It is my opinion that foster homes are one of the best things a shelter animal can get short of a forever home. Animals in the shelter don't usually thrive in that environment and it can also be difficult to learn about the pet's personality which can contribute greatly to the animal's adoptability. When they come into foster care, the foster parents can assess their personality in a home environment, we can work on training and exercise and keeping the pets overall healthy both physically and mentally.
Fostering also helps the shelter and other pets there. By taking in one foster you are freeing up space at already over crowded shelters, giving many pets another chance at life that may have otherwise been euthanized due to lack of space.
Fostering is demanding, frustrating, exhausting and rewarding beyond words.
Many years ago I fostered a lot of different dogs, but after spending the last few years focused on family, I've kind of gotten out of the mix. Recently I sent in my volunteer application to Friends of Jefferson Animal Shelter and in less than a week I was driving to the shelter to pick up 3 orphaned kittens: Peaty, Penelope, and Molly.
Peaty and Penelope came from the same litter and Molly was an orphaned kitten found alone. She needed other kittens so we brought her into our litter. This is my first time fostering cats and it has been quite an adventure so far. You can see the kittens at play if you look at the web cam during the right times (hopefully you won't just see a big red dog's rump, lol)
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