Hi, my name is Sue and I am a foster mum. Sounds a bit like admitting to an addiction, doesn't it? Well, in a way it is: I started back in 2005 and I just can't give it up now! I have two of my own fur babies (both from CP, of course) so I have to keep my temporary kitties confined in some way. I do this with pens, the use of which has changed over the years.
My very first foster cat was Stanley, and he had attitude! We had a pen in the lounge, and he was in there seeing and hearing the world go by. He was semi feral so we needed to gain his trust in humans and we did. He got to the point where we opened the cage in the evening and he would hop out and onto my lap. A few short months after he arrived, he went off to his new home and boy did I sob!
After a few cats like this, I was asked to take on a dumped litter of four tiny kittens. So, as they were not well, the pen was set up in our spare room, and I took charge of the most saddest looking mites you ever did see. Slowly they blossomed and, as they got better, they had free run of that room, but could always be popped back in their cage when necessary. Although one sadly did not make it, the other three grew into strong healthy fur balls who all soon found new homes. I still get Christmas cards from two of them. 
Lots of cats and kittens have passed through my hands this way: Harry was a true character cat who now luckily lives across the road to me; Sophie posh beyond words but for some odd reason never claimed when she was found as a stray; Dave a big bruiser with a heart of gold, Dino the escape artist who managed to barge his way out of his pen when I had only pulled one bolt, downstairs and out a locked cat flap happily he returned after a day or so!
As well as so many families of mums and kittens. Pens are ideal then as you can let mum out for a rest whilst trying to encourage the kittens to try solid food. Now I have a magnificent double pen! So I can foster twice the amount. If they are not related, they can be let out for a run round separately. At the moment, I have four sisters who were found outside. Another foster mum tamed them up and I am trying to make them not so dependant on one another by changing the pairings between the two pens, but they can all play together except at the moment when they are let out they all run under the cage!!
My friends (who come round much more often these days, just to see the cats, not me) often ask me how can you give them up? Well, I won't say it is the easiest thing to do, but you meet the adoptive parents and you do have the last say. 99.99% are brilliant after all, to get to me, they have to fill a form in, get past the homing officer AND have a home visit! So you have to have that final cuddle, pop them in their basket and wave them off to their new home. Many of them still keep in touch with photos coming by email, or in Christmas cards. And now you are ready for more needy cats or kittens off the streets and welcomed into the safety of CP!!
Go on try it - you know you want to!!