26/06/2023
Long post. I will answer any general questions as best as I can. If you have specific questions for any one rescue, you should contact them. The information I'm giving is based on my experience and I do not speak for any of the rescues listed below. I will not respond to Anything that is not helpful to helping rescues get more foster pawrents.
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Please consider being a foster for animals in need of rescue.
Local rescues include:
Adopt a Pit
Miami Valley Pit Crew
Paw Patrol
Wonder Dogs
Please feel free to add others in the comment section.
These rescues are home-based fosters. That means that the dogs are not warehoused in kennels, they are actually being cared for in a home with the family of the foster pawrent.
All of these rescues have pages where you can reach out. They all have websites where you can fill out foster applications. You'll attend a short foster orientation with some of them.
I know that Adopt a Pit, Paw Patrol, and Wonder Dogs are not breed specific; some of them need cat fosters. If you want to foster for cats you can also contact Purrfect Additions, Blues Mews, or Paw Patrol.
If you are into breed specific rescue there are those in the Columbus, Dayton, and Cincinnati areas.
When you are a foster
- The rescue pays for medical and vetting. If medically cleared the foster dog or cat will be spayed or neutered as soon as possible. Reputable rescues do not adopt out intact animals.
- The rescue will have things available like harnesses, leashes, crates, collars.
- Some of the rescues offer training for you to learn how to do positive reinforcement training with a dog.
- None of the rescues will force you to take an animal. The majority of them will post animals that they could pull from different shelters if they had a foster available to take the dog.
- The rescue will provide food for the animal. If you would prefer to use a specific type of food, that is up to you and on your dime.
- The rescue takes care of screening adopters. The rescue would be appreciative if you are available to take the dog to any meet and greet events or to meet potential adopters and let them know about your foster.
What will you be required to do?
- Meet the animal where it's at. The animal that comes to you is not the animal that will leave you. They are scared, some of them are shut down. They need someone who is willing to accept that state of being and be patient enough for the beautiful transition that follows.
- You will be expected to kindly train the animal on minimal things. Dogs need to become crate trained. You can look forward to receiving information from your rescue on how to go about this. Rescues require positive reinforcement. This means a lot of treats and some time! A dog that has been trained to go potty, to sit, to lie down, to wait\stay, and even starting the beginning of the recall training, makes it more adoptable.
- You will let the rescue know what you have experienced with your foster. You will be living with your foster. You will let the rescue know if the foster is friendly with your dogs, if you notice that the foster is better with small dogs or large dogs, if the foster is cat friendly or not, if the foster is good with little children or big children, if the foster is good with men or women or both. For biographies you will be asked to give the good, the bad, and the ugly.
- You should be the person who takes the dog to meet potential adopters. All adopters are screened and approved before being able to meet a dog. This means that they have had references called and their vets have been called to make sure that they are the kind of people who should have an animal. This doesn't have to happen in your home however, you're the person who now knows more about the dog than anybody else.
Isn't it hard to let the dog go?
- Yes. Absolutely it's hard. However, enter fostering with the mindset that it is not your dog. You are watching and helping the dog until their family is found.
I'm at work and the dog would be in a crate 8 to 10 hours a day.
- It's not ideal but there are dogs that are older and can be created for 8 to 10 hours a day. Dogs sleep about 16 hours a day. When you are out, they're sleeping.
What if we go out of town or on vacation?
- The rescues that I have had the fortune to work around or work with will ask their other volunteers and fosters to "babysit". Some rescues will board the animal with a local boarding facility. You're not going to be stuck taking the dog to your mom's house, or on vacation with you.
I'm having a hard time thinking of other questions that could be answered.
Fostering is incredibly rewarding. At times it can be heartbreaking however, Montgomery County is overrun with animals needing help. The Montgomery County Animal Resource Center is not taking dogs in. SICSA is full.
Rescues do not want to turn away animals but they have to if they do not have fosters. Miami Valley rescues are doing the work that the county is not or cannot.
For every post you see on Nextdoor or Facebook, or someone has found a dog but ARC cannot take it in, there is a rescue that is going to get a call. There is a rescue that is going to have to turn away a finder because there is no room at the inn.
If you believe that shelters should never euthanize, with the exception of medical and behavioral issues, then being a foster is one of the things that you can do that will 100% save a life.
Rescues can't save them all but YOU can save one life at a time with every animal you foster.
