Fostering
BE A HERO TO HOMELESS PETS
Hands 'N Paws covers all expenses to foster animals in our care. We provide:
- Food and dishes
- Beds, blankets, and kennels
- Litter boxes and litter
- Leashes, collars, and harnesses
- Toys and enrichment
- Medication, parasite preventatives
- All veterinary needs!
We are a foster based organization. Every animal that we take in is placed in a foster home until adopted. The foster gets to decide which applicant is right for each animal. If you're not ready for a long-term commitment of pet ownership, but want to care for an animal, fostering can be a rewarding opportunity.
What is fostering?
Fostering is simply nurturing a rescued pet in your home for a period of time. The majority of animals fostered are litters of kittens. Kittens and puppies come to us as strays or abandoned, and are too young and fragile to be placed in permanent homes. They need the security of their littermates, they need special care, and they need to learn important lessons from each other.
That's where you come in. Just like kids, kittens and puppies learn to get along with each other by playing. They learn limits, they learn tolerance, and they learn not to hurt each other — too much! This littermate interaction is essential for the healthy development of puppies and kittens. Fostered litters also learn about the home environment — other cats, dogs, and kids. You can help make a difference in the life of a homeless animal!
We also occasionally need fosters for farm or exotic animals, such as goats, chickens, rabbits, snakes, and more. We help any animal we can!
In terms of commitment, the length of time an animal requires in a foster home is entirely based on the individual animal. Animals can be fostered anywhere from one to two weeks, to a few months, and rarely, a year or more. It is all based on the animal and your desired level of commitment. You get to choose how much time and when you want to foster, and while one family may foster many litters of kittens in a year, another may take on a dog waiting for a special operation, or a litter or two of bottle-feeding kittens in our peak season. All of your time spent caring for foster animals is valued more than we can say. You help us save lives!
Hands 'N Paws covers all the expenses associated with the animal, such as food, litter, and supplies, as well as any emergency or routine medical care they might need. Our organization is entirely foster-based, so all of our intakes go into foster homes until they are adopted. You even get to decide which applicant gets to adopt your foster animal! If you fall in love with your foster animal, you can even adopt it yourself!
