Allow me to sketch the entire backstory:
Three months ago, a cat shelter asked my girlfriend whether we could temporarily take in two sibling kittens, just until a permanent foster family was found. Within a week a interested family (mother with two nice kids) visited, and they agreed to adopt the kittens after the required procedures (sterilization etc). They paid the fee to the shelter, and all forms were filled in and signed.
So far so good; we were not too emotionally attached yet, and our own cats (3 and 18 year old males) seemed to tolerate their short visit.
However, we noticed that the girl kitten was breathing very rapidly, and was less active than her brother. Upon examination by the vet, it turned out that she had a serious lung infection and they prescribed her antibiotics. A couple of weeks passed by, and the poor thing got worse and worse; she was just lying on her pillow panting and looking very sad, while she was actually losing weight (she had zero appetite) while her brother was getting bigger and stronger. He wanted to play fight with her, so sometimes we had to move him to another room to give her a break. At the same time, they enjoyed each other's company so we did not want to stress them by separating them completely.
The vet office took new pictures, and it turned out that none of the antibiotics were effective; her longs were completely infected and she kept on losing weight (weighing less than 900 grams at this point, while her brother weighed almost 2 kg). They warned us that the chances of her pulling through were very slim, as her heart was also affected because of the desperate attempts of her lungs to get some air in. They prescribed one more experimental antibiotic, and a special kind of food which my girlfriend tried to administer with a syringe (the kind without needle obviously) multiple times a day.
She sort of stabilized, and stopped losing weight, but the vet insisted that the situation was not looking good. All this time, we were in contact with the permanent foster family, who were ofcourse also very sad (they had already lost their former cat a couple of months prior to this), but we kept hoping for the best.
And then, slowly but surely, she started becoming more active and even began to gain some weight (after lots and lots of 'force' feeding).!We were delighted to see her stand up to her stronger brother in their play fights, and it was awesome to see her climbing up a pole, asking for pets, and even playing with our older own cats.
Even the pictures of her lungs cleared up, and after a month of continuous improvement it was finally decided that she was strong enough to make the move.
Problem is, by now these two kittens/cats are part of our household. After intensive feeding and medication (my girlfriend had a whole schedule printed out), and many trips to the vet, they were such a big part of our live, and on top of that the male was the cutest cat I have ever seen; when you picked him up, he started purring loudly, and touching your face with his paws and his little nose. He was always up to no good, and wanted to play fight with everyone, but he was never mean and always seemed to have the best intentions.
At the same time, keeping 4 cats was a lot of work, and our oldest cat seemed to prefer being left alone, so for his sake and because emptying 4 litter boxes daily/feeding them all the time started being a real chore, we though that we would be okay with giving them up.
Yesterday, the foster family came to pick them up. they were very nice; they had brough flowers and were very considerate about the emotional impact it might have on us. However, the moment we had to pick them up (they were scared of all the commotion) and put them in an unknown basket to leave with people they've only seen twice yet, it broke my heart. We were both devastated and feel a sort of emptiness now that we don't have these two running around anymore. Seeing some of their toys/medication syringes lying around is very hard to deal with. I know we should be happy that they are healthy, together and with a loving family, and we are, but we still miss them very much.
The new family said that we were always welcome to visit, but I wonder if that would do more harm than good; perhaps it is best to make a clean break? Would it be worse for the kittens if they saw us again? I would not want to think that we abandoned them, although I know that they probably will forget about is in a matter of days/weeks. It would also be a comforting thought that we could propose to the family that we could take the cats in when they are on holiday (seems like a win-win), but would that stress the cats out too much?
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/faserf/gave_away_temporary_fostered_cats_after_3_months/
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