The Foster Chronicles - Snowy

For the past year I have been volunteering at a local shelter.  I spend a few hours a week socializing cats in the shelter itself, and we have also started dipping our toes into fostering.  Yesterday, I brought home Snowy.  

Snowy is a year-old male cat who needs a little help with socialization, which is a common reason for fostering.  He was in a foster home before this and while he did well with the humans, apparently didn't care much for the resident cats.  Enter our currently cat-free home.

I had not met Snowy at the shelter before, so my first introduction to him was hearing his mournful cranky old man meow as he was brought out to me at the shelter.  I have a soft spot for cranky old cats, so this was a promising start.  He didn't love the walk home, which I can't blame him for given that it was windy and in the teens, and he continued to tell me about his woes for much of the walk.

Since our condo is really just three rooms and an entry-way, we are starting him out barricaded into the entryway using barstools, some wood clamps, and a collapsed cardboard box.  

His first focus of exploration was the safety of the closet -- quickly discovering his litter, the empty shelf he could climb into and, most importantly, the magical safe space beneath the ladder behind a paint can.  Every cat needs a fortress of solitude to go when they really want to be left alone, and I suspect this one will endure for him.  He spent nearly all of the first afternoon and evening there.  We did hear him eating a few times, only to spy him quickly dashing back into the closet keeping low to the ground to avoid detection upon our approach.

This is pretty typical for a foster cat, and we expect that today he'll start to come out of his shell a bit more.  Next up will be expanding his world to include the kitchen and introducing his humans in a low-threat way.