Foster

Fostering a pet is a lot like fostering a child. Pet fosters take homeless (displaced) pets into their homes on a temporary basis, until a permanent home can be found. Some homeless rescues use only fosters to keep their adoption animals until they find new owners, but some shelters also use fosters for pets that need extra special care, such as pregnant pets, very young pets, or animals with medical or emotional issues.

Being a pet foster is a very rewarding volunteer job, but it can also be a difficult job for different reasons. Certainly some pets can have obedience issues that must be dealt with, as well as possible behavior issues. Pet fosters must have had some pet experience to be able to successfully deal with various problems that may come up. Caring for very young pets can be very time consuming also; bottle feeding, cleaning up after them, and just spending the time with them that young pets need and desire.

But by far the hardest issue for many pet fosters is giving up the pet after a new home or placement has been found. Some pet fosters choose to adopt the pet in their care (which of course is most understandable), but this usually prevents them from being able to foster other pets in the future, leaving less options for other pets in need of special care. So, being a pet foster who is able to keep a pet and then give it up when the time comes so that they can continue to take in new needy pets in the future is probably one of the most giving and unselfish jobs in animal care.

Pet fosters are truly wonderful people!