Foster Profile: Peanut

I really enjoyed writing Jolie's foster profile a week or so back and I think it's a nice way of breaking up some of the more serious content. For this next featured foster profile, I'm going to introduce you to Peanut!

Peanut is a member of a five kitten litter that was born in June of 2018 in my backyard to the famous Mommy Tortie. He was the runt of his litter so my family and I believed he was a little girl for weeks before we could get our hands on him. The first few weeks after Peanut and his siblings were born were a bit stressful. Even though we had two enclosures with blankets stationed in the backyard, one elevated and one on the ground, with food and water available, Mommy decided not to birth her litter in either of the two. My family and I were worried when we heard the tell-tale chirps of newborn kittens, but couldn't seem to find them anywhere in the backyard. After a few days of searching and watching Mommy's behavior, we finally saw her slip through a break in the fence between the neighbor's fence and ours. She had the babies housed between the two fences where we couldn't reach them, nor could any dogs or possible predators. Frustrating yet reassuring. 

After about six weeks, the babies started to show themselves. They were gorgeous. There was one diluted tortie (like Mommy), one brown tabby, one cream colored tabby, one bright red tabby and then Peanut. Peanut was the only black kitten! Once we managed to trap three of the five kittens at eight weeks, the other two were a bit more wary. A couple weeks passed and we were able to give the three kittens caught some flea baths, meds, vaccines and adopt them out into their forever homes! We worked with North Shore Animal Rescue for some assistance with the process. The only two left were Peanut and his brother, who we named Red. Red, unfortunately, was not ready to be an indoor cat. He had too many feral behaviors and although he is not food aggressive or territorial, being outside with his mom was what was best for him.

Trapping Peanut was surprisingly easy. He jumped up onto our kitchen windowsill, where we feed them sometimes, and he allowed us to pet him and even pick him up. So once he gave us the green light to hold him, we wrapped him in a towel and whisked him away to the foster room (the upstairs bathroom). He had quite a few fleas so we gave him two flea baths which he was a champ for. He was the sweetest little guy who just wanted to eat and sit on our laps. My boyfriend's parents fell head over heels for him and I managed to persuade them to keep him. He's been living with them for just under a year and gets along with their three other cats, Tinkerbell, Penny and Liberty, wonderfully. He's a special guy who has managed to open tupper-ware containers full of tuna salad more than once.