Parenting Pointers - Learning Compassion Through Fostering Kittens

Children are spending more time on screens than caring for others. Families are discovering an unexpected way to teach empathy, responsibility, and compassion - by fostering cats and kittens!

 

Helen Sanders CatPAWS is working with foster families who are giving children a hands-on role in caring for vulnerable kittens. From helping prepare bottles and clean bedding to learning patience and celebrating adoption day, fostering offers valuable life lessons that extend far beyond pet care.

I had a chance to learn more in this interview.

How can fostering cats help teach kids skills like empathy and responsibility?

With lives literally in their hands, children who are introduced to fostering animals gain a powerful understanding of how their actions can affect, and save, lives. For example, a child who helps warm a bottle for a kitten who can't yet eat on her own, or who learns to be gentle and quiet around a cat still learning to trust, is practicing empathy in the most direct way possible; learning to read another creature's needs and respond to them. 

Fostering can build a foundation of empathy and responsibility that will stay with children and inform their choices and impact on society into adulthood. Responsibility grows right alongside that empathy: these small lives depend completely on the family caring for them, and when kids take on an age-appropriate piece of that care and stick with it, even on the days it isn't convenient, they learn what it means to have another life counting on them.

What are some positive impacts fostering can have on a child's emotional development?

Fostering an animal, watching the animal learn to trust, to heal, can build a child's confidence. In helping another being, especially one so helpless as a kitten, they understand that what they do, their actions, can impact others and change circumstances. A child who helps a frightened cat come out of her shell, or helps a litter grow strong enough for adoption, comes away knowing they were part of saving a life; and that sense of purpose travels with them well beyond the foster room. 

Some of the cats Helen Sanders CatPAWS takes in arrive with illnesses or injuries and need to be nursed back to health; walking that road with an animal and watching them recover teaches patience, resilience, and a quiet kind of caring that comes without instant rewards. Fostering also gives kids a sense of community and a feeling of being part of something bigger than themselves. 

And then there's the goodbye: sending a cat off to her adoptive family is bittersweet, but it teaches kids that love means wanting the best for someone even when it means letting go, an emotionally mature lesson that fostering delivers gently, with a happy ending attached.

What do parents and guardians need to consider before fostering as a family?

While fostering an animal can be a valuable and life-changing experience for a child, it is important to remember that animals, especially tiny kittens, are fragile and require experienced, diligent care. It is critical that an adult understands the responsibility and is comfortable and knowledgeable in making sure the requisite care is provided to the fostered animal. 

Families won't be doing this alone: Organizations like Helen Sanders CatPAWS provides the supplies, food, and medical care, and covers the cost if a foster cat needs medication or a vet visit. New fosters are also paired with experienced ones who can walk them through anything difficult, including nursing a cat through an illness. 

Beyond that, it helps to match the foster to the family: bottle-baby kittens need feeding every few hours around the clock and suit a household with more availability, while a calm adult or senior cat needs little beyond food, water, a clean litter box, and a quiet room, making a wonderful lower-intensity first foster for a family with kids. It's also worth setting expectations with children early, especially about the eventual goodbye, so the adoption feels like the happy milestone it's meant to be, and preparing them for the fact that some cats arrive needing extra care and patience alongside the fun. 

One practical note specific to our organization: because our foster support network and partner vet clinics are local, we ask that fosters live in the Seal Beach area and have reliable transportation, since you may need to bring your foster to vet appointments or adoption events.

Why are foster homes critical during kitten season?

Tiny kittens are the most vulnerable, helpless animals that go into shelters and that people may find. Fostering them can literally save lives! During what is known as ‘Kitten Season,’ there are many unwanted litters born, far more than can be taken in by shelters, rescues or adopted. Taking these kittens into a foster home gives them the chance to heal, to grow, to have a life and eventually, a home! 

Kitten season, spring and summer, is when outdoor and community cats give birth, and litters start arriving faster than the shelter system can absorb them. Public shelters simply aren't built to provide the around-the-clock care that unweaned kittens need, so a foster home is often the single thing standing between a bottle baby and a chance at survival. 

It's real work, those babies need feeding every few hours, but a few weeks of a foster's time gives a kitten the warmth, feeding, and safety she needs to get through those critical early days. During kitten season especially, we need more people willing to be that bridge from hopeless to home than at any other time of year.