I got my start with fostering kittens in 2018. I lived in Columbus, Ohio, at the time, and on Mother’s Day weekend I was out on a run when I came across five six-week-old kittens. I had never fostered before. I had never had a kitten that small before. I don’t think I had ever done a flea bath before, and I had definitely never used kitten formula before.
I had also never had kids, although I always thought I would. Mother’s Day could be kind of a sad day when I let the absence of motherhood get to me, and I believe that Mother’s Day weekend God opened a door for healing by showing me a different kind of motherhood He had planned for me.
Fast forward to fall 2024: We lovingly call our home Weasley Meowtain Lodge in honor of Molly, Charlie and Percy Weasley (yes, named for #HarryPotter characters) that we rescued from a local gas station after we moved back home to West Virginia. Weasley Meowtain is what we call our fostering operation (visit our Facebook page!). We are not a 501(c)3; we just foster. But we foster a lot. And through Weasley Mountain we partner with and support other rescues and operations like Operation Fancy Free LLC, Itty Bitty Kitty Committee, and Fix ‘Em Clinic.
When we started fostering at Weasley Meowtain, I had to set very clear boundaries about the fact that we would not be foster failing any cats. (Foster Fail: to adopt the cat or cats you are fostering.) And it was hard because you do love all the cats and kittens you take in, and saying goodbye when they get adopted is hard even when that is the goal. But if you adopt your fosters, it’s hard to help other cats, and there are always other cats that need a foster home. Besides, we already had 5: the Weasleys, free-range felines that patrol our five acres, and Jovie and Miles, indoor adult cats.
In 2024, we had a constant flow of cats and kittens in foster care at our house. Come September, we took in #TeamHogwarts, five eight-week-old kittens rescued during a TNR operation in our county. Then we added Hermione, who was trapped on a riverbank and brought into the fold (see Hermione’s story here). All the kittens got adopted – all except Harry Potter. He was living in the kitten room by himself, and I was afraid he would miss his siblings, so I asked the rescue for a friend for him while we waited for him to get adopted. I got a call on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving about a four-week-old black little fluffball that had come in as TNR and was too small to fix and too small to go back outside. She was missing hair on her tail, and she had a deformed right eye. The day before Thanksgiving, we brought her home to Weasley Meowtain.
I named her Luna Lovegood because the intention was for her to be a good friend to Harry Potter.
Little did I know how good of a friend she would become.
Luna was very small, and at first I was worried about her being with Harry, who was a good three months older than her. I was so worried, in fact, that I was sure we would have to keep them separated. Luna desperately needed to be socialized, though, so I reached out to the rescue again for a friend for Luna. That’s when I ended up with #TeamFrosty.
Team Frosty is the litter that was abandoned in a box out in a snow storm, and by the time a good Samaritan delivered them to the rescue, they were critically ill, especially #JackFrost. They also had ringworm, which is a long kitten rescue story for another time.
Since Team Frosty was so sick, I had to quarantine them. That meant Luna had to stay with Harry. Under supervision, Harry learned to play carefully with Luna, and it turned out beautifully – until Luna was diagnosed with ringworm. It made its way from Team Frosty’s quarantine room to her, likely through me. Ringworm is a nasty beast, and I don’t recommend it.
Anyway, she needed to be quarantined from Harry so he didn’t get it too. When I tried to introduce her to Team Frosty so they could quarantine together, Luna threw a holy fit. I made the introductions in a gated-off area of the hallway, and Harry was in the kitten room with the door closed. When I put Luna with Team Frosty, Luna hissed and growled. Harry stuck his arms under the door to get near Luna, and Luna went over and stood next to his arms. They did not want to be separated.
Now, listen. We don’t make decisions based on what the cats like necessarily because they definitely don’t like flea baths and Clavamox and ringworm treatment, but those things have to be done. But I did have a decision to make: force Luna into the other litter or let Luna and Harry quarantine together, knowing Harry had already been exposed and may or may not get ringworm. Luna won. We had two quarantine rooms for ringworm kittens for four months.
And no, Harry, by some miracle, did not get ringworm.
After the ringworm was cleared, we were able to have a procedure done on Luna’s eyes to alleviate any discomfort. The eye did not have to be removed because it was not causing her any issues, but her eyelid was rolling in, causing hair to irritate her eye. She had a little cosmetic procedure to address that. Her coat also went through a crazy transformation: at one point, so much of her hair had turned gray, it looked like she was wearing a vest. Now, she has tufts of gray behind her ears, under her chin, and on the backs of her legs. She’s pretty adorable.
In the time we quarantined them, Harry and Luna fully bonded. There was no separating them. When the ringworm was gone, we had to make another decision: do we try to get Luna and Harry adopted together, or do we foster fail them both?
Harry Albus Sirius Severus Potter and Luna Bellatrix Mad-Eye Moody Lovegood were, in fact, foster fails in Spring 2025.
I never intended to keep any foster kittens. I never intended to have seven cats. But motherhood doesn’t always look the way we think it will.
Happy 1st birthday to my Halloween-born black beauty, Luny Tunes. Momma loves you, you crazy, spastic, sassy, chatterbox who loves Harry, likes candy and never misses an opportunity to throw paws at Miles and Jovie.
Little Did She Know 