Foster Profile: Jolie

Fostering can seem like an overwhelming and emotionally draining undertaking. It's easy to get caught up in the little trials and tribulations that come with socializing and training feral kittens. I'd like to take a break from the more educational content to feature a fostering success story. For a few years now, my mother and I have been following a woman on Instagram by the name of Beth Stern. She has fostered hundreds of cats and kittens over the years and has placed every one of them into a loving, safe home. She fosters all of her kittens in her own home on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Back in 2017, a trio of kitten siblings popped up on Beth's page. The three babies were found with their mother in Hollywood, FL living in a dirty car engine. All of the kittens had severe eye issues and were emaciated.

An extremely kind woman made an effort to rescue the three and promptly contacted Beth, as they needed medical attention immediately. Unfortunately, the mother could not be trapped at that time. Beth flew down to Florida and got each of the kittens the help they needed.  Beth had named them Happy, Merry, and Jolie. All of them were spayed/neutered and given medication for their eye issues. Happy and Merry were completely blind in one eye and still retained partial vision in the other. However, Jolie's issues, both congenital and developed, caused total blindness in both eyes. Eventually, one of Jolie's eyes had to be surgically removed due to chronic infection. Despite all this Jolie was the sweetest, most chatty baby who got around just like any other sighted cat.

By this point, my mother had fallen in love with Jolie. She was one of many who contacted Beth about the possibility of adopting Jolie. Luckily, my family was chosen to become Jolie's forever family.

In December we brought Jolie home just in time for Christmas. Our other two cats, Henri and Pineapple, became wonderful big siblings to Jolie and they all get along beautifully. As long as neither of them get anywhere near Jolie's favorite hangout spot, cardboard boxes. Fostering can be an extremely rewarding experience and the knowledge that you helped give a cat the best life possible is an amazing thing.