What exactly does fostering mean? It means bringing a homeless animal into your home, caring for them, providing them with affection and socialization, until a permanent family comes along who will love them forever.
Shelters rely on fosters for a multitude of reasons. They provide a change of environment for long term residents, those animals who may be having a hard time adjusting to a kennel atmosphere, they can provide more focused care for bottle babies and pregnant animals. Fosters are crucial to shelters and rescues ability to help animals, by affording them a quiet and comfortable atmosphere to decompress and learn to trust.
Often times, certain animals may not "show" well in a kennel environment due to excess energy, or scrambling for attention as potential adopters walk by. While fostering an animal, you are able to provide exercise and stimulation, which in turn creates a calmer, well socialized animal. In addition, you can work with the animal on leash training, house training, or other basic command training, that potential adopters are looking for in a rescue animal for their family.
Shelters and rescues often look to fosters for those animals who may have endured a difficult past such as abuse, cruelty, neglect, under socialization, etc. As a foster, you have the chance and opportunity to gain an animals trust, show them human touch and love perhaps for the first time, provide an environment for them to feel safe, and watch them transform before your eyes.
When the day comes, that your foster finds that perfect home, the rewarding feeling you will experience is something very special. You will feel a sense of pride, in knowing what you helped that animal accomplish in their time with you. You will feel overjoyed, that they have found their forever family and their happy ending that all homeless animals so desire. And while certainly, some goodbyes can be tough, knowing that an animal has found their happy ending is as good of a feeling as there is!
DEAR FOSTER FAMILY:
There I sat, alone and afraid,
You got a call and came right to my aid.
You bundled me up with blankets and love,
And, when I needed it most, you gave me a hug.
I learned that the world was not all that scary and cold,
That sometimes there is someone to have and to hold.
You taught me what love is, you helped me to mend,
You loved me and healed me and became my first friend.
And just when I thought you'd done all you do,
There came along not one new lesson, but two.
First you said, "Sweetheart, you're ready to go,
I've done all I can, and you've learned all I know."
Then you bundled me up with a blanket and kiss,
Along came a new family, they even have kids!
They took me to their home, forever to stay,
At first I thought you sent me away.
Then that second lesson became perfectly clear,
No matter how far, you will always be near.
And so, Foster Family, you know I've moved on,
I have a new home, with toys and a lawn.
But I'll never forget what I learned that first day,
You never really give your fosters away.
You gave me these thoughts to remember you by,
We may never meet again, and now I know why.
You'll remember I lived with you for a time,
I may not be yours, but you'll always be mine.
