Fostering?

Im interested in helping some local shelters with fostering cats. Before I fill out the application, I was wondering if anyone who does this can fill me in on it? The processes, what the shelters provide and pay for, what they expect or require, how you handle things in your house with new cats coming and going etc. Anything you can tell me Im interested in hearing
Thank you!

I don't think you will get a pay for fostering a animal , the rest I don't know . But it also interest me as well , I also was thinking about fostering for cats .

Well I dont mean pay like an income.. but do they pay for food or litter, vet visits, de-wormer or medicines etc. Things like that
I think fostering might help with my desire to help cats without a permanency here. I can just be a temporary haven until they find a great home

It depends on the shelter you are going with. Some shelters here in Tucson won't provide anything at all. But resuce groups such as F.A.I.R. will provide you with all the food and pay the medical bills. They won't hand you money directly but there is someone that will bring you the cat food and supplies and they pay the vet bills directly. But from what I've heard not very many rescue organizations are able to do this due to lack of funds.

You might want to ask the shelter you want to foster with these questions too since every shelter does it differently.

I'am from Toronto, Canada, it might be alittle different here then in the state. I don't do fostering but I do volunteer my time at the shelter grooming cats. What I do no; we are supplied with food, medication and anything else they need free of charge. You can check out your shelter where you want to do foster and then they will let you know what you would have to do.

Ok I will ask them directly to see what they offer.
As for how things work in your home, how do you handle new cats coming and going a lot?

it is also imporant to make sure you can seperate the foster cats from your cats until the cat has a clean bill of health.

Mamma Cat: I foster kitties from my no-kill shelter where I volunteer; they pay for everything.

As for introducing new kittens to your household, keep your fosters seperate from your cats; this is a requirement of my shelter.

After I have their "health status", and know they are not contaminating my furrkids, I allow them to be gradually introduced to my group. In the past, it has worked well. However, my dominant neutered male has decided that he hates these guys so I have decided to stop fostering. I also trap Ferals. I have a Feral living with us. Her name is Maggie. She was doing fine until the latest fosters arrived on the scene. Now my dominant male hates her too. So no more cats or kittens will be added to my household.

I am fairly new to fostering. Each shelter will have its own set of rules and requirements. Some pay for everything, some do not. Some require complete separation of foster cats from household cats, some do not. Those types of questions need to be asked of the group(s) you are thinking of helping.

Now, even if the group you choose allows intermingling of cats, they should be separate at first. (Just like a newcomer to your own cat family). This gives them a time to feel comfortable in their new environment and to clear them of any illness (including the common URI, which will spread fast through your own kitties if they are exposed)

After that, use the amount of time before inrtoduction based on how quickly the foster cat adjusts. A lot of cats in need of fostering have been trapped as strays and will not be ready to mingle as soon as some.

In the example of a mom cat with kittens, I kept them separate the entire 8 weeks from my own cats to help the mom cat to not feel threatened. When her babies got adopted and she was left, I allowed her to mingle with mine. Right now I have 3 unrelated 10 week olds and they have a room to themselves. the 2 more outgoing ones will be ready to mingle soon, but the scared one should not have freerun of the place yet because she would be impossible to find.

These are some exampls, I hope they helped some.