Hey everyone,

In late October 2022, I applied to be a cat foster and see if it was a good fit for me. I started fostering a 10-month semi-feral kitten, who could barely walk, rescued from a cat colony in someone’s backyard. Despite his attitude, I’d played with him for at least an hour and a half a day and socialized the hell out of him. By ~week 7, after neutering him, his aggression melted and became a sweet yet very skittish cat. Let’s call him Apple.

He has a sister from the same litter, Orange, that would be his “guardian angel”. They were always together and protect him from things, etc. The volunteer who had her in the backyard told me she was friendly and she’d be a good companion for Apple (despite still being semi-feral at 13 months old).

Very long story short, she was captured in January 2023, and over five months later she’s made little progress with socialization. She still won’t let me touch or pet her unless I’m giving her treats or food. For reference, I’ve been hand-feeding her wet cat food twice a day for five months, play with her all the time, etc.

The original rescue organization that gave me Apple and Orange has ghosted me since April. I presume I’ve defacto adopted them at this point.

Wanting to at least experience kittens, I offered to foster a young mamma kitten and her 2.5-week-old kittens via another rescue organization with the intention of fostering them until the kittens are ready for adoption in late-August (they’ll be isolated in the bathroom until then).

The mom, herself 6-8 months old, is the opposite of Apple and Orange in many ways. She’s uber-friendly, chill, and a fabulous mom to her kittens. I've had an amazing time with her and her kittens. My heart just melts whenever I’m with them.

It’s been a week now since I took them in, and I’m torn. I know a lot can happen between now and late August regarding the kittens and mamma cat. In a perfect world, I’d adopt one of the kittens and there’d be three cats in this one-bedroom apartment.

However, the new rescue organization is insisting that if I want to keep any of the kittens, they’d have to be in pairs (fair). Although, Apple has a lot of energy and loves to play, often for hours at a time, which is why I think a kitten would be a good fit for him (Orange is very timid and gets scared whenever Apple tries to play rough with her). If I were to adopt two of the kittens, having four cats in this space just wouldn’t be practical in general.

It feels like the only options come late August would be to either have the mamma cat and all four kittens be adopted out, or adopt two of the kittens (and maybe even the mamma cat as well), and give Apple and Orange to the rescue organization.

Honestly, as much as I love Apple and Orange, both being SO skittish and Orange not letting me pet her or anything like that, is somewhat demoralizing.

So…AITA?