As I walked into the Animal Services building, the words of the nursery rhyme 3 Little Kittens were going through my head. Three little kittens… oh there are four, so four little kittens lost their mittens and didn’t know where to find them… Yeah, it’s not three and they haven’t lost their mittens, but it seems they’ve lost their mother, and I’ve come to find them.

Several months earlier, I had to put down my beautiful four-year-old Himalayan – my little love – who had severe anemia that wasn’t responding to treatments, was costing a small fortune (at least for me) to keep trying, and was losing the battle, so I made the choice to put him down. What a euphemism, when we put down someone it’s seen negatively, like we are superior to them, but when we put down and animal, it’s justice and mercy. Maybe it has to do with how it makes the owner feel, it puts down (or insults) the owner’s sense. Nonetheless, my little love was to be no more, and I was desperate (yes, desperate) to find another companion just like him!

Typically, there is a ceaseless slew of abandoned pets, yet trying to find to find one in phase one of Covid 19 proved to be challenging. I suppose my tendency toward finding the perfect one didn’t help, but with the shelters closed and shutting their doors to intake, there were less animals available, and they were going fast. I think of its similarity to the real estate market, and it was definitely a seller’s market. In a buyer’s market there is a glut of homes and competition is diminished, but a seller’s market the competition is stiff. Same day sales are common, as the buyer doesn’t want to another buyer to snatch up the house they may (or may not) have fallen in love with. This was happening in shelters within a radius of 150 miles of me, and several inquiries left me high and dry.

When I finally found my new friend, I drove sixty miles north of my town to pick him up. He was just so sweet, but I still mourned my little love and felt my joy, my light was gone. So I thought maybe a dog was the answer.

The search begins anew with the same singularity of focus for the dogs. Inquiries met with silence or sorries, as the dogs are taken immediately. This is a blessing in disguise as it forces me to look beyond the emotional hole to the bill of responsibility attached to owning a dog. I wonder if I want to commit to that lifestyle, so I think – Hey, why not foster? – Try before you buy. How perfect can that be? So I sign up for my county’s Animal Services foster program.

Months pass. Teddy, my new little love, and I start bonding and I forget that I have not been chosen to foster. In my application, I opted for kittens, puppies, and small dogs, but really only had dog in mind, so I am surprised (but super excited) when I get the email to foster four kittens. Wow! What fun! My journey as foster parent begins with four little kittens, of which some have mittens, but all have lost their mother. Oh mother, oh mother, help us find our home.