Interested in fostering

Once we move in May I really want to call my local shelter and see about fostering a kitten young adult cat or just an active one even. What are the general policies on fostering? Also how will I know what a good match would be with Hobo?

I know when Hobo was at the shelter he had one other kennel mate usually. They always got adopted before him so he had quite a few. I think they were spayed females, as far as I know. I don't want to stress him out by getting a cat he won't mesch with.

Any insight?

Thanks

My best advice is always to talk to the group you're thinking of dealing with. Each has their own policies as far as fostering goes. Some pay for food/litter/medical, some don't.

Many groups are good at matching up potential foster kitties w/ resident cats if you describe his purrsonality.

Getting a cat that with a particular personality may be hard because the organizations often don't know the cats too well by the time they are placed in foster care. But I guess you could make a general request. I would just contact some local organizations and see if they can work with you. Foster homes are in very short supply so I'm sure they'd be willing to try to accommodate you. If your cat has been around other cats before I don't think you need to worry about getting a particular personality though. If you introduce them correctly they should do fine and it would not be stressful for your cat, except for maybe temporarily as any change would.

I have cats that come and go quite a bit and they all actually do very well together. They are not all best buddies but they get along and live together like a little temporary family. The existing cats are very curious when a new cat comes and sometimes there is some hissing at first but after a day or so the newness has worn off and things start going back to normal. Granted my cats are used to other cats coming and going but the foster cats are not and they also do just fine when another new foster cat comes. Most people who foster have resident cats and they all do surprisingly well with it.

In Illinois there is a process involving an application and a $25 fee per year. When I started fostering, it was for the shelter where I had already volunteered for a couple of years. So they knew me. For people they don't know, they carefully check out references, numbers of other pets, town code rules, etc.

Most often, liters of kittens and puppies, sometimes with the mother, are fostered for a few weeks, until they are ready and old enough for adoption.

Some cats go into foster homes for socialization work, or simply because they have been in the shelter too long and need a break from that environment. What I do is take cats that are unlikely to be adopted, usually because of health issues. Right now I have a lovely cream/buff long hair named Halo. He is 15 years old, and was in the shelter for 20 months. He has several age related health problems.

My shelter doesn't pay for food for fosters, but they provide all medical care. He has a couple of daily medications, and he has to go in once a month for a shot to help manage his arthritis. I intend to keep him for the rest of his life.

As far as fosters getting along with the others (6 at my house), it entirely depends on the cat. I go through the introduction process, and take as much time as needed. But then I had gates up in my house for 15 months when I adopted Tonya, until everyone got along, most of the time. So, I'm willing to do what it takes. Halo is oblivious to the hissing he gets from some of the others. But I don't leave him unattended with most of my other cats, at this point.

The biggest drawback to fostering is that people often "fail" at it by ending up adopting the animal. I recently adopted Constantine (current avatar), but I had wanted to adopt him for 1.5 years before I did. He had some eye problems that needed to be resolved, and after many trips to an opthamologist (which the shelter paid for), that is resolved. A neighbor of mine fosters dozens of kittens each year, and has no problem bringing them back. But after 2 years of fostering him, she just adopted, Simon, a black cat she had because of his extreme shyness. His shyness was over, but she couldn't give him up.

Robin

Yes, in Illinois you do have to be licensed to be a foster but most shelters and rescues take care of the paper work and some also cover the application fee.

Robin, if you don't mind saying, what shelter do you foster for? Do they often allow hard to place cats, like seniors, live out their lives in foster care with the shelter paying for vet care? I wish more organizations did stuff like that. It would be a great way to get hard to place cats out of the shelter and into homes. I'm impressed that they pay for an ophtomologist.

It's Anderson Animal Shelter in South Elgin. They have a full time vet on staff, and four vet techs. The animals really do get excellent medical care. They euthanize very few animals (only when there is no hope), keeping many chronically ill ones going for years.

And they took my Constantine to the opthamologist about 5 times for his eye lash problem. There are a few foster situations, that I know of, like mine where an old animal is living out it's life in a home, but gets medical care from AAS.

They did take care of the paper work with the state when I started fostering. And after the first year, they pay the $25 annual fee.

Robin

We have fostered a number of cats for the shelter I volunteer at.  And yes, I still have two of them, although both were considered "unadoptable" at the shelter and would have been euthanized.

What HAS happened, frequently, is that they have a cat or kitten who is not thriving or needs socialization.  We've had some that were not long out of a feral trap.  And yes, they've all gotten adopted, eventually.

What's really bad is when they have a sudden crush of cats (say, someone brings in 10 cats, or a major trapping program goes down, or some such thing) and the shelter is required to hold them for 72 hours and just doesn't have the space.  That's when other, adoptable, maybe even long-term cats or kittens need to be warehoused.  For example, on a weekend back around Christmas, the shelter called everyone who normally fostered, and we all went in and picked up a cat or two.

One of the big risks in fostering is bringing diseasese, fleas, earmites, and parasites into your home with an unknown cat.

One of the big risks in fostering is bringing diseasese, fleas, earmites, and parasites into your home with an unknown cat.

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That's true. A lot of foster cats do come with medical problems. You have to be prepared for that. But you can avoid passing it onto your own cats by quarantining the foster cat for at least two weeks and get them treated for fleas and worms, whether you find any or not, right away or before they are brought home if possible. When I used to pull cats from this little horrible county pound I would bring Frontline with me and put it on them before they even went in my car and I gave them Strongid as soon as I got them home. Basically, with proper precautions your cats should not be at risk.

Well, I think it depends regarding the risks involved. The cats I've fostered were pretty much unadoptable because of their health problems. But nothing was contagious. They were all up to date on vaccinations, flea and worms treatments, and had been tested for the common, major, ugly diseases. And Halo had a dental the day I brought him home.

However, every new animal comes with some risks to the others. Separating fosters for a while is a good idea.

Robin

Yeah, it depends on the organization you foster for. Some have a lot of resources and the animals get great care while others are ran on shoestring budgets and the cats don't even get get their noses wiped when they are full of gunk, much less actual veterinary care. City and county shelters tend to be like that.

Thanks everyone for your insight. We will be moving in to a trailor, I would hope it will have two bedrooms so I could quarintine the foster in one room while Hobo still gets free roam of the rest the house. I do not plan on becoming a foster failure only because I do not think BF would like that. Otherwise I would just adopt a second cat for myself. He may most likely go along with me being foster because the kitty will get a new home someday. Our landlord is actually DB's boss so we will have to see what he says. As far as I know he already knows we have the two dogs and one cat.

I have until May to keep thinking about fostering.

1) I want to help out the shelter and the cats in the shelter.

and

2) I want Hobo to have a buddy to play with and to help him lose weight.

If the new home doesn't have a spare room the foster cat could be quarantined in the bathroom if need be (it's much better than a cage at the shelter) or just make your room available to him. I'm sure Hobo would be okay with not having access to the bedroom for a couple of weeks. Of course you can be as silly as I am too. I had a litter of kittens quarantined in my bedroom once but I didn't want my dogs and my other cats to sleep without me when they are used to sharing my bed every night so I slept on the couch for a few weeks and the dogs slept on the floor next to the couch.

I think you're doing a wonderful thing wanting to foster shelter kitties. There is such a huge need for foster homes and every foster home makes a big difference in the lives of the pets they foster. Fostering not only gives the foster cat a better quality of life than he would have had in the shelter, it also literally saves lives. When a cat is placed in foster care space opens up at the shelter for another cat who may have ended up being killed in a kill shelter otherwise. I hope you do decide to foster. It's pretty cool to know how much you've helped these little innocent kitties.

Ziggy'smom said:

If the new home doesn't have a spare room the foster cat could be quarantined in the bathroom if need be (it's much better than a cage at the shelter) or just make your room available to him. I'm sure Hobo would be okay with not having access to the bedroom for a couple of weeks. Of course you can be as silly as I am too. I had a litter of kittens quarantined in my bedroom once but I didn't want my dogs and my other cats to sleep without me when they are used to sharing my bed every night so I slept on the couch for a few weeks and the dogs slept on the floor next to the couch.

I think you're doing a wonderful thing wanting to foster shelter kitties. There is such a huge need for foster homes and every foster home makes a big difference in the lives of the pets they foster. Fostering not only gives the foster cat a better quality of life than he would have had in the shelter, it also literally saves lives. When a cat is placed in foster care space opens up at the shelter for another cat who may have ended up being killed in a kill shelter otherwise. I hope you do decide to foster. It's pretty cool to know how much you've helped these little innocent kitties.

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That is all I can think about is helping the kitties. I worked in a shelter for well over 6 months. It was depressing seeing how many cats we had coming in but not going out. That is where I took hobo from. He was going to be PTS for not having a personality. He has a huge loving personality!

Anyway I need to stop rambling.