crazycrone

After my lovely Tara died, I decided to give fostering a go. This was something I'd wanted to do for a while, but couldn't with resident cats in the house. They called me in and presented me with three kittens far earlier than I was expecting - only two weeks after she died. It felt too soon, but I'd committed to it, so.... Of course, I ended up adopting all three of them. They didn't replace Tara or change how I felt about her or magically remove my grief - it was an entirely different thing that ran alongside. So from my experience: too soon doesn't necessarily turn out that way and it certainly doesn't diminish the importance of the cat that came before.

Yes, it's not exactly easy to hand 'em back:). The benefit of fostering, as well as the warm glow of satisfaction etc and meeting lots of kittehs is that they pay for all the gear, food etc (at least the SPCA does here, assume it's the same there) which is obviously a bonus if you're on a budget. You do have to schlep 'em back and forth though for shots etc, although fostering older cats wouldn't involve this, I would imagine. I don't regret keeping mine, but I also really wish there was a way I could foster at the same time.