Photo courtesy of Mim Braaten
When Mim Braaten decided she wanted to start fostering kittens, she didn’t have to look far to find the best place to keep them.
With its ample windows and French doors, Braaten’s sun room is a temporary paradise for cats waiting until they’re old enough to be adopted. The house’s previous owners added the 20-by-11-foot room off the garage before the Braatens moved in. Tile floors allow for easy cleaning, and blanketed cupboard areas make perfect nests for pregnant cats. Perhaps most importantly, the double doors that separate it from the rest of the house are a boon for Braaten’s husband, Eric, who is allergic to cats.
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“We really didn’t have a purpose for the room, so it’s ideal,” Braaten says.
Braaten started fostering cats about 14 years ago after Eric’s co-worker told her about Pets Without Parents, a nonprofit, no-kill Clintonville organization. Braaten, who was intrigued by the idea of working around her husband’s allergy, decided to give it a try herself.
“It was hard at first because the kids were younger,” Braaten says.
The idea of remaining unattached to their new small and fluffy housemates was difficult for daughters Emily and Valerie, then 10 and 7. But knowing that more kittens would eventually replace the current ones helped them adapt, Braaten says.
Like her daughters, Braaten counted animals as friends during her childhood, though her mother never let them keep more than one cat and one dog. Still, the experience taught Braaten that it was possible for cats to be friends with dogs.
The Braatens’ dog, Penny, is a living example of this. At nine years old, the chow, Doberman pinscher and border collie mix has seen many cats come and go, and her habitual presence in the sun room helps the cats learn how to socialize with canine companions.
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Though Braaten started out fostering, three of the rescued have become permanentents. Interestingly enough, Eric finds he is not allergic to the cats if he is exposed to them as kittens.
Their one-eyed black cat, Jackie, was the first feline to graduate from foster to house cat. Brown tabby Izzy followed that. Last of all was Monty, a grey tabby who likes visiting the sun room to play with the foster cats. The young cat went home with three different people who, for various reasons, decided they couldn’t adopt him.
“He’s been ours ever since,” Braaten says.
Though Monty enjoys playing with his new companions, Braaten says she’s careful to introduce him to a mother cat and her kittens, because the mother is territorial and also untested for health issues. Usually Braaten fosters a litter of kittens, about four wee ones at a time.
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On one memorable occasion, two well-timed deliveries made for quite a crowded sun room. Three days apart, one cat delivered four kittens, while her sister delivered seven. To top it off, Braaten acquired two more orphan kittens from Pets without Parents.
“I think the mothers were so overwhelmed with already 11 kittens that they easily accepted two more,” Braaten says.
The mothers would take turns nursing the kittens, and neither the kittens nor the mothers knew to which brood they belonged.
“It was very much like a co-op,” Braaten says.
Sometimes Braaten gets the opportunity to foster cats that are a bit older. When she was returning kittens to the shelter last February, she noticed a sister and a brother that were still rather small. The cats suffered from cerebellar hypoplasia, a disorder in cats and dogs that affects their mobility.
“Out of all the years I’ve fostered, I’ve never heard of this,” Braaten says.
Because of their disability, the cats require grain-free food and plenty of room in which to move around. They also have to maintain a healthy weight to aid in mobility.
“I’ve kind of watched them grow up,” Braaten says.
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The duo – aptly named Weebles and Wobbles – stayed with her for 11 months. Both cats have since been adopted. Typically, Braaten fosters newborn kittens for about eight weeks, though it can vary if the kittens are already a couple of weeks old.
When Braaten isn’t caring for cats, she works part-time for Upper Arlington City Schools providing office substitution support. Eric teaches physics at The Ohio State University. Originally from Green Bay, Wis., Braaten moved with her family to Upper Arlington in 1996 for Eric’s teaching career. Emily and Valerie, now 23 and 21, are attending school on the east and west coasts, respectively.
So while the home may not be filled with her daughters like it once was, Braaten will most likely have numerous feline friends in her future.
“I feel like I’m making a difference one stray at a time – sometimes more than one,” she says.
Pets Without Parents is an all-breed shelter for cats and dogs. For more information about adoption and volunteering, visit http://www.petswithoutparents.net/.
Sarah Sole is an assistant editor. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscememediagroup.com.
