Discover the Rewards of Animal Rescue Fostering

Six Reasons to Foster a Dog Now

If you are thinking about adding another pet to the family, please consider fostering a rescue dog or cat.  It has been my experience that when a family is asked to foster a homeless pet, they quickly shoot down the suggestion, claiming that giving it up when a permanent family is found will be too emotionally wrenching. They prefer instead to hold out until their perfect idea of a rescue dog comes along. They don’t realize that the fostering idea gives them a chance to learn about many different dogs, breeds, temperaments and needs so they can make an informed decision when the time is truly right for them. And, it gives the dog a chance to settle in to a household, away from a kennel, and learn how to behave and live among people.

1. Fostering improves the dog’s chance of being adopted.
   When you bring the dog into your home, it becomes part of the fabric of your life, even if only for a few weeks. Your network of friends and family learn about your houseguest, and spread the word about her. Maybe one of them will become her forever family.
2. Fostering helps the dog learn critical socialization skills.
   Even the best shelters can’t provide the one-on-one attention that most dogs not only crave, but need.  Some need it more than others, and a shelter is not the best place to get it. A dog wants a chance to sit at your feet, follow you around the house, and occasionally get a treat as you prepare dinner. In a home setting, the dog gets a chance to do these things and also learn the boundaries of acceptable behavior.  This is even better if you have another dog in the household who can help show her the way.
   
3. Fostering saves lives.
   A dog in a home, even it if is just for a few weeks or months, is safe from the dangers of life on the street or the deathwatch in shelters who place a time limit on the length of time a dog can stay. Fostering buys the rescue group some additional time to find a suitable home for the dog, whose only crime may be that her family couldn’t afford to keep her.  Once the animal goes to a permanent home, your household is then available to save another homeless pet.  It’s a happy cycle, and many shelters rely heavily on foster families to maintain a dog’s adoptability.
4. Your family learns about caring for another living being.
   Of course, there is the daily commitment to feeding, watering and walking that every pet brings, whether a foster or not, but a foster dog, by definition, is not a long-term commitment (although it may turn out to be, if you want-see item 5), so your family can find out if it is the right time to have a pet in the household.  And, when the dog goes to its permanent home, children learn a bit, by first-hand experience, that letting go is part of living life.
5. Sometimes love needs time to grow.
   The nervous dog that arrived on your doorstep a few weeks ago will quickly settle in and show off who she really is. And she may just be the perfect fit for that empty place in your heart and home.  This trial period allows both your family and the dog (or cat, or any other pet) the test drive that you need to sign on the dotted line.
6. Last Chance Animal Rescue Fund Needs Foster Homes
   Please forgive the blatant pitch here, but Southampton-based Last Chance Animal Rescue Fund is saving the lives of many
   
   puppies and young dogs whose brief lives would be extinguished if they were left in the shelters.  Last Chance has done great work so far and a key to their success is the generosity of fostering families willing to take in the pups and give them time to recover from the stressful, and most likely terrifying, experience of living on borrowed time in the shelter.  In order to do more, they need more foster homes ready to take the young dogs and older puppies who are regularly delivered from the South Carolina shelters where they have been dumped.

Please don’t give up on these wonderful waifs. Click on over to the Last Chance website and find out what you can do to help.  Give a dog a home for a few days, a few weeks, or a lifetime. This is your chance to be part of the solution where everyone is a winner.

What kind of experience have you had with animal rescue fostering? How do you react when someone asks you to foster a pet?  Let us know with a post in our comments section.