Become a Foster
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- Become a Foster
Helping us save lives.
Animal foster volunteers are a life-saving role for many animals who enter the shelter. These volunteers provide temporary care in their homes for animals that may be too young for adoption, sick or injured, need work on their behaviour outside of the shelter or provide palliative care for animals in need of a quiet, relaxed home for the remainder of their lives.
Foster care provides temporary housing until the animals are ready for adoption, with the duration in a foster home varying from 2-3 weeks to 2-3 months. The act to fostering is one of compassion that carries great potential rewards for both the foster volunteer and the fostered animal. By opening their homes and hearts, foster volunteers set our animals up for success in their future forever homes.
Fostering doesn’t cost money.
Reasons to Foster
When you foster, you bring in a cat or dog into your home and give him/her the love and care like you would your own pet. You provide a temporary, safe and loving environment for a companion animal in need. Fostering provides you and your family with an enjoyable and rewarding experience, teaching all family members the importance of second chances which we think is something very valuable in all aspects of life. By opening your home and heart to foster a pet YOU will help us save a life
- You get to show and teach your foster animal what it is to be a happy, loved family pet.
- It’s FUN!!!
- You undoubtedly will get attached but when you meet the new family that’s ready to provide a permanent, loving forever-home for the animal you helped rescue through fostering, you will feel more than satisfied to see him move on to his new life.
- Increased “human interaction” greatly helps foster animals … and let’s not forget what “animal interaction” can do for you.
- If you already have one or more animals, one more won’t make a difference to you, but it sure will make a difference to the animal who might otherwise not have a second chance at life.
- Fostering provides a great lesson to your children about compassion, nurturing, and generosity and it’s a wonderful, life-affirming experience for an entire family, a couple, or a single individual.
- Animals that have endured hardship or have medical conditions can really use a loving home, one in which they can get used to living with people again.
- Animal companionship without a lifetime commitment.
Ready To Get Started?
- The Animal Foster Care Program is one of the many life-saving arms of the FMSPCA. The primary reason for foster care is to provide a temporary home for a potentially adoptable animal whose current condition is not manageable in a shelter setting, or to relieve overcrowding in the shelter. Although previous fostering experience is not required, ideal foster care provider will have basic knowledge of animal care and training and be committed to finding their foster animal a safe and loving “forever home”. As a foster care provider, you will provide the animals with care including, food, water, shelter, training, grooming, and medical treatment when necessary.
- Fostering a shelter animal is a wonderful and rewarding experience but can also be time consuming and hard work.
Please seriously consider all of the aspects of the foster care program before deciding to apply to foster.
All first-time foster care providers with the FMSPCA must complete the following application.
Conditions
- Must be 18 years of age or older and all members of the household in agreement;
- All current animals in the home must be up-to-date on their vaccinations (some exceptions allowed);
- All current animals in the home must be spayed/neutered, unless reasonable explanation (i.e. medical condition, too young);
- Must have reliable transportation to bring foster animals to appointments at the vet and/or shelter;
- Ideally a completely fenced yard for dog foster homes, but we do have exceptions depending on the circumstances and type of dogs;
- Commitment to the duration of the time the animal is in foster care, anywhere from two weeks to four months+ (dependent on the animal and the time of year); and
- Signed waiver & release.
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