a year of kitten fostering...

 

of course, no kitten or cat pictures here. it's been another rough week in the foster world. took in a litter of 3 kittens right before the New Year. named them Poppers, Confetti and Midnight. not sure their age but they had battled diarrhea at the shelter and it was felt they were ready to just fatten up. sadly, only Midnight was gaining weight.Confetti gained a smidge each day. Poppers started losing weight mid week. they all ate fair, not great. stools went back to runs. a common kitten issue.

i still see myself as fairly new at this game. it has been a year but each litter so far has been pretty unique. i also know that i am a person that doesn't emote well. meaning, if i'm concerned i may not express it how others do. clearly something i need to work on. 

i recall being in a car in college with friends in Utah.  i was in the back seat. i saw we were going to crash. i very calmly and in a normal tone of voice repeated, "we are going to crash". nobody heard me and then we crashed. it was a fender bender. no injuries, but that is me. i don't panic or scream. in many ways that is good in my nursing job.  i have heard a doctor tell another doctor that if i were to say i was concerned about a patient, he should listen to that calm warning. 

i know i had sent a few texts starting towards the end of the week, but they don't know me well enough to know to ask me more. to prod me. they take me at what i say. i need to get better at expressing concern in these situations. i suspect i also need to be more confident. i thought several times that i wanted to give sub-q fluids, was concerned about dehydration.

it was determined that i would bring kittens back to shelter on Monday. get them restarted on medications for the diarrhea. try a better diet  for them. Monday morning came and Poppers was less active. he ate baby food, dry food and drank water, not great but i figured enough to get to the vet at the shelter. it did not feel emergent, but he had lost weight again.  i returned a bit later to check them before leaving and he didn't run out to me like he always does. i knew where to look, between the trundle beds. he was there but looking limp. 

he was dying. i knew it. i could have tried some karo syrup on his gums or given some sq fluids but i knew the outcome was going to be death. i texted and let them know.i held him and his siblings and gave him all the love he deserved. he purred until he could not purr anymore. he was agonal as i drove to the shelter. 

he is my 8th loss in a year. i had no idea how tough these little losses would be. how attached you can get to a tiny creature in such a short time. also, the amount of guilt i would feel at each loss. this one hit harder. the others were days old and underweight. this guy had made it through a lot of the most dangerous periods, i thought.

my foster mentor and my shelter contact went above and beyond to help me deal with this loss and i am so grateful for that. my friends were also super supportive and sweet. 

last night i went on the internet and was looking up deaths of foster kittens. some statistics i saw were as much as 40% of orphaned kittens do not make it past 12 weeks.  i saw other fosters who spoke of losses. one mentioned she'd fostered for at least 12 years and had around 550 kittens and something over 80 deaths. another said, again years and years of fostering and the last year she had 5 litters and not one survived. 

there is a kitten expert on social media. she did a video talking about how to get more fosters out there. she was going over what prevents people from fostering. she never mentioned kitten deaths. so many out there act like this never happens. this lady has expensive heated isolettes. tube feeds neonate kittens. from her videos it seems they all survive. 

i'm not sure every kitten surviving is really the right answer. these kittens come to us sick. why was Poppers weaker than his siblings? what were their birth weights? were there others in the litter that died before they ever got to the shelter? was it that Poppers never really fully got back to the health he needed after his first bout of diarrhea before the second bout hit? 

i do try and be realistic. i wouldn't want to put kittens through any extra trauma on the off chance i could pull them through. i've seen far too many humans put through horrific treatments in the hopes they survive, even if that means they have no limbs and no quality of life. we do not have to do that with animals. still each loss, each life i take care of is a lesson that teaches me how to do things better or different. 

diarrhea can be from all sorts of things, stress, bacteria, worms, change in diet, change in location, too much food...

the other two kittens are doing well.  i have ordered some books and some probiotic powder that was recommended. i've cried, i've cleaned. i've analyzed, i've done it all. this one just hit harder. 

we  warmed up over 10F finally just so nature could drop like a foot of snow. back on the trails today in -7F temps. thankfully, i brought my snowshoes today. i shoveled yesterday and today and i think the day before. i have gotten my work out in for the day. 

the ice art is going like crazy. with these cold temps they have lasted ages and we all just keep adding more.

peoples photos with them have popped up all over on social media.  does make me happy.

our nation continues out of control with this idiot and his band of ass kissers and cult followers  he attacked and kidnapped the dictator of Venezuela. openly admits it's really just for the oil and minerals. i suspect cheap labor appeals to him. 

a woman today was driving away from ICE agents and a guy stood right by car and shot her. she is gone. there was no risk of death to him.  sadly, all you have to do is go to any right wing site and you will get a totally different story about what happened. they have zero clue what is really happening and most of them have no desire to really know. they have their agenda and ultimately, they are fine with whatever happens as long as their religious views are forced on others through the government.

the sun is setting a bit later. solstice has passed. Christmas has as well. i worked Christmas.  pretty much blitzed out of Christmas pretty early. i went to see some lights, solstice trees and the botanical gardens. they should have some great ice work soon there.  while we've been having temps -15-+15, Fairbanks has been in the -40'sF. ice is king this year. 

loved all the videos and photos people took wild ice skating all over the state. beautiful. i didn't make it to Portage. it's covered in snow now. it was glass earlier. that actually kept me away. i'm no ice skater. i have a kick sled but a guy fell with a helmet and still knocked himself out. dragged out on someones sled. 

didn't feel worth the risk.  

the puppies saw Santa and i'm sure their wishes came true. 

steady stream of hearts being made

campbell creek was even totally frozen and people were out there skating/biking. still feels risky being over any moving water like that to me.

not sure what 2026 will bring. more kittens for me. so far i'm sticking with my 0.6 work load. it's really just the insurance. not sure what will happen with my request to not work icu/csu. hoping i will be able to wean out or at least be given much less critical patients. for years they gave me the usual patient load. most resource nurses complain about their step down assignments but i'm requesting those step down assignments. we wean up and i'm not sure why i can't wean down.

no clue what will happen in our nation under this idiot. he's talking about taking over Greenland again. Nato has said they will protect Greenland over us. i endorse this. we have no business taking over other nations. it's all greed. oil, minerals. money, money, money. 

God, can't possibly exist and look the other way at all the suffering and look the other way at all the greed. in the bible this God took his wrath out on everyone. this God is responsible for far more death than the devil is. Jesus was going to return. it's been over 2000 years, i don't think so. i always had alternative plans anytime i had a first date in case they didn't show. my rule was to only wait like 30 minutes. i'm not waiting 2000 years for any man.

Ivy and Sunny kept stopping. their pads filled up with ice. felt bad but the best thing was to keep moving. it was mostly light and fluffy snow. a lot of it though.

overall, life is good. i'm taking each day. taking care of myself. learning still. open to change and growth. so many aren't. i remember thinking as a young person, "once you quit living, you are dead". gotta keep living. today i was shoveling snow and i snowshoed a good 2-3 miles. i am far from perfect. i do try to be kind. i do try t put positive out there. we all fail a little and succeed a little. 

this loss made me think about why i do this. should i keep doing it? am i good enough? i'm always hard on myself.  reading about other fosters, even with a lot of experience and litters, suffering the losses, it helps.  as with nursing. if you aren't a bit scared, if you aren't without emotion you probably should step out. i do enjoy the individual patient interactions most of the time. 

most people don't even try and they have a small pool of foster options. even if i'm less experienced and far from the online  kitten lady as far as success and equipment.  i can still do the best i can do to help this helpless population. i may not be the best but i am willing. often that is more than what most are willing to do.saying yes.

these are all local winter walks, from this past December. 

the snow will be packed down soon. the bikers will show up on the weekend. for now the snowshoes were great. i do love a good snowshoe day.

the ice art will continue another week at least

i've enjoyed this winter. wait, here are some cat photo's. Miss Breezy seems to like her KD, was shocked but happy.

Covi less than thrilled to be out in the super cold temps, which i'm happy about.

my house needs a good clean and my to do list is growing.  need to get on it. 

tomorrow is my last day off of this stretch. will be back to work on Friday.

saw someone i hadn't seen for awhile at the market. she was all, "i almost didn't recognize you" i just said, i'm getting older. i don't recognize myself much lately. this aging thing has it's downsides.

i'm still alive and kicking. not as high as i used to but still kicking. life is about adapting though. keep moving though. always try to keep moving.

a lot more snow on many of the hearts out there. i cleared a few. was going to go further but i was breaking trail out there. the dogs did some trail breaking as well. 

this keyboard drives me a bit nuts.  sticky keys. right out of the box. annoying.

falls along the highway.

fresh sheet day. i really super cleaned the kitten room. fear of panleuk. if one kitten tests positive they will euthanize the entire litter. 2 negative tests, thankfully. 

my heart will ache over little Poppers for a long time.  

grateful for: A. that people like trump do not live forever and that he's already not that healthy. B. the people who fight, resist. that despite this ICE murder, more and more people are coming out. C.kindness. there are a lot of nice people but nice is often that fake thing, where these same people look away. kindness is more active.may we all strive to be kind.

quick post

 returned from Fairbanks last night around 8:30 pm so haven't looked at too many of those pics yet...though there are many to look at of course.  thought i'd toss in a few from the restart again to catch you up

 DeeDee of course.  still running after all these years. did notice she's in her same outfit but put a big fabric tie die block over the old shell sign.  they dropped her as sponsers the same year her house burned down...nice, right?

 roads were pretty good.  windy a bit at times both directions.  my car is an element so it bounces a lot in the wind.  the roads on that last pass heading into Fairbanks were a bit dicey, not as bad as a few years back, but i'm sure the fact that it was at the end of my 7 hour drive north and i was tired made them a bit more sketchy for me.  coming back they seemed much better.  i suspect the return side of the road gets a bit more sunlight.

 hard to imagine anything melts in the temps we had up there.  when i woke it was -35F, but warmed up to -24F both mornings when i was out of the hotel.  by mid day those temps were soaring closer to zero i think.

 i got up early, watched the sun rise on the river.  i had gotten in too late to explore our spots for race day the night before and was anxious that we'd be without a good location so that inspired me to get out of bed in the chill and get walking.  it was a short walk to the river from the hotel.

 other than sharing the area with hundreds of school age kids it was a good spot.  i figured there was no way those kids would be out there too long.  they literally brought busloads of kids.  when the Iditarod comes to Fairbanks the wise school allows the kids to observe the teams....which is cool.  we walked a bit to get further from the hoards of kids though.

 we were there before the hoards arrived and they swarmed us.  we were all a bit disappointed in the adults who were supposed to be leading the kids. it was an opportunity to teach the kids some manners and etiquette but that did not happen at all.  we'd walk further up and then we'd be swarmed again.  eventually we found our spot and were free of the masses.

 we were all dressed warm enough for the chilly temps.  i had toe warmers and hand warmers and many layers.  we all had a great time.  always so fun to watch the teams head out.

 i really only had that one day and then i drove back to Anchorage Tuesday. i'm slated to work tonight, though i would happily take an on call.  that generally means i'll no chance at one.

 several moose on the road on the way back.  3 between Cantwell and Talkeetna spur road.  stopped for lots of pics. drove the park road in til it was closed at about mile 13.  lots of tracks, but no animals sightings.  was going to walk the horseshoe trail. started down it but the wind was really whipping and at a base of -22F the wind chill really takes it down.

 as you can see, even the Iditarod champ pics up his share of dog poop without complaining.

 we hit the Chena hot springs in the afternoon Monday so it was a long day.  in the morning i went to the Ice Sculptures before leaving Fairbanks.  slept great last night in my bed with my puppies.

 as you can imagine the pups were beyond thrilled to have me home.  it was the first time i'd left them with someone else since Blossom passed.  i think Ivy was anxious.  her incision looked a bit more puffy and red.  thought it looked a bit better this morning.  hopefully our walk today wears her out enough to not bother it.  i was thinking not walking her would be best, but maybe since she's so active wearing her out is the best way to protect the incision.

 we are over a week out now.  so we are getting there.

 Dallas booties up dogs for run through Anchorage streets.

 a handler at another truck booties up another dog team

 i thought i took loads of go pro video but i can't seem to pull any up.  not sure what happened.  at some point the battery died but i really thought i got several in. i was pushing the button and it was making the right noises.  i think those would have been super cool though.  dang.

 the teams are on the trail to nome.  always fun to follow it.  i work the next three though to i doubt i'll make too much of a dent in my pictures.

 cool truck downtown.

thankful for:  A.  safe travels B.  a distraction from the chaos in DC.  C.  that the puppies did fine with me gone . had planned on taking them but Val was available and it did make more sense to leave them since it was such a quick and crazy trip.