Foster is a very special cat on many levels. First, during the time when Ray had been caring for Vinny (Vinny passed away in Ray's
arms on 20 September 2010), several of our neighbors had reporting seeing Mini Cat outside walking around. This was not possible
as Mini was inside with Ray, and had been for a few weeks at that time.
Foster, looks a lot like Mini Cat if you do not know the two of them apart, don't really notice cats, other than that they are around,
and did not note that this was a kitten, and not really a cat.
We assumed that this cat, who looked so clean and healthy, if not a bit thin, belonged to someone in the neighborhood and that it
was an inside / outside cat, like Mini had been. After Vinny passed away, Ray paid more attention to the outside areas. He had seen
this cat once or twice, but did not really get to see him up close.
One evening, Ray's wife looked out the window and noticed that Foster was walking around in our entry area. Since Mini Cat used to
come by every day for Mini Snacks, Ray decided to put a new snack out for this cat. We also did not know if it was a boy or girl cat,
and because Foster is so pretty, we named "her" Ginger - you can see why in his face.
Ray continued to place food out for "Ginger" and never really thought the kitty would come around any time soon, because kitty would
always dart away and hide if Ray even opened the front door.
Not too long after Ray began feeding Foster, the kitty had been sitting in the driveway of a neighbor’s house. Ray approached slowly,
because this kitty had darted off several times in the past. Foster was rolling around and playing. After he noticed how close Ray had
been, he rolled upright and meowed. Ray meowed back and they had a little chat about the unlimited snacks inside the house.
Foster, apparently liking that idea, and a nice dry and warm place to sleep, decided to take Ray up on the offer. Ray walked over and
gently picked this thin kitty up and brought him to his private suite, complete with private litter box, food, fresh filtered water and a
comfy area to sleep, protected from cars, animals and the hawk that has been fishing in the lake behind the house recently!
After taking pictures and advertising that we had found this wonderful, special kitty, we waited for anyone to contact us about their
lost cat... no one did. We had also sent out emails to our community, but no one came by to claim Foster.
Foster earned his name because he was obviously a boy, and he appeared to also be someone’s very special pet. He is clean, fixed,
very loving and the only two things that made us feel that he had been dropped off are that he was too thin and he had nothing on
him to remotely identify that someone owned him. We knew who owned Mini Cat, and even she had a collar on her, this cat had nothing.
Based on how special this little man is (he looks like a Savannah cat, but his ears are too short), how clean, loving and young he is (he
still does the kitten thing when you pet him, like he's looking for mommy), Ray's wife thought he might be "chipped", so we took him in
so that the vet could scan him for that - nothing. They tested the scanner and tried again. The scanner worked fine, but no chip in
Foster. We decided to have him checked out and vaccinated so we could bring him back home.
Unless we discover his owner, Foster will live with us and be spoiled like all our other kitties.
Foster looks like a skinny Biff with his spots and stripes, which Vinny also had, but Foster doesn't have the "socks" like Biff, and unlike
Vinny, who was like a box with short legs, Foster is sleek and tall with long legs. He is helping Mini to better adjust and come around
even more, and he gets along with everyone else very well.
As an update on Foster, he has a pretty good vocal range. He can meow like a little kitten and he can meow like a very large wild cat
that is about to eat you! Ray thinks that this might have had something to do with why someone would either let this cat out and
not claim him, or drop him off in our community. The loud meow thing could be quite disturbing to someone trying to sleep,
but his beauty and good nature attributes are just wonderful.
He has also had caused Mini Cat to be not as mean as she had sometimes been to the other cats. Mini has become more kind and
loving, and that is very desirable!
