Cat calendar
JANUARY
Buttons was a bitey boy.
I found him in a shed. My friend and I caught him together. We both ended up bleeding a lot and covered in cat urine.
He was about four weeks old.
He taught me that fostering kittens is messy, tiring, bloody, stinky, stressful, and just as wonderful as I’d always imagined.
Buttons was adopted into a family of experienced and undaunted cat owners.
FEBRUARY
In February 2024, I started fostering the ‘Nature Kittens’: Dawn, Thunder, Cloud, and Midnight.
MARCH
While the entire Nature Kittens litter was still with me, someone I know caught another litter of five stray kittens that would have to be euthanised because no one had any room to take them.
They were barely a month old.
I took them to my house “for a few days” until I could find another rescue that could look after them.
One of the two calico girls (sitting up on the right) hissed and spat so much on that first day that she set off the others. She was so tiny and so fierce… and she sounded like popcorn. So I named her Popcorn, and her sister Caramel (second from the left, with some orange patches). Then I named the boys Violet (“Violent”) Crumble (left), Curly Wurly (top middle) and Sprinkle (bottom), the runt.
Two members of the Snack Pack nearly died from cat flu, but recovered. Little kittens are extremely fragile! Even if they can also rip a full-grown human to shreds when they really don’t want to be picked up.
APRIL
Thunder and Midnight were adopted together. Their new owner built a custom enclosure for them, which they loved immediately.
MAY
Cloud suddenly stopped eating and lost more than half her body weight. The vet suspected she needed major surgery, and would never live a full life. She always was smaller than the others.
It turned out she wanted a different kind of food.
She was adopted by a retiree who had cared for her previous cat for twenty-three years despite the cat’s health being poor for several years. So Cloud now has a devoted personal handmaiden… and that is precisely what she requires.
JUNE
Popcorn was the first member of the Snack Pack to be adopted. She doesn’t hiss or spit any more, but loves to purr and snuggle, and will cheerfully approach any human.
JULY
Sprinkle (left) was the second member of the Snack Pack to be adopted.
In the early days he was extremely concerned that I would neglect to feed him and would scream hysterically when I entered the room. He would sometimes forget where the food was located after I put the bowl down, and would scream some more.
Why is it that the smallest kitten of the litter always has the biggest personality?
AUGUST
Dawn was finally adopted in August… and then she was un-adopted, as her new owners discovered one of them was allergic to cats. Fortunately she quickly found another home, and is now settled in happily.
SEPTEMBER
Violet Crumble looks almost exactly like his brothers, yet still manages to be the prettiest. He was adopted next out of the Snack Pack.
OCTOBER
The last two kittens in the Snack Pack were adopted together.
So Caramel and Curly Wurly will continue to make a cuddle puddle daily for the rest of their lives. They are very lucky, and so are their owners.
NOVEMBER
In Spring, with no fosters left, I helped another rescue organisation by taking on four of their kittens: I named them Squirrel (fluffy tortoiseshell and white), Bunny Rabbit (her sister, a tortoiseshell very much like Dawn), Meeouse (white), and Monkey.
Monkey was so named because he liked to climb upside down across the roof of his enclosure.
I quickly discovered that he also loves jumping into the arms of the nearest upright human. Or onto their back. Or shoulder. He’s not fussy. But he’s shockingly fast.
DECEMBER
I hope all four Animal Kittens will find their forever homes by Christmas.
Edit: I shall add more pic/s of those four, possibly including a group shot or two.
Felicity Banks 
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