Good Deeds: Offering Foster Care to Homeless Pets

Offering foster care to homeless pets keeps them off the streets and gets them in to devoted families

Saving pets through foster care is the mission of the Animal Welfare Foster Program (AWFP) in Blacksburg, Va. Four veterinary students at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine (VMRCVM) founded the nonprofit organization in 2004. The founding women were volunteering for shelters at the time and realized they needed to do more to reduce the alarming pet euthanasia rates. Their idea of a pet foster program seems to have worked. In February, the AWFP fostered its 300th animal—a black pug.

“Fostering is rewarding,” says the AWFP foster home coordinator Theresa Economos, a first-year student at VMRCVM. “Many of the animals have been in shelters or inadequate homes,” Economos says. “You get to work with them, give them TLC.”
Providing pets with new and improved adoptive homes is what fuels AWFP members, according to Anna Sims, AWFP president. Student administrators like Sims and Economos coordinate foster homes and adoptions and arrange for foster animals to receive basic health care, including vaccinations, spaying or neutering, deworming, flea and tick treatments, and heartworm tests, as well as feline immunodeficiency and feline leukemia virus tests for cats.

It takes a village
The AWFP doesn’t do this alone. The group works with 100-plus volunteers culled from the VMRCVM, the Virginia Tech Pre-Veterinary Club, and members of the surrounding community. Pets benefit from their open homes and hearts. And the volunteers benefit too.

Foster caregivers enjoy the first option to adopt. Those interested get the opportunity to see how the dog or cat mixes in their home without making a permanent commitment. Some who foster pets are so devoted that they buy additional toys, create adoption websites, and transport their foster pets to adoption events, veterinary clinics, and meetings with potential adopters.

Community members support the AWFP by offering donations and discounts on pet-related services and products. They also help host fundraisers, offer free marketing services, make referrals to breed rescue clubs, and provide courtesy listings. Awareness events (such as Walgreen’s-sponsored Wallapalooza) promote adoptions, as does the AWFP’s policy of keeping animals in the program until they’re found permanent homes.

Special saves
Another service AWFP provides is rescuing pets with treatable health problems. Often, the animals, which have included lop-eared rabbits and hamsters, face medical conditions their owners cannot afford to remedy, such as broken bones. Cases like these often require therapeutic follow up, which is why reliability in volunteers is a must.

Economos carefully scans applications. “Often, people give short responses,” she says. “That’s a flag.” Why? Because she says this often indicates failure to comprehend the responsibilities of caring for a foster pet.

Animal welfare must be the foster applicant’s chief consideration, Sims says. “A few extra days can mean the difference between life and death for an animal.” Luckily for pets in Virginia, the AWFP and its volunteers are making that difference.

Become a foster friend
You can help animal groups—and animals—by fostering pets in your community. Here’s how:

1. Contact animal welfare agencies listed in your local phone book and ask about details of foster programs, including the responsibilities, supplied materials, expenses, and average stays. (AWFP says two to three months is usual.)
2. Fill out an application and be ready to explain your motivation for volunteering.
3. Be prepared for a home inspection, request for personal and veterinary references, and the requirement to follow certain rules, such as keeping all cats (yours and any fosters) inside at all times and refraining from declawing them.