Program Specifics

Foster homes provide temporary care for companion animals not yet ready for adoption, from young litters of puppies or kittens to animals recovering from surgery. By offering your time, energy, love, and home to an animal in need, you can also help socialize pets who may be fearful due to abuse and neglect, and prepare them for adoption into a permanent home. Foster homes give us more space in our shelter, allowing us to expand our reach and save more animals.

How the Program Works

• Foster parents feed, groom, socialize, and provide medical care if necessary.
• Foster parents only need to provide time and love, but we appreciate any donation of food and supplies.
• When the animal is ready to be adopted, FHS will place it in a home. If you find a potential home, please let us know!
• Foster parents can adopt their foster pet and receive priority, but we strongly encourage serial fostering. It’s addictive.

Foster Qualifications

• Foster parents must be able to provide a safe, loving, and stable environment for the foster animal until he/she is adopted.
• The primary foster parent must be at least 18 years old. Teens ages 14–17 are welcome to foster for community service hours with a parent or guardian serving as the supervising adult. Teens fostering for service hours should bring their school or community service paperwork for us to sign off on.
• Experience with animal behavioral or medical issues is a plus, but not necessary.
• Foster parents must be patient and willing to nurse any injury and/or illness, with the understanding that some animals will not recover from their injury.
• Foster parents must be able to transport their foster animal to and from the shelter, which may be required as often as every two weeks, should the need arise.

Foster Guidelines

• Foster parents may need to transport kittens and puppies to FHS every two weeks for vaccinations.
• Foster parents are responsible for performing basic post-surgical care and administering any necessary medications.
• Foster cats must be kept indoors at all times.
• Foster dogs must be kept indoors or in a secure kennel when you are not home.
• Foster homes for dogs should have a securely fenced yard, or you must agree to take the dog out on a leash several times a day.
• Foster parents may be asked to schedule visits between the foster pet and prospective adopters.
• FHS may schedule visits to potential foster homes.
• FHS may remove a foster animal if necessary.