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If there were an Olympics for fostering shelter pets, Serena Boleto would definitely be a gold medalist.
This world-class pet lover has fostered over 200 litters of kittens (plus a few puppies, dogs, and adult cats too) since she began volunteering with Providence Animal Center in 2011.
When Serena’s oldest kid went off to college, she turned his room into a kitten nursery, and the rest, as they say, is history.
“Kittens are my happy place,” Serena told Rover.com. “Having a roomful of healthy baby kittens is the best therapy in the world, and while sick kittens are no fun, providing prompt medical attention usually turns things around quickly.”
Serena gets a kick out of creating play structures and providing lots of enrichment to her kitten charges, which leads to some pretty epic Instagram photos and videos. She shares “Kittens have a natural curiosity to new things, so it’s fun to introduce them to a mirror, piñata, or a miniature ball pit and see how they react. Always supervised of course!”
Serena never caught the photography bug until she started posting daily photos of her fosters on Instagram. After a year of daily posts, she really got the hang of things. “It taught me a lot about photography, but it also taught me I’m not very good at capturing anything besides kittens” Serena claims. We don’t believe it. Serena’s a natural.
When asked about her go-to items for fuss-free fostering, Serena shares her most important tool for kitten raising is a scale. “I use a simple food scale, and I can’t tell you how many times it has alerted me to a problem with a kitten.” Weighing kittens regularly helps to monitor the kittens’ growth and progress.
“I’m very big on keeping a clean environment for the kittens. I change their bedding and vacuum daily. I also use a veterinary disinfectant to clean all surfaces and toys frequently,” Serena adds.
Follow Serena’s foster kittens on her VeggieDayz Instagram for lots of cute updates.