Our foster program is not the traditional kind of fostering as we have our own facilities open to the public. Our healthy, adoptable animals have a better chance of finding a home when the public can easily visit them. If you are interested in traditional fostering, we encourage you to find a rescue that depends on foster families to house their adoptable animals.
The animals that need fostering are those that aren’t adoptable yet or may have special needs that cause them to be overlooked. We have two types of fostering: short-term and long-term.
Short-Term Fostering
Short-term fostering can be anywhere from a week to two months. We provide everything you need: food, dishes, toys, crates, towels, etc. You provide a safe home and plenty of love and socialization. Some examples of short-term foster care:
- Nursing moms with litters who need a quiet environment to raise their babies.
- Bottle babies who need constant feeding and care.
- Puppies and kittens who are old enough to eat on their own but haven’t fully developed their immune systems and are susceptible to illness in the kennel.
- Sick or injured animals who need a calm space to recuperate until they are ready for adoption.
Long-Term “Forever” Fostering
Forever Fostering is a very special program which allows our overlooked pets to have a real home. Long-term fostering helps re-socialize these overlooked, health challenged or senior animals. Fostering helps make these dogs and cats more appealing for adoptive families, improving their chances of finding a forever home!
For these special animals in long term foster care: We are asking for folks willing to take in these animals, agree to show them to potential adopters or bring them to adoption events. We are asking for a life-time commitment or until the dog or cat finds a permanent home. We will cover expenses for care and any medical needs.
In most cases, forever fostering is for the life of the pet. Our forever foster parents are extraordinarily kind people. They are compassionate, strong, and deeply loving. Often, our forever foster parents open their homes and hearts to animals with terminal illness who only have a few months left to live. They give our needy animals the precious gift of a stable, comfortable home for the remainder of their lives.
Other examples of long-term foster care:
- Are too old or too stressed for the kennel environment
- Are healthy but overlooked due to FIV+ or other minor medical condition
- Have been overlooked at the kennel for a long long long time.
Interested in becoming a foster parent?
Fostering is work.
Being a foster parent can be emotionally difficult – ask any of our foster parents when their fosters are ready for adoption and they have to bring them back to us. Animals can be messy, especially the babies. We may need you to medicate your foster animals. Kittens in particular almost always need oral antibiotics. Some foster animals need to be taken to regular vet appointments.
Fostering is incredibly rewarding.
There’s nothing sweeter than kissing a puppy belly or more fun than watching a litter of kittens discover the world. If you are prepared for the reality of fostering we need you. We depend on foster parents to help us save even more animals. And while you are not required to adopt your foster animal, we recognize that falling in love is sometimes inevitable. Foster parents have first right to adopt their foster animals.
We are always available to our foster parents.
If you have questions or need anything while fostering, just let us know. We encourage foster parents to keep in touch with us.
If you are interested our foster program, please let us know. If we are in need of urgent foster parents, we typically post on our Lange Foundation Facebook.