Volunteer Opportunities: Foster Care

Fostering is a beautiful way to help cast-off animals begin to trust again.

Foster "parents" temporarily board shelter animals in their own homes until they are adopted.

Few HAHS activities capture so well the underlying essence of animal support. To be sure, while there are many ways to help out, fostering is one volunteer function that's very "hands on" - or very "hearts on", as its beneficial effects can be immediate, clear, and lasting - for the animal and the volunteer.

The HAHS foster parent program addresses two main issues:

• Some animals just do not "do well" in an unfamiliar, noisy shelter, particularly those who're used to lazing around inside a relatively quiet home. By fostering away from a shelter, a lot of the animal's confusion and stress is reduced. Their true nature may be more easily revealed in a relaxed foster home environment, rather than constantly behaving defensively in response to a "threatening" shelter experience (even when it really isn't).
  
  
• Second, time is not on the side of a shelter animal. Shelters hang on to animals as long as they can, but due to space constraints, strict city regulations, low staffing or other mitigating factors, animals cannot stay in their cages forever - and the daily inflow of pets seldom slows. By fostering a dog or cat away from these limitations, home volunteers can "stop the clock" and give the animal extra time while the HAHS organization helps find an appropriate owner.

Benefits of fostering:

• Volunteers can help an animal immediately when they need it most, without necessarily making a lifetime commitment.
  
• Since the adoptee is kept in a real home, the animal can be given personalized, unconditional love and human socialization while receiving the break it needs and deserves.
  
• Foster parents get to see the pure joy on both the animal's face, and that of the new owner, when they discover each other at an on-site adoption.
  

(Should a foster parent decide they simply cannot part with their animal, they are certainly allowed to formally adopt and become the permanent owner. See our "Success Stories" page for a few examples of adoption accounts.)

Another situation calling for some TLC:

Outside of the normal (and hectic!) partner shelter activities, HAHS is also allowed to keep cats and kittens in the cages provided within PETsMART store space, helping them stay visible for adoption during regular store hours as well.

But sometimes these cats need a break from the glassed-in store atmosphere and could really benefit from an in-home environment - even if it's just for a few days. If you feel you can help us out by fostering one of the cats for short periods of time they would be grateful!

Please use this e-mail address or call 1-800-384-3143 to start temporary fostering for HAHS.