Cat Fostering
- 1. Foster Care: A Critical Link Between Shelters and Forever Homes
- 2. Foster Care: Animal Welfare Association
- 3. Foster Care: San Francisco SPCA
- 4. Foster Care: Humane Society of Sedona, Arizona
- 5. Foster Care: Cat Care Society
- 6. Foster Care: Animal Humane New Mexico
- 7. Foster Care: Animal Friends, Inc
Foster Care: Humane Society of Sedona, Arizona
The following is from the Summer 2010 issue of Protecting Animals, American Humane's quarterly journal for animal welfare professionals. Used by permission. To learn more, visit www.AmericanHumane.org.
"Thank goodness for fosters," says Birgitte "B" Skielvig, executive director of the Humane Society of Sedona. The shelter has about 20 active foster care volunteers, including three who hand-raise kittens without moms, as well as litters with mothers. The volunteers have also fostered rabbits, birds, rats and a 3-week-old puppy.
Recruiting/Training
Many of our fosters are recruited by other volunteers, but
we also recruit with fliers and with information about
fostering in the Adoption Gallery binders that we place in
about 50 local businesses. All volunteers must complete
an orientation session. Foster volunteers are then teamed
up with veteran fosters to receive special training. Adoption For record keeping, we use Adopt-A-Friend shelter
software, which makes it easy to track where the
animals are. When an animal first arrives, it goes into
our isolation area for a few days for evaluation. If it
is determined that the animal needs foster care, we
make calls to find an appropriate foster home. Once
the animals become available for adoption, we try to
place them at off-site locations, such as our two local pet
stores. The stores follow our adoption protocol, including
faxing us the adoption application for our approval.
Then they follow our guidelines for the paperwork and
fee collection. When they adopt out an animal, we are
there the next day with a new animal and to collect the
paperwork. Setting Limits/Compassion Fatigue Generally, most foster people take one animal at a time.
We have two wonderful volunteers who have one room
in their home dedicated to foster animals. During our
peak kitten season, they might have upwards of a dozen.
These volunteers know their limits and tell us when
enough is enough. They will make recommendations
for euthanasia of animals they feel are simply too sick.
Communication between them and us is essential.
Both of these volunteers have lost animals, but are very
accepting of the situation. Occasionally, they take some
time off to regroup. Everyone needs to take a break
in this business. We are extremely lucky to find levelheaded
and understanding foster volunteers. Funding Most of our cat foster volunteers pay for their out-of-pocket
costs. At the end of the year, they submit receipts
for an in-kind donation tax break. Those on limited
incomes get food and necessary items from us. We have
an on-site vet clinic each week in case an animal needs
specific care. All animals are sterilized before going up
for adoption.
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Foster Care: Cat Care Society
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