Could 08, 2024

Neonatal kittens. Bottle Infants. Teeny, not but weaned. Nevertheless you describe them, no matter you name them, kittens who rely on people to make it via their first a number of weeks of life are a number of the cutest souls you’ll encounter and in addition a number of the most susceptible.

The Austin Pets Alive! Neonatal Kitten Nursery is the primary of its form and since its inception in 2008, has taken in hundreds of kittens with a median 90% save price. This work can’t be completed with out the help of neonatal kitten fosters. As a result of these kittens have to be fed around the clock, we depend on this superb neighborhood of animal-lovers to assist be sure that every kitten that comes via our doorways receives a human who will go the space for them.

“Kitten Season” is a time of yr the place we see the largest inflow of orphaned kittens or households of cats, coming our approach and in Texas, this season is from roughly mid-March to late September. In 2023, our kitten consumption was about 1430 kittens. This yr, we’re seeing that pattern keep fairly near the identical with having already seen a bit over 400 kittens simply 1.5 months into the season. Of these kittens, greater than half have come straight from our metropolis’s municipal shelter, Austin Animal Heart and because of the shut proximity, a lot of these have been final minute intakes, sending our already inundated nursery employees and volunteers right into a scramble.

The truth is that we want extra bottle child fosters — each fosters who can tackle the clowder of kittens that now we have at the moment and a big group of prepared fosters who’re onboarded, prepared and prepared to soak up kittens in want that are available tomorrow, subsequent week and all all through the remainder of the season.

The Neonatal Workforce is experiencing a little bit of a catch-22: they’re in deep want of extra fosters, however with being as much as their necks in (lovable) kittens, they aren’t capable of onboard fosters as rapidly as they’d like. Make no mistake — our Neonatal Workforce is made up of tremendous people although having the ability to freeze time isn’t certainly one of their tremendous powers. Right here’s what you possibly can count on when signing as much as grow to be a Bottle Child Foster at the moment:

1. E-mail our Nursery Workforce at [email protected] letting us know you’re . Please present your property handle in that e-mail as we do want to make sure most Bottle Child Fosters reside inside a 30 mile radius because of the vulnerability of those kittens.

2. Our group will reply with essential info comparable to what feeding processes appear like for the varied age teams and in addition speak via quarantining wants. After you learn via this and nonetheless really feel you’re a very good match, submit your software!

3. As soon as accredited, we’ll share our on-line coaching orientation video. After you’ve gone via that, contact our group and so they’ll offer you subsequent steps for selecting up your kittens!

4. After you get dwelling along with your kittens, now we have an skilled volunteer video name you to stroll you thru feeding and caregiving reside to make sure you really feel snug and to reply any questions which will come up!