What would you do if a photo of an elderly cat in the last stages of kidney failure came across your social media feed, and this cat was in a shelter near you and needed a foster home for the time she had left?

If you’re Brooklynn Smith, you give that kitty what she needs.

A friend of Brooklynn’s shared a post by the Shelter Pet Project on Tumblr, saying the cat, Bella, needed a hospice foster home — known as “fospice” — to get her out of the shelter and into a home for the last weeks or months of her life. A rescue group that focuses on special needs cats, SNAP Cats in Santa Rosa, CA, was willing to pull her from the shelter and cover all her medical and food bills, if someone would just give her love and lap space.

Brooklynn, a lifelong cat lover, had not only never fostered a hospice pet before, she’d never fostered at all.  “I’ve always had a cat,” she said. “My days in California are numbered as I’m finishing a graduate program and will be moving soon. I was hesitant to adopt a cat, because I was unsure how a cat would like the studio apartment I’m in now, and  I wasn’t sure how a cat would handle the move, either.”

Then she saw Bella. “A friend on Tumblr had reblogged her photo, and all I saw about her was that she was in the San Francisco Bay Area and that her medical care would be covered. I thought well, I’m in the Bay Area and I was thinking about getting a cat. It was serendipity!”

Bella wasn’t with Brooklynn for long, but the first-time fospice mom said it was worth every moment. “The few weeks I had her, she was fabulous,” she said. “She warmed up to me right away. She had excellent manners. She knew where her place was in the house, hopped onto my bed every night, slept on my feet. It was so, so sweet. I really enjoyed all the time we had, and I’m so glad I could give her a few weeks in a home with a bed, and a couch, and someone to love her.”

Would she consider providing fospice care to another cat? Absolutely. “I would do it again,” she said. “SNAP had arranged for some specialty cat food to be sent my way for Bella. She’s not with us anymore, but I have all this food in my house, and I’m thinking in a few weeks, maybe I should get back in touch with them and think about taking care of another cat.”

Brooklynn urges other pet lovers to take the chance she took and consider providing fospice to a pet in need. “My advice to others is just do it,” she said. “An older cat like this is already house trained, they’re not high maintenance, they don’t need you to entertain them, they don’t have a lot of bad habits. And it was good to have somebody rely on me, and be there waiting for me when I got home.

“I understand the trepidation completely, but I still say go for it. You really won’t regret it. Even after having Bella in my life for less than a month, I still have no regrets. It was hard and heartbreaking, but there is no doubt in my mind that it was worth it – she brought a lot of joy and companionship while she was with me.”

Photos by Mollie Winninger and Brooklynn Smith. Used with permission.