Hi, I’m Shelby, the owner @fosterkittenlove on Instagram. I began my foster journey as a seventeen-year-old in 2011 shortly after I started volunteering once a week at the Cat Adoption Team in Sherwood, OR. My duties as a volunteer included feeding the kittens dinner, giving them fresh water, changing their litter, making sure they had toys, and scrubbing lots and lots of poop off the kennel floors, walls and occasionally the ceiling.
After learning about the foster program I held my breath and asked my mom if she would allow me to sign up for it. She told me to ask my dad and by some miracle he said yes. I took the foster training class as soon as I could and voila! here I am, x amount of years later, still fostering and now mentoring new foster parents through CAT’s foster program. Most of my foster groups come from Cat Adoption Team but every once in a while I’ll have some I’ve taken in through a different rescue or have taken in independently. I’ll talk more on that further down.
Initially, I created my Instagram account to follow one of my foster cats. Her adopter told me I could follow her on Instagram and since I didn’t have one I obviously needed to create one. How could I pass up an opportunity to see how she’s doing in her forever home? I never intended for it to grow the way it has, nor did I expect it would allow me to help a number of cats and kittens that I wouldn’t have been able to otherwise. Although, I do admit, even before I had the support of the IG community I became a craigslist junkie and set out to help as many cats and kittens as I possibly could with whatever means I had. Those means were limited, but I still did what I could. Taking in a pair of incredibly sick kittens who’d been kept kenneled in a barn with no ventilation on a hot summer day – check. Helping remove twenty-three cats and kittens from a property before the lady caring for them was kicked out – check. Helping rehome a cat with rear leg mobility issues before his owner had him euthanized – check. The list goes on.
My pre-IG craigslist adventures were all funded by me, myself, and I. I spent hundreds in certain cases getting the kittens seen by a vet and treated, but in no way could I have helped some of them without the support of the Instagram community once my account began to grow. The most notable two, Sonnet and Haiku, racked up over $40k in vet bills between the two of them and their rare congenital condition. These two kittens, born in December 2017, showed me how powerful social media can be and have inspired me to continue helping kittens like them who are often overlooked by shelters and rescues because of the financial burden they’d cause. (Please see my "Previous Fosters" page for my most medically challenging foster cases.)
Rescues have to make difficult decisions on a daily basis. One of these decisions may be turning away or euthanizing a pair of kittens with a rare condition and instead use the money that would’ve been spent helping them to save hundreds of other cats and kittens in need. It’s easy to become frustrated and even angry with this way of thinking when you believe they’re all worthy of being helped, but shelters and rescues have to budget their money to be able to make the largest impact and save the most lives. However, that shouldn’t mean these kittens are hopeless and that is where I am happy to come in. I’ve made some invaluable connections with people who are as willing as I am to help special kittens and make advancements in veterinary medicine in order to do so.
At the moment I do not have non-profit status but am hoping to start one in the coming years. I would love nothing more than to continue helping cats and kittens and continue expanding my knowledge of rare congenital conditions and spreading awareness on how these kittens can be helped.
Initially, I created my Instagram account to follow one of my foster cats. Her adopter told me I could follow her on Instagram and since I didn’t have one I obviously needed to create one. How could I pass up an opportunity to see how she’s doing in her forever home? I never intended for it to grow the way it has, nor did I expect it would allow me to help a number of cats and kittens that I wouldn’t have been able to otherwise. Although, I do admit, even before I had the support of the IG community I became a craigslist junkie and set out to help as many cats and kittens as I possibly could with whatever means I had. Those means were limited, but I still did what I could. Taking in a pair of incredibly sick kittens who’d been kept kenneled in a barn with no ventilation on a hot summer day – check. Helping remove twenty-three cats and kittens from a property before the lady caring for them was kicked out – check. Helping rehome a cat with rear leg mobility issues before his owner had him euthanized – check. The list goes on.
My pre-IG craigslist adventures were all funded by me, myself, and I. I spent hundreds in certain cases getting the kittens seen by a vet and treated, but in no way could I have helped some of them without the support of the Instagram community once my account began to grow. The most notable two, Sonnet and Haiku, racked up over $40k in vet bills between the two of them and their rare congenital condition. These two kittens, born in December 2017, showed me how powerful social media can be and have inspired me to continue helping kittens like them who are often overlooked by shelters and rescues because of the financial burden they’d cause. (Please see my "Previous Fosters" page for my most medically challenging foster cases.)
Rescues have to make difficult decisions on a daily basis. One of these decisions may be turning away or euthanizing a pair of kittens with a rare condition and instead use the money that would’ve been spent helping them to save hundreds of other cats and kittens in need. It’s easy to become frustrated and even angry with this way of thinking when you believe they’re all worthy of being helped, but shelters and rescues have to budget their money to be able to make the largest impact and save the most lives. However, that shouldn’t mean these kittens are hopeless and that is where I am happy to come in. I’ve made some invaluable connections with people who are as willing as I am to help special kittens and make advancements in veterinary medicine in order to do so.