Foster Kritters Feral Cat Rescue - Society

01/29/2025

I was trapping at one of our regular colony projects on this beautiful sunny day today and had a visit from our buddy, Chomper. He was demonstrating how much he likes to use the feeding station. It's so satisfying to see how good these cats look after they've been spayed and neutered. Chomper looks like a whole new cat compared to his bedraggled tomcat look when we first met him last summer. If you're thinking that he looks familiar, he's most likely very closely related to our dear sweet Lorax.

(A big thank you to handyman Kim for making these fabulous feeding stations!)

01/28/2025

I've been seeing a lot of FB conversations the last few days about the costs of vet care. I'm sure these are being triggered by the recent CBC Marketplace story about rising vet costs. I haven't watched the report and don't plan to because though there may be some facts in their story, I can already tell that it's mainly meant to create a negative response and is not an accurate portrayal of most vet clinics.
Yes, vet care is expensive. And yes, some vets prices are higher than others. Being a country who has pretty much free health care, we have no idea of what health care actually costs. The cost of running a good quality vet clinic is outrageously expensive so of course the cost of using their services is not going to be cheap. That's just reality, not greed. Plus, what is so wrong with someone making a profit from their business? Is that not why people open businesses in the first place? Whether it's a coffee shop, a hair salon, a vet clinic, or a grocery store, are they not entitled to get a return for their investment? I'm sure there are items or services provided by our vets that they make a significant profit from. But I'm also sure there are some that they barely break even on. That's called business and every business has that. Again, it's not greed, it's called working hard to make a good living.
We absolutely love the vets and their support staff who look after our rescued cats. They don't just leave their work behind at the end of the day and forget about it. Even as I'm writing this one of our vets just called me well after her closing time to update me on one of our cats she examined recently. The vets, techs, and assistants will often phone or email us after hours or on the weekend to check in about a sick cat or a cat who had major surgery. They care deeply about the animals who come through their care. Even our mangy old ferals who would bite you the first chance they got.
Veterinarians deal with death and sadness and gut wrenching decisions pretty much every day of their job, yet they still have to walk into the next appointment with a smile on their face. Then to have this kind of very biased report come out and to hear all the awful things people are saying about vets, I can only imagine how it must make them feel.
If you have a vet clinic (or clinics) that you love, take a minute and let them know how much you appreciate them.

~We're very grateful for the expert and compassionate care that our cats recieve at Kinsol Veterinary Clinic and Fantastic Beasts Veterinary Services~

01/27/2025

~Creative Visualization~
Using your imagination to bring your dreams into reality.

I never planned on starting a cat rescue. It kinda started by accident. But after decades of volunteering with other animal rescues, I recognized some gaps that I felt needed to be filled in the world of feral/stray/abandoned cat rescue. Mainly that the feline overpopulation issue seriously needed to be addressed. So, instead of waiting for someone else to do something about it, Foster Kritters Feral Cat Rescue was born. The main difference with our rescue is that we don't focus on adopting out tame cats. This allows us to focus our time and resources on tackling the root of the problem. Our main focus is spay and neuter of as many cats as possible, and improving their quality of life. Mainly feral/stray/abandoned cats. We also do low cost spay neuter for pet cats when our budget allows.
The biggest challenge with our approach to rescue is how hard it is to find good homes. It's hard enough to find homes for cute young kittens these days, finding homes for unsocial feral cats is near impossible. We're very grateful to the sanctuaries who we work with and the folks who adopt our working cats. But they can't take all of our cats. So the dream is to start our own feral and unadoptable cat sanctuary right here in the Cowichan Valley. We're nowhere near this dream coming true yet, we still struggle to pay our vet bill every month, but you have to start somewhere. So we're starting with putting the dream of acquiring an acreage for our sanctuary out there to the universe and seeing what comes back.

01/26/2025

We use cameras very regularly to monitor cat feeding stations and trapping sites. They are an invaluable tool in saving lives, but they can also be a source of entertainment. It's not just cats that we see on the cameras.

01/25/2025

THANK YOU ❤️
Oh my gosh, what an amazing response to our plea for help!
I was out trapping so I only just saw it now. Thank you so much to everyone who has sent money for our scary vet bill fund. Your $100 challenge is massively appreciated!
Your support not only helps the cats who need surgery, it saves lives like the baby in the video.
The little guy in the video is kitten number 5. We finally got him!! I caught his siblings six days ago and mom had pretty much abandoned them so he was mostly on his own. Moms behavior tells us that she's either in heat or nesting, so she is priority number 1 right now! We don't need more babies born outside. This sweet little guy will soon join his siblings who are with our friends at The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee, which means we can go back out and rescue more!!

E transfer donations are very gratefully accepted at any time at [email protected]

01/25/2025

One of the hardest parts of doing animal rescue is raising enough money to be able to help all the animals in your care. I've had many people ask me why we do the expensive surgeries and then tell me how many spay and neuters we could get done for the cost of doing one cats dental surgery. Yes, this is true. But does that mean we should just release the feral cat with painful broken teeth? Or euthanize the otherwise healthy cat? My attitude is, why can't we raise money to do both spay neuter, and dental? But, that means we sometimes have to do some pretty hardcore fundraising. Unfortunately, this is one of those times. We've had three major dental surgeries this month and now have four more cats on the list for next month. We love our vets and never want to be in a position that we can't afford our bill at the end of the month. Unfortunately, we are very close to that this month so here goes.. if you are in a position to help, we could really use it right about now.
Skittles, Katt, Matilda, BB, Toasty, Tina, and Eddy Baby would all be suffering without some serious dental care. We're not going to let them suffer unnecessarily so we're asking for your help. Even with our upcoming bottle drive it won't be anywhere near enough for their costs. E transfer donations can be sent at any time to [email protected]
We also have some smaller fundraisers coming up so watch for those and please share the heck out of them to get the word out. You can also check out our garage sale page with all proceeds going directly to vet bills https://www.facebook.com/share/1DDrKDfshd/?mibextid=qi2Omg

01/24/2025

Check this out! Our friends at Puppycats Pet Emporium are doing another fundraiser for us. This would be a fabulous prize to win for you and your Valentine. Stop by their store in Chemainus to get your tickets or e transfer us with your contact info and we'll pass on your name to get you in the draw. [email protected]

Come on down and buy a ticket for $5 to enter to win a $100 gift certificate to 🥳
All proceeds will be donated to Foster Kritters Feral Cat Rescue - Society 😻
You can purchase tickets from Jan 24th to Feb 7th!

01/24/2025

Those ears have a history that we can only imagine. 12 years living wild and raising more than 100 kittens.
After step 1 of her dental surgery a few days ago I was told to watch for swelling on the right side of her face and some minor bleeding. But I guess they forgot to tell Matilda this because she went right back to normal like nothing had ever happened. No swelling or bleeding. Just her usual no nonsense, get on with life attitude.

01/23/2025

BOTTLE DRIVE REMINDER

It's still a few weeks away but it's never too early to start saving your refundables for us. We've started the new year the same way we ended the last year. CRAZY BUSY! We've already had more than 25 cats and kittens come through our care and had three dental surgeries, plus two more to go.
We still need our communities help so we're continuing our regular bottle drives and we really hope to see you there.
Come show the ferals some love for Valentines Day 💝

Date: Saturday February 15th

Time: 9am to 2pm

Location: The Return It Depot Parking Lot at 6476 Norcross Road in Duncan

01/22/2025

Let's welcome Mrs Rogers to the neighborhood. This poor girl was seen in her neighborhood for several months but didn't have a consistent routine until recently which has made it very difficult to catch her. After she finally settled on one property we were able to make a trapping plan and had her caught pretty quickly, thanks to the efforts of some very caring property owners.
We don't know what caused her to lose the majority of her ear tips but it's likely from frostbite. It's not common to see frostbite injuries like this here but it does happen. She's quite a spicy girl so we'll wait for our vets to have a closer look when she's sedated for her exam and spay. For now she's safe and has a comfy bed and bottomless food dish to keep her comfortable.

01/21/2025

Matilda had the first part of her dental surgery today. She will most likely end up with a full mouth extraction, but due to her age and chronic health conditions she will need the surgery done on two different days for her safety.
If you haven't been following our page for long you might not know about this grand old lady cat yet so I'll tell you all about her.
Matilda came into my care five years ago when I started working on trapping her colony. It was actually Matilda and her family who got me passionate about trapping entire colonies, including the kittens, moms, and dads. No cat should ever be left out there unfixed.
I met the people who had been feeding Matilda for many years and were rescuing her babies every year but we're never able to catch her. She was 13 years old when I caught her with her last ever litter of kittens. She had been living wild since she was about a year old and most likely gave birth to more than 100 kittens. She survived a pr*****ed re**um out in the wild, and who knows what else in all that time. Matilda had a lung infection when she first came to me. It was never definitively diagnosed but was most likely a combination of fungal and bacterial, as well as lungworm. She still has scar tissue leftover from this and always will have compromised lungs because of it. This is why any surgery is extra high risk for her. She had several teeth removed when she first came into my care due to tooth resorption and obviously got to retire her exhausted little uterus. Her teeth had declined so badly recently that we've been planning for this surgery for a while now but have been working on getting her as healthy as we could first. You would think with her age, all of her medical history, and no vet care until five years ago that she would look and act like a sick old cat. But I guess nobody ever explained that to Matilda so she's still happy and silly and did great for part one of her major dental surgery today.
I adore this cat and am very honored to be her guardian for the rest of her life.
Though with her feline anti-aging super powers, she might just outlive me!

(The picture is from before her surgery. She wants to be looking her best before I take any new ones)

01/20/2025

We're trying to get our fundraiser page more active again. Come check it out. You might find some treasures.

Oops, it's been quite a while since we posted anything on here.
Watch for more activity on this page, coming soon. All funds raised goes directly to helping feral and at risk cats of the Cowichan Valley. We are always looking for new and gently used items to sell so send us a message if you have something to donate.

01/20/2025

We are looking for a special home for these beauties. Missy and her daughter Shelby come from a farm colony of 40+ cats who were in serious danger of losing the only home they had ever known. The property they were on was sold and slated for development. With nobody looking after the cats they were in serious danger of starvation so we stepped in to help. These girls were some of the last ones to come into our care. Missy is about 8 years old and her daughter Shelby is aprox 4-6 years old. They are not good candidates to relocate outdoors to a barn home for several reasons so we're looking for a home where they will be strictly indoor only and where there are no expectations of them ever being physically social with you. They just want to lounge around and look pretty. They can both be touched and handled for medical stuff when needed but currently do not enjoy being touched. I do believe this will change eventually, but their adopter needs to accept them exactly as they choose to be. We call this type of cat a house feral. They are not aggressive at all. They just want a safe warm place to live with regular meals and may eventually seek out your physical affection. A catio would be amazing too! If you have room in your heart and home for these deserving beauties, please send us an EMAIL at [email protected]

01/19/2025

❄️Winter babies❄️
We've been trying to find these babies for close to a month now after being notified of them being spotted in a culvert just before Christmas. The day after we started looking for them the culvert was completely flooded from rain so mom obviously moved them. We were finally able to track them down today and met the fabulous folks who have been feeding them daily. This made it so much easier to trap them today since they were already on a regular routine. There is still one more sibling to catch, plus mom and dad. But we have a good plan in place and some very helpful homeowners who are very eager to be a part of getting this whole family to safety. It's hard to see all of them but there are four babies in the picture.

01/18/2025

Beatrice and her big kids love this donut bed. I'm not sure who donated it, but we would love to get more. I did see some on Amazon so I've added them to our wish list. Her babies are about 8 months old so all four are small adult sized and they fit great inside it snuggled up. We have it on top of a heating pad so it's extra cosy for them.

https://www.amazon.ca/hz/wishlist/ls/2BP1NHRMWSJPC?ref_=wl_share

01/17/2025

IT'S BETTY WHITE DAY!
Today is the anniversary of the birth of Betty White.
Betty was an animal rights activist long before it was popular. She used her fame and wealth to advocate for the critters who could not speak for themselves. After Betty Whites death in December 2021, the anniversary of her birthday became a memorial day to show your support of animal rescues by donating in the memory of this fabulous hero of the animals. If you choose our cause to donate to, you will be helping us to help some of the most vulnerable and undervalued throwaway and forgotten cats of the Cowichan Valley.
E transfer donations can be sent at any time to [email protected]

01/17/2025

Geena (now Tina) is adopted!
Our adorable sweet girl has settled in very quickly and is thriving on all the love and attention she's getting. This very happy and very lucky girl is already loved and adored like she should be ❤️

01/16/2025

Skittles had his dental surgery today and did really well. He had the majority of his teeth removed. He's only a young cat at around 2 years old but life is very hard on these throwaway cats. Malnutrition and inbreeding is pretty standard and is the main reason for many of their health issues. Skittles is one of the lucky ones and because of your amazing support he will live a good life without pain.
We also caught two more kittens this evening from the same colony Skittles comes from and reunited them with their siblings, Buck and Clover. They will have the benefit of good nutrition and parasite control while they are still young and developing, which means they are much less likely to have the same serious health issues as the colony cats who survive out there into adulthood.