Katinas aka Muning: Fostering A Cat, What Have We Learned?

This cutie-patootie went back home yesterday after staying with us for 10 days. Prince already missed him, everyone at home misses this ever curious, sweet and playful cat. This is Katina aka Muning.

I happily volunteered when my work colleague said she is looking for someone to take care of her cat while she goes to her home country for annual vacation.

The kids especially my daughter has been asking me for a pet for quite some time. I thought that since we are not going to get a permanent pet in the near future, why not be a foster home for someone else pet for a few days so the kids can also experience having a pet.

My colleague assured me that I have nothing to worry about since the cat is vaccinated and dewormed, he is also trained to use his litter box plus her sister will come back a week earlier than her and I can always give her back the cat if I need to.

We took him home on the day we agreed. He was on a cat carrier and a big bag of supplies was handed over to me. Looking at it, he's got a bag of cat food, two sandbags, litter box and a plastic scoop, two ceramic bowls for food and water and a rubber ducky for a toy.

He was meowing like saying "let me out!" He was agitated on our way home. "You might want to cover his eyes, you know cats are good tracker" my husband said jokingly. I was laughing because I can imagine the cat walking it's way back home from Sharjah to Downtown Dubai where my colleague stays. 

We are delighted to have him at home and the kids were too excited about him they wouldn't sleep on his first night. Our sleep patterns was altered for a few nights because he was either meowing or playing instead of sleeping. In the morning he was the one to wake us up, he climbs on our chest and purr although he doesn't do the cannonball like Garfield does. The kids play with him during the day and we are all simply happy to pet him when he sits next to us. 

My colleague said he sheds fur when he is stressed, he must be because I have cat fur everywhere, it's most probably due to the change of environment and people around him. 

I was surprised that Prince was completely fine, he is the one I was expecting to react more since he had infantile asthma but no instead Mica was the one who had itchy eyes, runny nose, cough and inflamed skin. It's confirmed she's got pet allergies. I took her to see the doctor and he gave her a long lasting antihistamine pill to take for 10 days and a skin cream for five days which was really very effective. I told the doctor we are just fostering the cat for a few days , he is going home soon. He said that cat fur and dandruff lingers for at least a month and asked me to hover often.

As much as I wanted to keep Muning longer because he is a joy and like a member of the family, I needed to give him back. My colleague sister was back and we went to meet her yesterday to give Muning. It was a short time but we are glad that the children had their first pet experience. We are still open to the idea of fostering a pet but maybe a dog next time and most probably will get fishes as permanent pets.

I grew up having cats, dogs even ducks, chicken and cows and I was perfectly ok with them around. It really makes me feel happy. The children felt so happy too when Muning was at home, I could only hope that my daughter can outgrow her allergies like some other people have.