief period to grieve but ultimately decided that our house was too boring without some feline energy in it. I reached back out to Richmond Animal League to register my interest in fostering cats and kittens again – immediately there were kittens in need of our home.

In the last bit of 2022 we fostered 12 felines across 2 groups – a litter of 3 kittens (without a mama) and then a mama cat and her 8 teeny tiny kittens. We’ll soon have more fosters now that these are gone, so I wanted to make sure to share about these beautiful felines before then!

White Shoes, Buttons, and Pete the Kitty

We brought these three kittens home from Richmond Animal League on September 29, 2022. They were 5 weeks old when we took them in – right at that stage where they were just barely eating canned food and starting to learn what toys were!

Willa (a little over 3 years old) named them after one of her favorite book characters – Pete the Kitty who has books about buttons on his shirt and having white shoes.

A few days after we brought them home, Pete the Kitty showed some issues with weight gain. The kittens were on canned food already, so we started to mix in kitten formula for some added calories. That really seemed to help satisfy him and plump him up!

On October 16, 2022 these cuties headed to another foster home as we were taking a family trip to Texas to visit family and they were about to the age where they would start to get forever homes. We parted ways and they were all adopted shortly after!

Athena & her 8 kittens

Zeus, Ares, Apollo, Gaia, Hera, Rhea, Selene, and Artemis

On November 16, 2022, Richmond Animal League reached out again about a mama cat and her 8 day-old kittens that they wanted to pull from a local shelter, they just needed a foster lined up to do so. Days later, these beautiful faces were comfy in my home office.

We named the mama Athena and the kittens after other goddesses and gods – Zeus, Ares, Apollo, Artemis, Selene, Hera, Rhea, and Gaia. Here are some photos of their time with us.

A few days in, I started to notice that Hera was growing slower than the other kittens, so I started to supplement her with formula. She responded well to that and was gaining significant weight! Later on, I also started to supplement Rhea with formula as well, then everyone started to eat canned (and some even ate dry) food – what a relief.

Before Christmas, I took some holiday-themed photos with ornaments and my home lightbox. Even Athena wanted to get in there!

Then towards the very end of their stay, I rented a macro lens to try out on my camera and ended up practicing with some glamour shots of this furry family! Here were the results:

After Christmas, this little family headed to a new foster home since we were about to take a short family trip to visit my mom in Raleigh. Their new foster home has a few kids and they were SO EXCITED to have kittens again – particularly Zeus, the fluffy little orange one.

Sadly, a few weeks after these kittens left for their new foster home, I received news that Hera passed away unexpectedly overnight. She likely had a congenital issue that was responsible for her small size at birth and her sudden death. She likely was not in pain, but I still feel so bad for her and for her new foster home (and their kids). Hera knew love and that’s something I feel good about, despite her life being so tragically short.

As of now, Athena and the remaining 7 kittens are all doing well and have been adopted into their forever homes. I’m so happy for them and wish their forever families many years of happiness together.

Fostering is challenging at times, but such a rewarding experience over all. I’m looking forward to all of the fosters that we will have in 2023, so stay tuned!