Rescue group calls for foster carers ahead of kitten season

Lost and Found Pets Illawarra Rescue is in urgent need of more animal foster carers as it prepares for a massive influx of homeless kittens.

Historically, the warmer months – often referred to as kitten season – tend to bring weather most suitable for breeding. But Lost and Found Pets Illawarra Rescue admin Nicole Harrison said that while the calls to take in kittens increase over spring, summer and early autumn, there’s been little respite over the past few years, possibly due to unusually high winter temperatures and also as a consequence of council stopping its cat-trapping programs during the Covid lockdowns.

To cope with the kitten season influx, Lost and Found Pets Illawarra Rescue – the sister Facebook page to the 43,000-strong Lost and Found Pets Illawarra group – has issued a call-out for people to temporarily house kittens.

The animal-rescue group has only a handful of foster carers, so its calls for help are growing more urgent. Nicole and fellow page admin Anne McNaughton often take in animals themselves to keep them out of shelters and prevent them from adding to feral cat populations by reproducing on the streets.

“We are really in need of carers for kittens at the moment, and also, if people can, take a mum and kitten as sometimes that's needed,” Nicole said.

“If it's the first time you've ever done it, you can say you want to do kittens, [or you] just want to try two to begin with. Two seems to be a great number for people – one can be a bit harder sometimes because they're a bit more reliant on you because they don't have that other litter mate to play with.

“I suppose commitment is the main thing because we do get a lot of people that will go, ‘I can't wait to do it’, and then I don't know if the reality of it hits them… but we really need people that if they say they're going to take on, just say, two cats, they stick it out, bring them home, because moving them around is stressful to them.

“I'm stepping back in again this coming kitten season… and Anne will as well. She takes on a lot of the little dogs and often kittens here and there.”

The process to become a foster carer is simple: let Lost and Found Pets Illawarra Rescue know you are interested, fill out a form detailing your previous fostering experience, living arrangements, home and family environment, current pets, requirements for your foster animal and your ability to keep your foster animal separate to your pets for a two-week quarantine period.

Lost and Found Pets Illawarra Rescue will then provide you with a foster carer kit that includes a guide and all paperwork related to the animal, ongoing assistance and funding for all veterinary expenses. For kittens, a litter tray and initial bag of food is allocated, with more food, toys and care items passed on to foster carers as donations come in.

Though each animal’s stay is determined on a case-by-case basis, Nicole said it could be anywhere between two weeks and two months.

“As far as what the carers provide, obviously their home, their safe environment, indoors only when it comes to cats without question, unless it's like an enclosure where they can go out for a bit of sun in the yard,” Nicole said.

“Basic manners – we don't expect professional training, but just the basics, and socialisation is really important.

“Fostering with kids is fantastic. It’s really good for them too, because they get to see how it works and they learn a bit of empathy and compassion and what's involved with having an animal if they don't already have one.”

When carers become acquainted with the process, fostering can be a very rewarding experience. One Illawarra family has taken in 250 kittens at Nicole’s last count, earning them the nickname ‘The Kitten Whisperer Family’.

“It's really nice to have put all that effort in and give all those animals your love and then they go off to a home and you hear back how much they've become a part of that family."

If you're interested in becoming an animal foster carer, visit Lost and Found Pets Illawarra Rescue on Facebook and fill out their foster carer form.