My name is Courtney. I'm a twenty year old female game developer currently located in Houston, TX. I work for the Volunteers for Animal Protection animal shelter's cat department as a kennel worker, PetFinder updater, cat transporter, kitten foster and general Jack-of-all-trades. Our downward spiral into the world of cat fostering began with The Originals, Cloud and Luna, two tiny kittens someone had found in their garden and given to VAP. They needed fosters for these kittens who had plenty of time to dedicate to them. My mother and I, being the suckers we are for tiny mewling faces and toothless mouths, wrapped them up and took them home. We had no idea what we were doing, and still have a lot to learn.
But it was then that it began, this long and strange journey into the world of foster cats.
February 4th, 2012
I haven't updated in a long time...because there's nothing really to update. We have no kittens, and while the shelter cats are still slowly but surely being cleared and adopted out, it's pretty quiet at my house.
I don't have much to say right now, because my house is quieter than normal today. Monday morning of this week mom sent me a text to make sure Bandit ate lunch because he refused breakfast. That was our first red flag that his story was coming to a close. Over the week he grew worse, very quickly. What little he ate he would throw up - he was severely dehydrated and wouldn't drink water. We coerced him into drinking some kitten formula we had, and he enjoyed it, until about Thursday when he finally was unable to keep anything down for long. He slept a lot, no longer groomed himself, and began losing control of his bladder.
Today my parents too him to be put down while I slept. I had my goodbyes last night, apoligized for everything I'd done wrong, and hopefully secured his forgiveness. I've had many pets pass in my lifetime but I hadn't always been old enough to really understand or care. Bandit was my oldest pet to date - he'd have been 13 on the 24th of this month. We grew up together. He was there to let me cry into his fur whenever I had a problem. He drove me absolutely crazy with his incessant meowing but I feel like the house is just too quiet now. Thankfully I have Shinji to sit in my lap and comfort me with his warmth and purr-massages. I don't know what I would do without my other remaining pets.
So now my clowder is down to two and a half. Bandit is gone but definitely not forgotten. And never replaced.