How to decide which rescue to help?

I was curious how some of you all came to decide which rescue you primarily work with or do you work with several. I have been debating on fostering kittens for some of the local rescues and after sending out several emails to each of the local rescues several have already called back in need. Obviously I would love to take them all in, but I know that isn't feasible. Do most rescues have a problem with you working with more than one rescue at a time? I have two empty room so I could easily take two litters and keep them seperated both from each other and from my cats.

At the same time I am a little concerned by how many kittens the one rescue had. They are a smaller rescue but it almost sounds like they are overwhelmed to the point where I don't know how successfull they will be in finding homes.

Decisions, decisions...any advice? I have never fostered before but I have helped tame 9 feral kittens in the past couple years.

I had found a preggers kitty at work, and since she had collars on, I listed her in the newspaper as a found kitty. I got several weird calls, but one from my current agency stating they would help with vet care, and would adopt the babies out for a $100 fee, which includes a free spay/neuter certificate. I was concerned about "my" kittens ending up reproducing, so thought it seemed like a great idea.

Now we spay/neuter before the kits are adopted.

I do wish I was closer to my foster agency. To take kittens to adoption shows, I drive about an hour each way. There is a closer agency, but mine really needs the fostering help, and the women I work with are so fabulous. They know of the other local rescues, including dog rescues. They don't seem to compete with other rescues at all.

I would ask about how they provide vet care for the animals. Do they get food donations that they can share with you for the fosters? Will they provide a cage or condo for the kittens to be born in? Do they have good luck adopting out the kittens and cats?

I think working with one rescue is the best idea. Reality is that certain people have personality differences. It may be difficult to be working with 2 different rescues. And is the smaller one simply overwhelmed because someone backed out of helping? My rescue doesn't accept a pregnant cat unless they have a foster home available. They do call everyone, and try to see if we can take them...but without the homes to house them, they sometimes have to turn people away. I think that is better than taking on too many.

However, it is kitten season. One day here at TCS I think we had 25 kittens born. So it is quite easy for a rescue to be overrun with kittens at any one time. And kittens are usually easy to find homes for...it is the leftover Mommas that are harder to get adopted!

Yeah I am leaning towards the one particular rescue more and more. They seem to be more established. I am hesitant about the other one primarily due to the fact they are such a small rescue with only a few volunteers but a very large number of kittens. They seem to do adoptions at some of the local petsmart and petco's twice a month or more but they don't have a presence in the store. Both of the rescues are listed also on petfinder though. I just fear they may take in way more than they can handle adopting out. I figure I will go also to one of their adoption events and see how it is handled.

I would love to own more cats but I think 3 is my limit. I have no problem with opening a place to house animals so that more can be saved in the long run, but I don't think I am ready to adopt any more. Does that make sense?

EDIT: I am not quite sure why the smaller rescue is so overwhelmed and maybe they aren't since I don't have the experience to judge. It sounded like of the few foster homes they have 2 of them had 20+ kittens. They did say they are at the point where they are turning people away or just about to be there. Is this normal in kitten season?

Like I said, my rescue turns people away. I just sent 6 kittens to another foster home because the Mom, who was a tame housecat, kept attacking me! So several other homes had to do a quick shift of cats and kittens, to give this Mom and family a room to themselves. I'm not sure how many kittens she has now, but it is possible adding six put her up to 20!

I'm generally small potatoes in fostering, doing one litter at a time, since I have only 1 extra room.

However, if you are new to fostering, it may be better to start with the well managed agancy. I know my agency is well managed...many people are doing fundraisers, and collecting donations of food from Petsmart and Petco. It means I only care for cats and kittens! LOL!

Go with your gut...if the bigger agency seems better managed, they will be better to foster for.

One other thing to check is what happens to the unwanted Momma's? Do you keep them, or can you hand them over to someone else, so you can get a new preggers girl for your empty room? Do they ever euthanize, and when?

Thanks again. I actually have up to three empty rooms available, but I wouldn't try to have more than 2 litters at a time especially at the beginning.

I figure this weekend I will drive around and see how they do the various adoption events. I know several of them have a permanent presence in the local Petsmart adoption centers and I would prefer to work with them. I figure that way I would serve as an additional place to house kittens until space opens up in the actual store. I plan on also checking with the SPCA in the area that is a no kill shelter from what I have read to see if they do the same thing. I realize there can be a lot more to fostering but I figure it will work better in the long run if I start slowly.