Follow-Up: Jubilee's in Foster Care!
Mar 09, 2022
Did you know babies and kittens release the same endorphins that make us happy? Foster Lisa Printen does, and her story is fittingly full of just that: babies and kittens, kittens and babies.
“I grew up in Iowa City. Animals just found me; cats followed me home. My parents never turned an animal away, so we fostered a lot. I even hand-raised kittens that didn’t have a mom,” said Lisa.
Lisa’s caring nature led her to a profession in nursing, specializing in infant care. However, she missed helping animals. And at her sister’s baby shower nine years ago, Lisa met a PAWS foster coordinator who said something that changed her life:
“The more fosters we have, the more animals we can save.”
Later, as Lisa filled out a PAWS foster application on her sofa, “one of my cats was laying across my neck. Another was over my head. And my third on my legs. I thought, ‘every animal should have this—to be comfortable and loved not scared.’”
Since then, Lisa has fostered 290 cats and kittens, focusing on mothers and their litters. She helps year-round—when one family leaves, Lisa follows a strict ritual of cleaning and sanitizing, then she brings in the next family.
But after her most recent litter cleared for adoption, a single kitten caught Lisa’s eye in the PAWS Chicago Foster Facebook group: Jubilee.
“Jubilee was there, and she just looked so sad. People were sending hearts and care, but nobody was saying they could take her.”
Lisa rose to the occasion and brought 6-month-old Jubilee home to heal from a leg fracture, partial tail amputation, and panleukopenia—a dangerous and contagious virus that requires lots of supportive care to help the body fight it.
“She is on a ton of medication. Nighttime and daytime. Antibiotics, probiotics, Prednisone. She has nebulizer treatments every eight hours.”
But Jubilee is already feeling so much better.
“Her eyes are less runny. She’s occasionally snotty, especially after the nebulizer treatments. But that's normal. And she's not coughing or sneezing so much.”
Because of her leg fracture, Jubilee’s movement has to be limited. But, thankfully, her cuddling does not.
“She is one of the most affectionate kittens I've had. She just wants to be pet and purr, rubbing her face all over your hands and your arms. She's a love bug.”
Jubilee is also a big fan of food.
“She loves to eat, which is a good thing because she's very thin. She dives her head right into the plate. It’s like kittens when they first learned to eat—they put their whole heads in the food and you have to keep wiping their faces. She’s just the same.”
But that’s not Jubilee’s only adorable trait.
“She makes me laugh every time I'm with her. She's got this kind of raspy meow, and she talks to you. And she flops so that you can rub her tummy and her chest, and she just looks so cute because when she flops, her eyes cross.”
Lisa has made an immeasurable difference in the lives of homeless pets, including Jubilee, as do all our fosters.
"It's so important to me that every animal is loved and wanted and cared for. A lot of the cats and kittens have been through horrible, heart wrenching situations. To be able to spread a little bit of love and sunshine into their hearts, it’s an incredible thing to do.”