Becoming a Foster

Sandwiched in between the animal shelter and the happy furever home is a place that is crucial to the lives of many dogs and cats -- the rescue foster home.

Rescue groups do whatever is needed to help dogs and cats become ready for their furever homes. While there are rescues that save almost any kind of animal you can imagine, we are focused on dogs and cats. Rescue organizations will retrieve animals from shelters for various reasons:

1. an injured animal needs recovery time

2. a mama with babies needs a quiet space

3. a senior animal needs specific attention

4. puppies or kittens need a safe space to grow and develop

Injured animals that are picked up by animal control can often recover and be adoptable, but the shelter is no place for an animal that is suffering. Plus, many shelters are not equipped with the resources needed to treat and care for an injured animal. This is where the rescue comes in, to take that animal to someone's home and give them the care they need, in a quiet space where they can recover safely.

Mama dogs and cats with babies are often picked up by animal control, or brought into the shelter by owners who find themselves in a situation they cannot handle. While the shelter is a safe environment it is no place for a new mother trying to tend to her babies! These mamas need a quiet place where they can relax and raise their babies, until the babies are ready to leave mama and find their own homes.

Sadly, senior dogs and cats often find themselves at the shelter when their owners are no longer able to care for them and family or friends are not able to help. Sometimes older animals are dumped, and sometimes they are brought to the shelter when their owner simply doesn't want them anymore. The age of a senior dog varies by breed, but is usually somewhere between seven and eleven years. Cats are usually considered senior at seven to ten years. In addition, where euthanasia is done to make space at the shelter, older animals are at a greater risk of going first, simply because people come in looking for puppies. A rescue can have greater success finding a new home for a senior animal.

Puppies and kittens often find themselves in animal shelters, but it is not the best environment for their growth and development. Overworked shelter employees do not have the time to work with these babies and teach them the ways of the world like their mamas would. So a rescue volunteer would take these babies and raise and teach them until furever homes are found.

In all of these situations a rescue can pull an animal from a shelter and do what needs to be done to get the animal to a state where it is ready for adoption. Some rescues have a brick-and-mortar location, but most rely on volunteers to take the animal into their home and raise it like their own. These volunteers are foster parents, or fosters for short.

When you are a foster, you open your home to a dog or cat in need, and some needs are greater than others. Sometimes you will nurse an injured animal back to health, or a sick one through treatment. Sometimes you get a mama with babies, so you get to enjoy puppy grunts and kitten purrs. A dog who was a stray, or was raised outside or in a kennel, will need to learn how to live life indoors, with creature comforts. Some animals need socialization with humans and other animals of their kind, just to learn how to be a dog or cat. As a foster, you will keep in touch with the rescue to give them progress reports on the dog or cat. They in turn will generally pay all costs associated with this animal. You provide the love and affection!

When you foster with a rescue you not only help a cat or dog in need, but you also help the rescue by allowing them to rescue more babies in need. Rescues depend on the goodness of their volunteers, because without a waiting home for the animal to go to the rescue cannot rescue! When you foster your only real investment is time and love, and don't these babies deserve that?

I am a foster with a rescue. My first foster was a chihuahua Maltese mix named Rory, who came to us just under a year old, having lived in a back yard all his life with several other dogs. Rory was still intact when the rescue took him in, so he would need to be neutered and caught up on his shots before he could be adopted. During the initial appointment with the veterinarian Rory tested positive for heartworms. This would mean months of treatment to kill the heartworms, keeping him confined to a small space while the treatment did its work.

Look at that face! That was after a bath and brush, which was desperately needed!

We all survived his months of heartworm treatment, then his neutering, and he came out on the other side heartworm free and ready to be adopted. Along the way he developed a great personality. He loved to cuddle, and he loved to steal socks! He could also make some of the goofiest faces I've ever seen on a dog, like this one:

It didn't take long for Rory to find a new home with wonderful new doggo parents who treat him like the king he is. It was so hard letting this little sweetie go, but he was ready, and he is now living the life he deserves with people who love him.

One evening not too long after Rory left we got a call from the rescue asking if we could take in three puppies found out in the deep woods before they became coyote food. Of course we said yes.

Say hello to Biscuit, Bacon, and Muffin:

Muffin was the only boy, Biscuit and Bacon are female. Muffin has since been adopted by wonderful new parents and has a doggo brother to play with. Biscuit and Bacon have done some growing in the three months we have had them:

Biscuit is a playful, cuddly little girl, while Bacon is equally playful but a bit more reserved. It will hurt watching them go to their new furever homes, but that is why we do this. We keep these babies safe in our homes, allowing them time to grow and develop, so they will be ready when the perfect home comes along. While they will someday leave us physically, they will never leave our hearts. And when they do leave us, and our hearts have healed a bit, we will be ready for the next abandoned, neglected, lost, lonely, or unwanted little furball who needs some extra attention and a chance at a wonderful new life.

That's what fosters do.