A memorial piece for three of my fosters. I actually lost seven in the past few months but wanted to do this for the adopter of the two kittens pictured.

We took in a pregnant mama kitty two years ago and decided to keep her and adopt out her 5 babies. Day they go to be fixed before the went to new homes we had them tested as a formality out of our own pockets and found out they were FeLV+. It is a terrible disease mama got likely from mating and babies all got from mama. It meant they couldn't live with other cats for risk of spreading it and the babies were extremely (statistically) unlikely to survive to their first birthdays. Until the virus would go active someday, they were totally normal cats. They were cuddly and sweet and playful so I couldn't euthanize them on the spot. I talked to three different vets before deciding that we would take every day with them as a gift until they got sick. If they couldn't be cured with simple antibiotics, we would know they wouldn't improve and let them go to sleep before they would suffer.

Every kitten survived until their first birthday, beating all odds. One, a little Torrie named Jiji, died the week after. As the rest were still healthy, I continued to search for adopters for mama and the remaining 4, and found special homes for all but mama. Slowly they all succumbed but as their owners expected it they were euthanized the moment they began to suffer so they still had many days and months of happiness.

My friend from high school adopted these two, orange boy named Tombo and Grey boy named Magellan. She decided to adopt only FeLV cats since they are often killed immediately even at no kill shelters, and has since saved 3 more. They get at least a few month of life as a spoiled housecat before they get sick, and adults can survive longer.

Last month we finally had to say goodbye to mama. We never found an adopter for her but she will be remembered as our cat because we loved her so much and she is buried in my garden. She lived to be at least 3, spending 2 years with us.

This picture is of the two longest-lived babies being reunited with their mama on the other side. Tombo was always a mama's boy so I wouldn't have given him up if it hadn't been my friend taking him. So here he is finally getting groomed by her once again. Cherry blossoms because we knew from the start how short-lived they would be, but how much beauty they brought into our lives.

Animal rescue is hard, guys. Life is so unfair to those who don't deserve it.