Animal shelters and rescues always need help from community members in order to save more cats’ lives and are grateful to anyone willing to foster a cat or kittens. Fostering not only provides an invaluable temporary home for a pet in need but also helps shelters manage overcrowding, improves the well-being of the animals, and increases the chances of adoption. Providing a safe space for a cat or kitten and caring for them is incredibly fulfilling and seeing them get adopted is so rewarding.
Fostering opportunities range from newborn kittens to senior cats and everything in between. Sometimes animals recovering from surgery need to be on cage rest for a few weeks and you can borrow a dog crate and set up a space for the cat in your living room or bedroom and have a companion for a short time. Sometimes the rescue is simply too full and has no more available cages and needs community members to foster perfectly healthy and adoptable adult cats. Sick cats, injured cats, undersocialized cats, bottle baby kittens, or hospice cats in need of a loving home for whatever time they have left, you can absolutely find a cat who fits your lifestyle and availability. You will be an important part of their journey to finding a forever home simply by offering your heart and your home to them for a few weeks or months.
Fostering saves lives. Animal shelters and rescues typically operate at full capacity - if not over capacity! - especially during kitten season. Because of this, they often lack the resources to provide care for every animal. By caring for a cat or kittens in your home, you ensure their safety AND free up a cage for another animal in need. So you are really saving two lives! There are so many cats looking for homes and simply not enough adopters for all of them so fosters care for cats while they wait in a calm and loving environment. Shelters can be crowded, noisy, and overstimulating to cats, which can lead to stress, illness, and behavioral issues. Most cats are much happier - and healthier! - in homes.
Fostering is a temporary commitment so it’s a great option for people who have limited time. If you know you’re not in a position to adopt but want to help out when you can, fostering offers that flexibility.
By fostering, you can learn life-saving skills such as bottle feeding or tube feeding neonates, administering medicines or fluids to sick or injured cats, or socializing hissy or scared cats and kittens.
Fostering a pet helps them get adopted because you get to know them. Fosters can provide detailed information about the pet’s personality, habits, and needs. Living with a cat gives you so much insight into their likes and dislikes and what kind of adopter and forever home will suit them. It’s much easier for potential adopters to understand a pet’s temperament when they have been cared for in a home, rather than a shelter.
In a shelter with so many animals looking for homes, it can be challenging for the staff to get to know all the cats individually and for the cats to stand out to potential adopters. Giving a cat the opportunity to thrive in a home environment, taking photos and videos, writing a strong bio, and sharing them with friends, family, and on social media will do wonders for their adoption.
Fostering is very rewarding. Knowing that you saved a life (or lives) and helped a cat or kitten find their forever home is extremely fulfilling. Taking care of kittens and watching them learn and grow is a wonderful experience that often improves your own well-being. Similarly, caring for a sick or injured cat and helping them recover or fostering an undersocialized cat and showing them that humans aren’t so scary after all is a beautiful - albeit stressful and challenging! - act of love.
Fostering cats and kittens is a one-of-a-kind experience that truly opens your heart. You will meet so many kind and loving souls, both human and feline, who will inspire and encourage you. You will learn so many new things and help many lives along the way. By providing love and care and lots of cuddles for a few weeks or months, you’ll be changing their lives, and yours too. If you're interested in fostering, contact a local animal shelter or rescue organization and ask how you can help.
Love, Nala
