Foster Diaries: Sisu & Siiri – Week Five

It looks like this Foster Diaries series will be coming to a close sooner than I expected. Only a few days after Ilona went to her new home her companions Sisu and Siiri have been reserved for adoption!

S received a phone call on Sunday asking about the kittens. Apparently the caller had seen a picture of Siiri on the website and fallen in love, and her partner had seen Sisu’s picture and fallen in love with him! We were busy on Sunday but agreed that they could come and see the little monsters on Monday. Even then we knew they were pretty serious – they were driving for over an hour to come and see them. Obviously we were keen for the kittens to be on their best behaviour – we would not want the trip to be a waste, after all.

The kittens were sleeping when the doorbell announced our visitors. Sisu does not like visitors, but I made sure to be near him comforting him so that he did not run off and hide immediately. He did hiss and run off when approached though. Siiri gave a much better impression, being her usual affectionate self. I was able to get hold of Sisu after a little while and persuade him to come and say hello. He was still a little uncertain but did not hiss and even allowed them to touch him.

Elvis also seemed to give a good impression! He was laying on the sofa when the adopters arrived, and greeted them in his chatty way that he normally reserves for people he knows. S joked that if Elvis had been available for adoption they probably would have taken him too. The kittens wouldn’t have minded that – they are rather attached to him. We’ve even caught Siiri attempting to suckle from Elvis… She’s a bit old for that behaviour I think, and he’s a bit too male.

The visitors stayed for quite a while; almost an hour I believe. They had plenty of time to see the kittens, and it was long enough that they had both calmed down sufficiently to be willing to have the attention. Neither have owned cats before, though the man said he had a friend he used to live with who has four cats, so he has some experience. They do also have a dog (possibly more than one), so they have general pet experience too. Sisu and Siiri have not met any dogs before, as far as we’re aware, so it’ll be interesting to hear how that works out! I don’t think it will be a problem, so long as their dog is well-behaved around cats.

Ordinarily when a kitten is adopted from PHESY the owners are expected to take them to a particular vet to be done once they reach six months of age. The cost of this is included in the adoption fee. This isn’t a very practical arrangement when the new owners live as far away as these do. In order to get around this it was decided that the kittens should be operated on before they leave us. As such on Thursday they were taken to the vets and came back rather wobbly and no doubt sore. If it was up to me I would have tried to find another solution; three months is very young for a kitten to be done.

Nonetheless the operations have been done. They are both vaccinated and micro-chipped, having accompanied Ilona when she was. They are pretty much ready to go! We will still have them until this coming Thursday, because they need to be completely recovered from their operations before they leave. Siiri in particular, seeing as the operation for girls is more complex than that for boys. If they need a longer recovery time we will be having them for a little longer, but at this point it seems that they are both recovering nicely. Indeed they seem their normal selves! Siiri does not like the overall we made her though; where they were done they were not given anything to cover the wound so of course she kept trying to chew her stitches out…!

Their adoption is actually fairly good timing. We’re going to England to spend Christmas with my family, and our flight will be on the 16th. If they leave on schedule they will be leaving just a few days before us. It’s not a huge problem if they are delayed because our two cats will be here anyway, and the in-laws will be coming regularly to feed and cuddle whichever cats are here. But I do think it is better they go to their new home before we leave, because they’ll be able to continue getting more socialisation that way whereas they would be alone (with the other cats) most of the day if they were here whilst we are away.

Next week will obviously be the last Foster Diary of the year. I suspect it will be a little while before we get more kittens, so next year’s series probably won’t start for a couple of months. I may continue to post about cats on Saturdays (it is Cat-urday after all!), but that depends if our cats ever do anything interesting..!

Love,

Lady Joyful