Fosters save lives!
Fosters typically care for underage, injured, or ill pets in their homes until they are ready to be returned to the shelter to be adopted. Fosters also care for animals who simply would benefit from a temporary break from shelter life. You do not have to be a shelter volunteer in order to foster, but you do have to go through the same police background check as a shelter volunteer does.
Fosters most frequently care for underage kittens (kittens cannot be offered for adoption until they are at least eight weeks old and weigh two pounds), usually without a mom. Some are just a few days old and require bottle feeding every few hours, while others are five or six weeks old and eating on their own. Regardless of their age, they do much better in a foster’s home than they do in the shelter. Fosters are also occasionally needed to care for injured or ill dogs or older cats, and very occasionally for other domestic pets. These animals may be recovering from an operation or an illness and need round the clock supervision and care that cannot be provided at the shelter.
If you are approved to foster for Anne Arundel County Animal Care & Control, you will receive education and support from its network of fosters and shelter staff. Friends of Anne Arundel County Animal Care & Control will provide some of the food and supplies you will need and also access to a veterinarian if needed. When an animal becomes available to be fostered, the shelter’s fosters receive alerts both by email and on a private Facebook page. It is up to each shelter foster to decide whether to bring any particular animal home; no foster is ever required to take an animal. But you’ll get a warm and fuzzy feeling when you save a warm and fuzzy life!
