"Frogtown" is named after an old regional name used for our location. "Fosters" seems obvious, but it is more than the physical act of fostering animals: but fostering relationships and partnership with like minded rescue people and organizations. Fostering by definition is about enhancing and promoting development, that is what we want to do.
I fell face first into fostering many years ago . It started with found kittens being taken to the local shelter, but after learning that they were at capacity and the kittens I brought in would need bottle feedings, their future was bleak.
Without hesitation (or full understanding of what I was about to get myself into ) I agreed to take them with thrown together care kit, and was on my way. These three kittens looked like slugs, and survived in spite of my inexperience.
Since that trio I have fostered hundreds of neonatal kittens and learned a lot. Here are some hard facts and bits of intel that brought us to our Mission:
~Depending on the source or parameters of the study done up to 75% of kittens born
outside die within 6 months. Kittens are often born under less than desirable conditions, young or unexperienced mothers, sick or poor nutrition.
~ 10% of your town or county population is equal to your stray, feral, community cat population. Thats a lot of roaming cats, that may or may not be reproducing.
~ Most shelters funded by local government are required to intake resident strays, found or surrendered pets. This policy leaves many shelters at capacity, more often than not. Then add the influx of kittens, kittens are found in barns, under cars, parking lots, homes, and of course hoards, they are found from hours to weeks old with varying care needs. So, you see the problem here.
~Neonatal kittens exhaust resources. Not simply financial, but time. The age of the kitten is critical here, the younger the animal, the more time and effort it will require. This is honestly best done in a foster situation. Bottle feedings around the clock are not possible in a shelter setting.
~There are a lot of kitten fosters, but still never enough, and even fewer that are willing to take neo's or premie kittens, that may or may not need medical support as well.
So this is the trail of breadcrumbs that leads to Frogtown Fosters. I wanted to focus on the little ones, the "lost cause" kittens that can really clog up the works in the rescue world. Not only is it my comfort area, I feel that we are taking pressure off of organizations that have a larger scope.
There is no lack of horror stories of healthy kittens being euthanized due to space or lack of resources. To be honest, I personally have not had that experience locally, although I understand how easy it is to get there. Feeding kittens round the clock , when they are healthy is a full time job, not considering all the health issues their bodies can acquire so I wanted to take this small piece of the rescue world and try to help shepard as many kittens through their most vulnerable phase, and move them to adoption in loving homes. It’s hard, it’s heartbreaking, it’s rewarding and it’s the right thing to do.
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