What It s Like to be a Foster Parent! By: Tori B.

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1 What It s Like to be a Foster Parent! By: Tori B. We started fostering kittens earlier this year. So far we ve had four litters tiny balls of fluff who are now living in homes around the Eugene area. We know where two of them are and have gotten to visit them in their new home. They re sleek and beautiful and happy, lazy and affectionate. Exactly what a foster family would want for their fosters. Our kittens are such a joy to us, and we wait for each new litter with the excitement of a birthday present from a rich relative. How many will there be? Will they be healthy? What colors will they be? And which of them will we fall in love with and desperately want (no, NEED) to adopt (it happens every single time)? When we pick them up from the shelter we peer into the carrier to see if we can spot all of them. They re absolutely perfect at that moment, all round heads and big eyes and whiskers arcing from velvety cheeks. When we bring them home, the youngest ones wobble around the room, bowed legs making their big heads bobble and folded ears making them resemble miniscule bears. When we first began fostering we were tempted to sleep in the room with them on the first night, parents making sure their newborn continues to breathe. But one of us tried it once and learned that kittens don t just breathe overnight, they run and play and crunch kibble and fill the room with certain odors. With some litters we find ourselves being cafeteria monitors, replacing a kitten if she pushes a sibling away from his food. With a recent litter of three, we had to do constant monitoring, eventually using our bodies on the floor as barriers between them. Imagine a shell game of kittens -- tortie pushes tux out of the way, so we replace tortie; tortie pushes tux again, so we switch tux with tortie; now tabby pushes tux away, and tortie thinks tux s food now looks most delicious, so it s tortie and tabby at the same bowl with tux still hoping to eat there. We just hope that eventually tux will stand up to the others so he will get his fair share when he s in his forever home. Continued on Pg 6

2 Paw Print Personals! Cedar Gorgeous, active male looking for an adult only home where I can get a little bit more training so I can be the perfect dog! Come say hi at First Avenue! Meet Karen- our Volunteer of the Month for February! Karen has brought her amazing talents and passions for graphic design and helping animals at our organization. She has contributed almost 300 hours of volunteer service since December 2016! Karen provides awesome support to so many dogs at Greenhill on a weekly basis while also spending countless hours behind her computer at home creating inspiring artwork for postcards, signs, buttons, cards and more! Karen is extremely giving of her time and talents and continues to amaze us with her inspirational work. In Karen's words, she likes volunteering at Greenhill because "this is where love grows." Karen has had many volunteer positions throughout her life and says "this is the best place ever. The volunteers and staff are so dedicated to the animals and their welfare that I feel part of something wonderful." After Karen retired, she moved to Veneta a year and a half ago. She looked for a place to connect through community service and saw Greenhill as the perfect place. She chose to work in the kennel as a dog handler because she hadn t had much experience with dogs. They have shown her joy and devotion and how to see in a 360-degree viewpoint. Karen says they are so in tune with their environment that they alert me to things I don t pay attention to and I start to see with all my senses. She also loves how the dogs respond to the love and care heaped upon them by all the volunteers and staff, saying "there are happy tails wagging here!" Karen traveled widely before landing in the Pacific Northwest. She worked in many jobs, including positions as a counselor, an executive assistant, an English tutor in Hong Kong and a film extra. Before her retirement, she worked as an indie video producer and a mixed media and digital collage artist. When she s not playing in Photoshop, she is working on her first yard, dying and stamping fabric and making scarves. Breanna Sweet gal looking for a nice quiet home where she can lay around all day! Come meet me at Greenhill! Newman Handsome, gentle guy looking for an awesome new home! Wanna be my new best friend? Come see me at First Avenue! Meet our Foster of the Month, Jeff M. and Gail H. Jeff and Gail have been fostering cats and kittens since July After volunteering at Greenhill for some time, the staff had gradually made us more aware of the need for foster families. We felt we had the love and the spare room to give it a try, even though we already had two of our own cats at home. Gail is a Medical Technologist at Peace Health in Eugene. And Jeff has been an optometrist at Rainbow Optics since When they are not working or volunteering, they enjoy outdoor activities like traveling, theater, and music. They can often be found hiking up and down and around Mt. Pisgah. Anybody who loves animals and appreciates unconditional love reflecting back towards you should consider fostering. It is greatly satisfying and heartwarming when you are able to help form and save lives.

3 Everything is wonderful with her, she loves our home and fits right in with us and our little dog. They have become great playmates. She is full of personality, which we love. We haven t had a chance to get her in for her wellness check but we will soon. Gabby is doing wonderful! The kids liked the name Gabby so we kept it. She does great with the kids, but isn't around other animals yet. We had a great experience adopting from Greenhill and would do it again! She has been to the vet and has a clean bill of health. We haven't noticed any behavior or temperament issues at all. She is very calm and a great fit with our family. She plays a lot, but also makes for a great lap kitty, and will sit outside the door and meow sadly while the kids are going to bed. She is an inside kitty for now and loves to play with these big white fluffy balls that we call indoor snowballs. She has been a great addition to the family! He is doing very well. Snickers has opened up a lot since we got him and seems to be very comfortable with us and his new home. Having Winnie has been a real trip...i love her. I'm a widow and retired. I haven't had animals in a long time and just sitting with her on my lap is wonderful. She is definitely getting tons of love. My son has a lab puppy and after a week Winnie is getting along with him. Oh and she has lots of new clothes. I read that chihuahuas get cold easily so I got clothes so she'd be warm and she seems to really enjoy her outfits. So I'm thrilled to have her. Thank you 1st Avenue.

4 He is amazing and has settled in great!!. My husband and I love him. Right now Ralph is curled up asleep on my husband's chest watching TV. No other pets in the home and no vet check yet. Maggie is doing GREAT!! She is a real cuddlebug. We love her and we really lucked out. Everything is new to her and she is just starting to learn about toys. She LOVES bones!!! She's good about going outside to poop. We are keeping her on routines and that is going well. Her vet visit was great and she is now 6 pounds. She is getting along with my other chihuahua. Many, MANY thanks to the foster mom!! I met Maggie at the foster mom's and spent about 2 hours with her. I have nothing but positive things to say about Greenhill - all GREAT! Thanks for checking in on Pumpkin now named Kylo. He is adjusting well and is a curious and adventurous kitten. He is getting to know his new brother Cosmo (a large goldendoodle). The adoption experience was positive and we are happy with our new family member. Chance is wonderful. He's so happy here and I am so lucky to have him. Right now he is asleep on the middle of my bed. Last night my granddaughter slept over and the three of us were in one bed. The only one of us that had room and was comfy was Chance. He is such a lover. He likes everyone except big men. He's very protective of kids and when a man is in the room he will herd him away from the kids. Chance loves to play with toys. His favorites are a round rubber loopy thing and a stuffed knuckle bone. He enjoys going for rides in the car and always rides shotgun.

5 Nici S. (GHS Cattery) for always being so thoughtful, optimistic and kind to cattery staff and potential adopters. Also for always working hard to help as much as she can by doing other work in other departments. Madison S. (GHS Kennel) got "caught" helping sweep and clean up the breezeway since there weren't a lot of dogs to walk during her shift. Thank you, Madison, for looking for extra ways you could help out even though you weren't here to do that. You are awesome! I truly believe we have a responsibility to care for the animals in the world and this is how I can contribute. Amanda J. - Foster Parent

6 It s being around all the amazing animals that is so lovely. Willa Rosin - Volunteer Rachel L. with Duck and Goose Continued from page 1: What It s Like to be a Foster Parent!: By Tori B.: Some of the funniest experiences we ve had with the kittens involve the litter boxes. There s something ridiculously comical about two kittens sitting next to each other in a litter box but facing in different directions `a la The Love Toilet from Saturday Night Live. And when two or more sit casually side by side facing the wall, it looks surprisingly similar to guys standing at a row of urinals. It s not always been easy, though. During our time of fostering, we ve learned firsthand about roundworms and tapeworms, about upper respiratory infections and eye infections, Strongid and erythromycin. We can now burrito-wrap a kitten in three seconds flat, apply eye ointment to a reluctant patient, give medicine from a syringe, and even in pill form (which is a *lot* harder than they make it look on YouTube; even before they re eight weeks old the little twerps know how to cheek a pill). But our experience still leaves us with some unanswered questions. For instance, how can a precious fluff-ball with only four tiny paws manage to cover three average-sized humans with hundreds of scratches? Also, if a kitten s bottom is only 6 inches from the floor, how is it possible that there are poop spots on the wall 12 inches from the floor? Somehow the little darlings defy the laws of gravity and physics. There s a natural transition period when the kittens approach eight weeks of age. We say the kittens are becoming teenagery. The work-to-payoff ratio becomes unbalanced when there is still as much poop to scoop, still as many bowls to wash, but the adolescent kittens are more interested in careening around the room and wrestling with their siblings and less interested in being snuggled than before. Want to scratch me behind the ears? I ll replace those ears with my teeth. Want to pick me up to pet me? Reach for me and I ll start a Parkour session out of reach. This stage also helps when it comes to returning them. When we can imagine even the ones we NEED to adopt more as smelly, grunting teenagers instead of darling, fluffy babies, it s a lot easier to say, It s time for the kittens to go back.