What, Why, How...?

Fostering is a very rewarding experience for everyone involved. Not only do foster parents nurture and care for their charges; they really "share" the experience with the animals, "receiving" lots of nurture and care right back!

AFRP rescues dogs and cats that are least likely to survive the shelter environment and places them in foster homes. There are many reasons why animals end up in the shelters; the previous guardians moved away and abandoned or surrendered them, they are born to an unspayed animal or to a stray and turned into the shelter, they are found on highways, in dumpsters, on doorsteps, in vacant lots, or injured on the side of a road.

Choosing to be a foster parent is a serious undertaking. It will change your routine and your own companion animals will need to be okay with it. Many people faced with homeless animals tell themselves, "It's not my problem", "It's not my fault", "It's so sad, but there's nothing I can do". Well, fortunately, there is something you can do without making a lifetime commitment.

So why in the world would any sane human being volunteer to be a foster parent for an an animal that isn't their responsibility? Why would someone take on that responsibility? Why would anyone want to give up their spare bedroom, bathroom, laundry room, etc. and take on responsibility for a pet they will eventually place in someone else's home?

People who choose to foster do so because they know that if they don't step up to the plate, the fate of these animals is either sub-par living conditions or death. They feel good knowing they are making a difference, every minute and every day, in the life of an innocent soul; that a few months of inconvenience turns quickly into a rewarding, educational, challenging, and fun experience they will never forget. While it's true that fosters do get very attached to their animals, they also find a special joy in sending a pet to a wonderful new family.

Many families foster as a way to teach their children about compassion and responsibility in a creative and collaborative way. We have had parent-child partnerships take on nursing bottle babies or moms with litters, as a tag-team effort with joyous results. Parents who homeschool have also found that fostering is a great teaching endeavor for their family.

If you would like to foster a dog, cat, kitten, or puppy for AFRP email us at info@animalfriendsrescue.org or call us at (831) 333-0722. We provide training, food, and animal supplies as well as pay all medical costs! There are few acts more heart-warming than helping to save the life of a loving innocent creature in need.

Fostering Basics

Springtime is the start of kitten season. It usually begins at the end of March, although some years, when spring weather comes early, we start getting kittens as early as February. The shelters begin to fill up with pregnant moms, moms with newborn kittens, and orphaned kittens. The shelters will take in hundreds of kittens between March and October, and their only chance of survival is to be released to foster volunteers. All over the city, rescuers are struggling to cope with an enormous influx of young animals who have been orphaned, either by nature when the mothers are killed in accidents or disappear, or by uncaring "owners" whose idea of birth control is to put infants in a box and turn them in to the local shelter or leave them on a curb. This kitten and puppy monsoon is, of course, in addition to the huge numbers of adult animals always in need of new homes. An invaluable resource to the shelter employees are the volunteer foster parents who work with local rescue organizations.

Becoming a foster parent can be rigorous, but it is always rewarding! Foster parents agree to take animals into their homes on behalf of the organizations they work with, and care for them as if they were their own pets until they can be adopted to new homes. At the least, this involves feeding, cleaning, grooming, and playing with the animals. Sometimes, however, that's just the tip of the iceberg for fosters. Because many rescued animals are sick, stressed, or frightened, they may require special care. A frightened or abused animal may require weeks of extra attention and behavioral modification to become ready for adoption. Unweaned orphaned kittens and puppies, affectionately known by rescuers as "bottle babies", require the most work of all! As with human infants, around the clock bottle feeding of special puppy or kitten formula is required, as frequently as every 2-3 hours for newborns. Most challenging of all, orphaned kittens and puppies are more likely to get sick because they aren't getting the antibodies normally passed on in mom's milk. Any foster will tell you that raising bottle babies is as much hard work as a human baby -- multiplied by 4, 5 or 8! And of course once they get to be 8-10 weeks old, the foster has to bid a tearful goodbye as their beloved babies are adopted to new homes!

Fostering is challenging, fun and rewarding. If you love animals, and have the space and time to open your heart to a foster animal, you will find it immeasurably rewarding. If you are interested in becoming a foster volunteer, please download a volunteer application and print it out. Fill out the form neatly and mail it back to us: AFRP, P.O. Box 51083, Pacific Grove, CA 93950. Our Volunteer Coordinator will then review your application and contact you with the next training session in your area. Click here for dates of our next Volunteer Orientation Meetings.

More info on Fostering a Cat

More info on Fostering a Dog