Returning foster kittens today

[Saffkat]

The day I've been dreading - I fostered their pregnant mother in May and now the kittens are 10 weeks old and due to return to the shelter. I have a cat allergy but am ok with the mother and we are keeping her but allergy seems slightly worse now the kittens are bigger and we can't take the risk that it'll get worse if we keep one and end up retrurning her when she's beyond the very cute kitten stage. DC and I feeling very sad, I know it's the right decision to make but it doesn't feel right. Two of my DC get A level results too today - I had very little sleep last night!

Are they your first fosters? It's always sad to let them go, but I'm sure they will go to lovely homes, which they wouldn't have had the opportunity to find if it weren't for you.

And if you didn't return them, how would you be able to carry on fostering? Fostering is such an important job and foster home are like gold dust, so while it's lovely when fosterers keep kittens, if that means the foster home is lost then that's not a good outcome from the rescue's point of view.

Aww for you, and I am sure a huge thank you from the kittens and their mum for looking after them and loving them at such a vulnerable time - mummy cat will be so pleased to be staying with you, and the kittens will have the chance to find wonderful new homes to spend their lives in.

You are one of life's stars

Hopefully you can carry on fostering other kittens.

Saying goodbye is sad but it helps to know they go to lovely homes and you've literally saved their lives by fostering.

I did keep 2 from my third foster litter because they had special needs but have continued fostering again. The Kitten Lady (look her up on google) calls it a "foster win" when you let them go, as opposed to a "foster fail" when you end up adopting your fosters.

Thank you everyone for your kind comments. We returned them this morning, with tears, but it feels better now that we've actually done it, the anticipation was worse. One of them is already ear-marked for adoption by someone I know and the shelter has said they'll do their best to keep the other 2 together.
Mother kitten not too bothered so far. We put her in a different room when we put them in the carrier and took them out.
In other news one DC has got into uni of first choice, other DC haas slipped a couple of grades and is still awaiting decision from his first choice. He just wants to know so he can make plan if he doesn't get in.