Foster care
Fostering: How It Works and What It Asks of You
Fostering saves lives and creates space in overstretched shelters. What the commitment actually involves.
What fostering involves
You provide a temporary home while the organisation covers veterinary costs and usually food and equipment. Placements range from a fortnight of kitten rearing to several months of behavioural rehabilitation.
Types of foster placement
- Neonatal kittens and puppies needing round-the-clock feeding
- Post-surgical recovery and medical care
- Behavioural fostering for animals struggling in kennels
- Emergency fostering for owners fleeing domestic abuse or facing hospitalisation
- Hospice fostering for terminally ill animals
The honest difficulty
Saying goodbye is genuinely hard, and most foster carers describe it as worth it anyway. Organisations expect 'foster fails' occasionally and generally welcome them.
If you cannot foster
Shelters also need transport drivers, laundry help, photographers, dog walkers, fundraisers and people willing to share adoption posts. All of it reduces the time an animal waits.