What is the Role of a Foster Parent?
Foster parents provide a temporary place of shelter, love, and safety to shelter dogs prior to their permanent adoption. Being a foster parent is a wonderful and rewarding way in which to help save shelter dogs, who, without an available foster home to go to, may not make it out of a high-kill shelter alive.
Why Do Pets Need Foster Care?
There are several reasons why an animal may need a foster home:
1. Newborn animals and their nursing mothers, or newborns who need bottle feeding.
2. Very young animals who are not old enough for adoption.
3. Dogs who have behavioral issues, who need some behavior modification help. For example, dogs who need socializing, or who have been in the shelter for a long time and need to decompress.
4. Injured, sick, elderly, or special needs animals may need time to recover and extra special attention before being adopted.
5. Feral kittens who need socializing before they can be adopted.
6. Animals may need a place to stay before going to their new forever homes.
7. The animal’s owner is sick or in the hospital and cannot care for their animal for a period of time.
Whatever the reason, all of these animals need extra love and attention before going on to their permanent homes.
Who Pays for the Expense of Fostering an Animal?
This varies according to which backing rescue you are fostering for. Some rescues pay for all of the animal’s needs, including food, supplies, medication, vaccinations, and veterinary care. Other backing rescues may only pay for veterinary care. You should read over the foster contract carefully and ask questions so you will know firsthand who is responsible for which part of the animal’s care.
What Do I get out of Fostering?
You get the warm, fuzzy feelings of helping an animal in trouble who, without your help, may not have made it out of the shelter alive. You also have the knowledge that by fostering one animal, you have also created a space for another animal to come into the shelter. Depending on the rescue you are fostering for, you get all the benefits of having a furry friend in your home, without all or some of the expense.
How Long Are Pets Usually in Foster Care?
This depends on each animal’s situation. It may be an overnight stay or for a few days until transport is available. The period of time in foster care could be a few weeks or a few months if the animal is recovering from surgery. The breed of dog sometimes has a bearing on how long the animal will need a foster home, e.g., a bully breed may take longer to be adopted than a cute fluffy breed, but nothing is set in stone.
Can Foster Animals be Contagious?
There is always a health risk when you bring a new animal into your home. You encounter the same risks every day when exposing your existing pets to the veterinarian’s waiting room, the dog park, and anywhere else where animals visit in numbers. Before bringing a new foster animal into your home, you should always make sure your existing pets are up-to-date on all their shots, including Bordetella. Bordetella, otherwise known as kennel cough, is an airborne virus and highly contagious, therefore it’s essential to protect your own dogs.
What Happens if My Foster Animal Gets Sick?
Contact the backing rescue first and foremost and follow their instructions. Most rescues will not be responsible for veterinary bills without prior approval and most have their own preferred veterinarian.
What the Rescue Requires of You
1. They expect you to stick to their foster agreement and follow their guidelines.
2. They may hold regular adoption events and require you to bring your foster animal to those events. This is why most rescues prefer local foster homes for their rescue animals.
3. You are expected and encouraged to love and nurture your foster animal and to help him or her decompress and regain confidence after being in the shelter.
4.You are expected to provide a certain level of care in keeping with the foster agreement.
If you live in LA, OC, San Bernadino, or Riverside County and would like to become a foster parent for a Carson Dog, please complete our online form.
Fostering dogs or cats is a temporary commitment but it is still a commitment. Please bear this in mind when applying to be a foster parent.
Disclosure: Some of the links above, in the sidebar, and the widget areas below the main pages are affiliate links, meaning at no additional cost to you. We will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. Commissions earned will be used to pay for the website and toward advertising the dogs and cats in other advertising mediums.
