Well. It's Been...

...exhausting.   I may never open my garage door again.

You may remember that a few months ago I left my garage door open only to find that two strays gave birth to their litters on the same day and in the same box in said garage.  Eleven kittens.  And I had to make a decision:  allow a feral cat colony to grow up, kill them all, or bring them in and foster and socialize them in hopes of finding good homes.  Plus getting the mothers spayed.

As soon as the first batch was able to eat cat food and only have one mother to suckle from I brought them in.  The one mother clearly was a house cat and is a darling who shows no sign of wanting to ever go out again.  She's my happy lap kitty now.

Flitter, on the other hand, is feral.  There was a second litter before I finally was able to trap and spay her.  And guess where they ended up?  My garage...

Four of the first litter went to new homes fairly early on.  But at one point I had 14 cats in my 1800 sq ft house.  I joked about being the crazy cat lady but the worry and work was exhausting and I started popping up cold sores and other indications that I was overwhelmed.  And maybe that's where the line between a true crazy cat lady and a foster parent is drawn - I dearly love each one of them but I realize that I absolutely can't properly take care of that many cats.

So, finally, all of the first batch went to the Animal Welfare Society shelter two weeks ago.  I cried all the way home.  But to my joy all but 2 have already been adopted.  They tell me that my babies are so well socialized that they basically come out and choose their new parents.

And so now there's just the last litter.  My absolute darlings.  They will be the hardest of all to let go, but at least I feel like I can breathe now.