Month: January 2025

Kitten season

~ Jennifer Barraclough ~ 2 Comments
Photo courtesy of SPCA Auckland

Every year during January, I volunteer to foster kittens from the SPCA. I clear the best furniture out of the dining room, which for the next few weeks becomes known as the foster room, filled with feeding bowls, litter trays, climbing frame and cat toys.

Kittens may require fostering for a variety of reasons. Some are healthy but still too young to be desexed and vaccinated prior to being adopted into forever homes. Some are recovering from an injury, or from illnesses such as cat flu and giardia. Others are frightened of human contact because they have been neglected or abused, and need a period of socialisation. And this year there are so many cats and kittens being brought in that the rescue centre is full to capacity, meaning that some animals need accommodating in private homes.

My current charges, a brother and sister about nine weeks old, were on anti-anxiety medication when they arrived. They were extremely timid, hiding in inaccessible places for much of the time, and it was very difficult to touch them. What a contrast to my previous kittens who have been desperate to escape from the foster room and explore. They did however seem physically healthy, eating and drinking well and have grown fast. Their confidence has gradually improved and now, two weeks later, they are lively and playful and purr loudly when stroked. I’m not allowed to post photos of them online, but they do look very attractive, with their white and tabby coats. It has been lovely to watch their transformation from frightened little kittens into thriving young cats.

Fostering requires quite a lot of time and effort. The least pleasant aspects are having to keep changing litter trays throughout the day, and the potential for damage such as torn curtains. It is also a bit hard on one of my own cats, who clearly dislikes having kittens in the house even though they are in a separate room. My other cat is quite happy to have them here.

These two kittens will be returning to the SPCA in a few days and will hopefully be adopted soon. I will miss them, but am going to exchange them for another litter which will bring new challenges and rewards.

Cold showers, cemeteries and nomophobia

~ Jennifer Barraclough ~ Leave a comment

I’ve been exploring Modern Stoicism for a while now. Reading about the theory is easier than putting the ideas into practice, so this January I decided to subscribe to the New Year Challenge course run by dailystoic.com. It involves a series of assignments sent by email every day for 21 days. Most of them are not just one-off tasks, but are designed to introduce new habits to be continued long term. Some are practical, for example taking cold showers, doing pressups, and keeping to a regular bedtime. Others are more psychological, for example visiting a cemetery to aid the practice of memento mori, resuming a project that has been abandoned, and choosing a word to focus on all year – my word is PATIENCE.

Now half way through the course, I find some of the assignments easy because I am doing them already. But the challenge that I haven’t even tried to attempt is spending 24 hours without my iPhone. I do have some excuse, because I genuinely need it to deal with important messages throughout the day. But I have to admit to being quite addicted, and was absolutely devastated on the recent occasion when I thought it was lost (I found it some hours later under the duvet). I plan to compromise by spending a day without online games or social media, and even that will demand great self discipline. I obviously have symptoms of the condition popularly called “nomophobia” – fear of having no mobile.