Poe (stray found in a driveway), King and Stoker (strays found on a boat), and Irving (transfer from Winnebago County Animal Services) have met! We can't wait to watch these 4 little ones grow and play together.
💜 The importance of kitten besties! 🖤
These three kittens each came to Familiars from different places. Avocado (tuxedo) was a stray kitten that mom had rejected, Egg (black/white) was a transfer from Winnebago County Animal Services and Toast (orange tabby) was a transfer from Humane Society of Southern Wisconsin. All three kittens came to the same FFNR foster home and were kept separate for a quarantine period before being combined into one litter of misfit besties. As you can see, Avocado may have some words, but these three are sure to become fast friends!
Socialization with other felines is so important to the growth and development of kittens. Did you know that solo kittens are less likely to grow up as well-adjusted as kittens who grow up with another feline companion? Cute and feisty behaviors typical of a solo kitten can quickly turn into destructive and unwanted behaviors like scratching furniture, rough play, biting, and avoiding the litter box as the cat gets older. This is known as Single Kitten Syndrome and is also the reason we prioritize kitten buddy adoptions or applicants that already have a resident cat over those just looking for one kitten.
Avocado, Egg, and Toast, still have a few weeks before they will available for adoption. Keep an eye on our page for updates!
P.S. Toast's leg is healing amazingly!
💜 Hissy/spitty kitten update! 🖤
We’d like to take a moment to showcase our amazing lifesaving foster, Renae, and her current case – Thor! The first video is an early video of Thor, and the second video is one from this morning.
Thor (previously known as ‘Twix’) was transferred to FFNR from Winnebago County Animal Services on January 5. He was our first intake of 2024. Thor was not thriving in the shelter environment and WCAS hoped some time in a foster home would help him come out of his shell.
Thor was 3 months old when Renae took him home. The prime socialization window for a kitten is between 2-8 weeks old, so we were already behind on our ideal schedule (but what in animal welfare is ideal, right?). We decided our plan would be the following: Let Thor decompress in a foster home, monitor his behavior, take it slow (no forced love), and communicate lots to determine if he was fit for an indoor home or if we’d work on finding him a barn home come Spring.
Thor spent the first few days in Renae’s laundry room, hiding. At one point, he was so scared he hid in the washing machine and wouldn’t come out. Once he did, Renae was able to confine him to a zippered playpen. In the playpen he relaxed a bit, but was still very apprehensive and spent most of his time in his carrier. He was coaxed out once by Renae’s resident cat. He would eat from his bowl with Renae watching, but growl when he did so. After some time, his confidence began to grow and he became more aggressive, exhibiting lunging behaviors, paw swats, and spits. Renae couldn’t touch him and used a spaghetti server covered in Churu to interact with him and pick up toys.
As the days go on, Thor has become more playful, he accepts the Churu off the spaghetti server, and even accepts back scratches from it. He now has free roam of the laundry room again. Renae says Thor “definitely puts up a tough front, but I get glimpses of an adorable kitten who just wants to play and interact.”
