Human and Cat Are Foster Caring Team
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- Photo: Chandler Alteri, Charlie’s owner.
This is the nice story of a cat foster carer, Chandler Alteri, who has an assistant, her cat, Charlie. The two work side-by-side to foster cats and kittens and they specialize in kittens who are shy and in need of intensive fostering.
Chandler says:
“It’s unreal… Charlie has worked with cats that were completely blind and others who have had cerebral hyperplasia. One cat, named Champ, had a hard time and couldn’t make it to the litter box and was incontinent. Charlie helped him go to the bathroom, and was instrumental in helping him clean up and get around. It’s really sweet. It’s very beautiful and makes me want to cry.”
Charlie was an abandoned kitten at a campsite. He was in a closed box apparently. The place: Tennessee. Chandler had no idea that he would grow up to be such a great fost caring cat.
She says that Charlie is her guardian angel and a guardian angel to every cat that he’s fostered. They foster cats from the ASPCA.
A senior feline behaviour counsellor at the ASPCA adoption centre, Adi Hovac, said that foster kittens particularly benefit from having a calm friendly cat for support. They provide a connection that humans are unable to offer. The counsellor states that Charlie deftly aids the socialisation process. She says that Charlie’s presence “has the added benefit of socialising the kittens to other cats, making them more likely to enjoy the company of cats as they grow up.”
It is the first time that I have personally encountered this sort of teamwork in cat fostering. I’m sure that it happens a lot elsewhere (Elisa will tell me about it as I am sure that it happens in her house) but, as I said, is the first time I have seen a story online about it.
Source: dnainfo.com
just beautiful thank you for sharing yours an Charlies experience, i foster kittens an named one Charlie he cleans an looks after little ones …. but 4 nights ago my big boy Charlie went missing just out of the blue, nutured an microchipped , please pray for my boys return.
Beautiful!
Great story! I have seen this compassion phenomenon too. Two of my cats: a black one named Pete was a hero to kittens born in an orange grove and the nearest human was on the other side of a 6 foot block wall. Legend has it that he took each by the scruff and scaled the wall with them so someone could care for them. When I got him I also took in a deaf white cat who also was de-clawed and so he was hyper-defensive. He chose Pete to vilianize but Pete was compassionate enough to know the deaf cat (Polar-bear) couldn’t help it. And so Pete would take Polars’ verbal and physical assaults. I even saw Pete take full-on smacks to his face and all Pete would do was close his eyes. I also had a red tabby who was my sort of second-in-command, keeping peace in the household. He knew just how much force to use so noone disliked him for being a little police-cat.
Cats (and other animals) are truly amazing this way. I’ve read many stories of cross-species friendships and helper buddies. We humans have been so busy thinking we’re the best thing this planet has seen that it’s only been relatively recently that we see kindness and other emotions in animals.