Today was another adoption event at PetSmart.

We had four cats available for adoption, including my own foster, Sarah. Sarah was found when she was five days old, and between three of us volunteers, we bottle fed her and raised her. She gets passed around between two of us, and lives in both homes as though it’s nothing.

She gets along great with other cats, and is almost annoyingly affectionate at times (when you’re trying to sleep, and suddenly she wants to loudly purr in your ear and lick your face).She, like many other cats, don’t show well at adoption events. She spent her whole life spoiled by foster care, so she doesn’t understand why she needs to be in a small cage in a loud store with funny noises.

At her first adoption event, she hissed and swatted at anyone that approached her cage. It’s hard to convince someone that she’s actually a wonderful loving girl when she’s like this. She’s resorted to sulking by now (this is her third event). As I’ve mentioned before, it’s so hard for a foster to know just how sweet their cat is, when they don’t show it to other people. You find yourself saying “I swear she’s not like this at home!” You’re not helping your case, Sarah.

We had one adoption out of the four, a kitten named Dory. Some might say “only one?” but my husband kept saying “hey, that’s 25%!”

Kitten season has only begun, and people call the store asking if rescues have young kittens for adoption. Technically yes, we do have the cheese kittens, but because it’s so early in the season, all of the kittens are still too young for adoption.  Even still, it does make me sad when people want to overlook the perfectly wonderful adult cats that are available for adoption.

Ask my husband or myself, and we’ll always advocate for young adults ages 1-4 for anyone who wants a starter cat. They’re usually still playful, and they’re calmer than kittens. Besides, an indoor cat can live up to 20 years, so you still have plenty of time to bond with your young adult cat. I barely even think of them as adults, truthfully. In my head, they’re more like less rebellious teenagers.

While at the event, someone came in looking for items for three week old kittens. He had them for three days so far, and said he’d been feeding them Vitamin D milk.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Despite the stereotype (no idea why it’s even a stereotype), all cats are lactose intolerant. Feeding any cat cow’s milk will lead to diarrhea, and in kittens that’s especially dangerous, as they could die from dehydration.

His intentions to help the kittens were good, and unfortunately milk is the stereotype food that one thinks of for feeding cats. One of the volunteers showed him the proper formula that PetSmart stocked, and recommended looking up how to care for orphaned kittens. Just in case it was more work than he bargained for, she also gave him our contact info.

Despite my lack of sleep from bottle feeding the cheese kittens, I really hope he does contact us should it be too much for him. Three weeks is a breeze compared to 9 days old, but they’re still young and developing.