Question for people who doesn't foster pets

When it comes to fostering, you are never required to do it a certain amount of times. Signing up does not mean that you have to do it more than once or that you have to do it forever.
I don't think telling a family that they will only have to do it once will change anything.

I am not interested in having pets around that aren't going to be staying here. I fall in love way too deeply and quickly and wouldn't want to keep breaking my heart!

Also, Trout is an only child and she will be until she passes away.

I know for me personally even only having to do it once would be too much. Not because I dont care because I do but because I literally dont have the space. Im over my limit as it is with inside animals plus we get jerk offs who drop off cats all the time on the farm because they see barns and think oh this is good. Its not. We spend more time burying cats that get dropped off then we do actually spend time trying to catch them, feed them or anything. We live on a busy road so cats get hit all the time. We have found little kittens drowned in our well pump container. We find cats that are sick and died. Its hard on us as it is because we feel HORRIBLE that we literally can only do so much.

We are working right now on getting something set up with a vet or a clinic to get all the farm cats tnred and eventually hopefully finding homes for them. I have 7 outside cats that have managed to figure out that they are safe if they stay close to the house and live in the numerous barns and sheds on the farm and come up to eat on the back porch.

If I didn't live in an apartment I would love to foster, although I think I'd end up never giving them up lol. My apartment charges out the wazoo more then 1 pet so with my buget I wouldn't be able to afford to foster when I already have a cat. Plus, we don't really have a good "safe" room to hold a foster.

I rent with a 2 pet limit and I have 2 pets so fostering isn't possible. It would be hard for me to give them up though especially the adults and the black cats would be the hardest. Black adult cats get adopted so rarely and I wouldn't want to think about what happens when they go back. Even if it's a good no kill shelter it still isn't the same as being in a home.

my apartment limits to 2 pets only. If I had a house, plenty of room and a spare room where my current pets would never have to meet the foster, I'd so be willing. Just the time and place isn't right for me right now.

While it can be heartbreaking taking a foster back, it's great knowing you have given a life a new start. Our shelter often needs to place a number of fosters in a hurry. They needed to park 5 or 6 adults or litters this weekend.

At one time I ran a bird and exotics rescue from my home in cooperation with King County Animal Control in Seattle.
There was a dire need mostly for bird and reptile rescue.
At one time I had 57 birds in my bird room of 8 different species.
It completely wiped out my savings.

When I moved to Needles, I caught and fostered three litters of feral kittens on my own with no outside help. Thing is, I lived in a tiny trailer.
I did send them all (except Jade!) to San Diego as they'd have a better chance of finding homes in a more populace area.
I am very happy to say I get regular updates on all of them, 4 years later

Once I find myself with the space, I will do it again in a heartbeat!

I let them go knowing I can then help MORE kitties who need me, but that doesn't mean that each and every kitty who comes into my home doesn't have a place in my heart, because they all absolutely do.

I absolutely get that not everyone is in the position to be able to foster, and I know that others just won't be able to handle it because there can be a LOT of heartache and rough patches, but trust me, if you DO have the time, space and ability to do so, fostering is by far the most fulfilling thing in the entire world.

I'd love to be able to foster, but it's a no go with Jamie. We've taken in sick cats from the local shelter for a couple of days or a week or so and confined them to a bedroom, but Jamie flips out when other cats are around.

A dog wouldn't work simply because of our current working hours.

It isn't possible for me- DH and I both work 10-12 hour days at times, and poor Peanut probably feels like he owns this house by himself for all that he's here alone!

I can't-I have to many cats. I do TNR on my own but they are ferals who I only hold a few days in a crate. If my numbers go lower in many many years(...) I would foster bottle babies and feral kittens who need to be tamed. Just had to turn down a litter as I know it would be to much for me

I would love to foster, but I'm currently a full time student and living in an apartment so it's not possible. Maybe some day, though. I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to give them up!

our house it just really isnt possible to take in anything that has not been checked by a vet and we know isnt sick. the only rooms we can close off are our garage and our guest bed, and our guest bedroom we keep cat free because of our friends who are allergic to them.
I feel like if I started to foster we would end up with a zoo, and it would cause a lot of issues and heartbreak with mine and gary's relationship.
HOWEVER we are in the process of becoming fosters for guardian angels for soldiers pets. They are a group that takes in pets for the soldiers while they are overseas. That way you know the pet has a family that loves it very much, and you are just a temporary home. I think it would be a much better fit for us right now

Before we adopted our cats, I considered fostering. DH, who knows me very well, said that if brought in a foster cat(s), they would leave our house only when they were pried out of my cold dead hands. He's right, I'm sure.

In any case, I don't really think it would be fair to my cats to bring in strange cats that come and go.

If I ever came into a ton of money, one thing I would do would be to donate a huge chuck to the shelter where I got my babies so they could open up a second shelter closer to me, and I would volunteer there.

I admire people who do take fosters - but do you really feel its good for your permanent pets to have strange cats coming and going?

Mine couldn't care less! Most of the times my fosters are separated from our own cats anyway. The only exceptions are social cats/kittens who have clean bill of health and who don't stress my own out. They are so used to other cats by now, it doesn't phase them at all.

I get too attached to animals to be able to foster. I would end up being the one who adopted in the end.

Now on the other hand I have taken in strays, took them to the vet for treatments, shots, spaying/neurtering, and then rehomed them. But it was very very hard for me to do. My heart broke and I cried and cried after they were gone. So I can't do it anymore.

2 reasons:
My mother
My father

Actually hubby and I have both decided that when Mattie and Muffin are gone, we want no more cats. However, I know we will miss cats terribly as we have had them most of our thirty one years of marriage. I have discussed fostering at that time with my hubby and we have decided we might just do it. I think I could deal okay with having cats, knowing they are not ours and our only commitment is to find them a home. We will see when the time comes.

I fostered 4 kittens for awhile. Found them outside as ferals. Adopted one to my in-laws and one through a rescue group. I had the other two up until about 2 weeks ago (since May). One time was enough. It was very stressful on me, my husband, and the cats. I always thought I wanted to foster regularly but learned it just isn't for me.

I almost cried when Diesel got adopted, but I have his new family as friends on FB and can see he's still the crazy little kitty I raised and am glad he is in his forever home. When his 2 brothers took so long to be adopted, I was frazzled and stressed and my cats were over the extra furballs being in the house.

I can say I've done it, experienced it, and helped 4 cats in need. But I really don't think I'll do it again. I am so happy for those who can make it work and do it regularly

We have fostered in the past but are not currently fostering due to our numbers and the medical needs of the older animals. We also have an aggressive cat that makes it difficult to bring anyone else in.

Now, I am not opposed to fostering in the future but DH becomes very attached to the fosters and it really upsets him when we adopt them out. He's always worried that the new family won't take care of them as well as we do.

We've solved the problem by taking in older and/or sick kitties that wouldn't normally get adopted and caring for them through the end of their lives. We think it's a good compromise.

I run a small pet sitting business and doggy daycare ... not a good foster environment ... I did private foster ( long story) and would again if needed but regularly not feasible

I have fostered dogs before...lots of them. The money and time are just not on my side right now in such an endeavor.

I work long shifts, generally 15-16 hours away from home at a time.

I used up all my vacation when I adopted these two so that I could be there 24x7 for their acclimation to the household, but that is not feasible to do repeatedly for fostering, and I don't believe that I can care for any special needs when for three days out of the week I'm only home and awake for a few hours.

Let me tell you how we do it.

If the cat/kitten has an obvious health problem, I run them by our vet at my own expense (but they give me a discount). When I bring them home, I put them in our spare bathroom with their own litter box, food, and water, a bed, a few toys, etc. I turn the light on during the day (no windows), and off at night. I give them soft food in the morning and evening, dry food always available, and I visit with them on a regular basis, playing with them, petting them, etc.

I do my best to keep them away from our cats until I have a pretty good read on their health. The current ones have diarrhea, and, while it may just be the usual kitten problem, we're treating them for coccidia and will treat them for giardia if that doesn't clear it up.

Flambe is hissing at them, as he usually does when he first discovers new animals in the house. Once he discovers that they want to play even more than he does, he'll accept them completely.

There will be paw play under the door before long. Sterling, our mother cat (despite being male), will make up with them very quickly once they are out.

Now, how has it gone?

1. Ella, the Katrina survivor. Pulled from the shelter as undesirable due to a sore on her nose. After a few weeks, we decided we couldn't take her back to go back in a cage after 3 years of that.

2. Flambe, the crazy cat. He never settled down at the shelter, so we adopted him.

3. Jeeves. He supposedly needed socialization, but he was a cuddler from the start. Took him back and he was promptly adopted.

4. Emily. She was just a little "off." A few weeks with us got her back on track. Took her back and she got adopted.

5. Sweetness. A little wild and "rough" in appearance. She filled out nicely, calmed down, and was eventually adopted.

6. Light. Caught in a feral trapping program, she lived for quite a while under our couch. When she came, she had no idea what playing was. She eventually got excited by a shoe string. She loved being cuddled, eventually. We were worried that she might have trouble getting adopted, but a family looked at her. When they took her in the play room, she promptly curled up on Grandma's lap and went to sleep. Needless to say, they took her home.

7. ZZ. He went from a malnourished sickly waif to the slick young gentleman in the tux. When we took him back, he was adopted within the week.

8. Now we have Sugar and Spice. They love attention, and I hope we can get their digestion settled down soon.

I don't officially foster, but most people in the neighborhood know to come to me with baby birds and squirrels, and once a half drowned chipmunk baby that had fallen in a pond and my son fished it out. (Dale was pretty nippy, but stayed with us for a month then released) I have raised several baby birds, (my dad was an expert at this, so I learned from the best) LOADS of squirrels (Love these guys, they stick around for a long time when you release them)

I couldn't foster a domestic animal. It would wind up staying.

That's good, but mine would definitely care. One time I brought a cat in (neighbor cat that got loose), Cindy curled up and sat on her tail and Swanie hissed up a storm. I guess if cats are coming and going all the time they get used to it, like at the vet clinic. She has at least 8 or 9 running around the clinic and they aren't bothered by each other or cats who come in. Sometimes one will come up to the carrier to say hi to Swanie and he hisses up a storm.

That was the rough part for us when we fostered. I took on 4 kittens with the expectations that it would be quick. When I still had kittens 4-5mos later, tension and stress rose in my house.

One of the girls who adopted one of those kittens contacted me recently. She wants me to take in a bunch of cats her husband found. But I can't do this again. I think for me it'd be a lot easier to foster for a shelter for a set period of time (growth, weight, etc) and then return them and take on a new batch like my friend does.