About Fostering

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About Fostering

Do you want to foster? If you have rescued a stray animal and would like to find her a home, you might want to consider fostering her through a rescue organization such as PAW. Because these groups, including PAW, are volunteer based, it helps a great deal if you are willing to provide the vet care for your rescued pet. Our ability to rescue animals is limited by donations (which pay for the vet care) and the availability of foster homes, so if you can provide both of these and are willing to follow our procedures, we can often accept you into our foster program. Or perhaps you just love animals and would like to try fostering. Sometimes it is a good way to "try out" a particular dog or cat and see if he is right for you. We always have more wonderful animals looking for good foster homes!

How does it work? Various rescue organizations operate differently, but many have foster programs of one kind or another. Here we describe fostering through PAW.

Duties of the foster caregiver:

The caregiver provides food, water, litter, and other simple neccesities.

The caregiver is responsible for helping to get the animal adopted by bringing her to adoption shows, helping to talk to applicants, and providing information for ads and the website.

The caregiver must follow PAW's procedures for adoption, for getting veterinary care, and for providing appropriate care.

PAW provides:

Veterinary care, as approved by the Medical Coordinator.
Some supplies, as needed, such as a crate, temporary ID tag, collar, leash, litter box, or carrier.
Lots of in-house expertise with behavior, diseases, and training.
Advertising, newsletters, adoption shows, and so forth.

Typically the fostered animal is kept separate from the caregiver's other animals at first. This allows you to evaluate her behavior, reduces the stress of meeting strange animals (on her as well as on your own pets), and minimizes the chance of infection, since the rescued animal may be carrying a respiratory infection or other illness.

Why foster animals instead of having a shelter? At the Partnership for Animal Welfare, all animals live in foster homes, not at shelters. (A few are boarded when there are not enough foster homes.) Fostering has many advantages.

The animal lives in a home environment where she can feel safe and comfortable.
The foster caregiver can give plenty of attention to the fostered pet, and watch for problems with illness or behavior.
The foster caregiver can judge the needs and behavior of the individual animal - how he behaves around other pets, adults, and children, how much space and exercise he needs, what kind of permanent home would be best for him.

How to apply to become a foster. Fill out the application form for cats or dogs, as appropriate. This is the same form as used for animal adoptions. Send the form to the Cat or Dog Adoptions Coordinator (see PAW Contacts). We will do a vet check and a home visit, just as we do for adoption applications. If approved, you will be asked to sign a foster agreement, in which you agree to abide by the procedures and rules set by PAW. For more information please contact the Cat or Dog Adoptions Coordinator.

Written by Cathy Imhoff

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Last updated March 17, 2003 LET