PET TALK

Ten Lives

12 Selfs Point Road, New Town Open Mon - Sat 10.00 - 4.00 Sun 10.00 - 2.30 6278 2111 tenlives.com.au

FOSTER

Open your heart and your home

How can I help?

Foster caring can be one of the most rewarding and uplifting aspects of volunteering. Our foster care program is an essential part of our work looking after our kitties. You don’t have to foster all the time, fostering even for a short time - a week or two - helps with our vital work.

Fostering is a truly wonderful experience which is extremely rewarding for you and lifesaving for the cats or kittens you care for.

Some of the reasons our kitties need foster care before they can be adopted are: • Shy or timid • Too young • Illness

The Ten Lives Cat Centre provides full support and everything you need to care for a cat or kitten in your home. We provide: • food & bowls • kitty litter & trays • toys, blankets & beds • 24 hour support • medicines and vet care

You provide: • a loving environment • care for our cats and kittens

You can find out more about the Ten Lives foster care program and other ways you can help at tenlives.com.au Every cat has a story. Are you part of it? #FOSTER

George was quick to be adopted and even made a new best friend, Willow. Photo credit: Tiarna Bricknell

Three inspiring cats and the army of people behind them

Rich East – Ten Lives Cat Centre

ONE of the greatest things about working at Ten Lives is getting to see the success stories first-hand.

Of course, there are many cats that breeze through the Centre, clear their medical examinations, and quickly find their new homes. Then there are the cats that seem to have the odds stacked against them, and an army of people behind them who get them to that finishing line. It’s these cats that I find particularly inspiring.

Twelve-week-old Romeo arrived in April alongside his two littermates, Callie and Kiwi. White and black Romeo presented with a distressing abnormality to his right hind knee.

He was sent offsite for x-rays to get a better idea of the issue and they found that he had a severe medial patella luxation. This required amputation and extensive recovery in foster care.

Having only three legs wasn’t going to hold Romeo back, and after 63 days in care it only took two days in the adoption rooms to find his new family.

Two-year-old Lucy came to us in May in a bad way. It was likely that she had been hit by a car and she required amputation of her left hind leg due to multiple fractures

It took two weeks before she could start walking again and she required daily physio sessions to build her strength.

She is now in foster care to see out the rest of her rehabilitation and we are sure that she will be snapped up when she arrives in the adoption rooms.

Then there was George, or Curious George as his foster carers called him. This sweet kitten arrived at five weeks old with a congenital condition known as eyelid agenesis. This is a painful condition where his right eyelid hadn’t formed properly so fur would rub and irritate his eyes. The condition had progressed such that the eye had to be removed.

George spent nearly three months in foster care before arriving in the adoption rooms and took just one day to find his new family.

I find the resilience of these cats inspiring - how they accept adversity and get on with their lives – but also the families who accept them as they are.

For each cat, there is an army of people behind them; from the intake staff who welcome them into the Centre, the vet team who provide medical care, to the animal attendants who feed and clean their kennels.

However, it is our foster carers who open their homes with love and support for cats and kittens in need during their rehabilitation. Foster carers volunteer their time to look after cats in their home and are provided with all training, supplies and food.

Ten Lives simply couldn’t do what we do without our foster carers to see cats like George, Lucy and Romeo through to their adoption day.

If fostering a cat in need is something you might be interested in, reach out and talk to us. Ten Lives Cat Centre is a self-funded animal charity that relies on donations and volunteers to care for and rehome the unwanted cats and kittens of Tasmania. See how you can get involved at tenlives. com.au