Foster Care
Foster parents provide temporary care for kittens, puppies, cats and dogs in their homes. Some animals only need a home for two weeks, others may need three months. By offering your time, energy, and home to an animal in need, you prepare the animal for adoption into a permanent, loving home. WCDC is always looking for foster homes, especially throughout the busy spring and summer seasons. The more foster parents we have, the more lives we will be able to save.
Three of the most common reasons for animals to be selected for foster care are:- Kittens and puppies are too young to be spayed/neutered.
- Rehabilitation of feral kittens! WCDC frequently gets babies too young to return back outside when trap/neuter/release operations find such youngsters in our traps. Experience has proven that 8 weeks and younger are typically the age range where we are successful in socializing them with humans.
- Cats or dogs who are nursing their litter of kittens or puppies and need to raise them in a home environment where they can all receive proper socialization.
- Cats and the occasional dog who are being treated for an illness such as upper respiratory infection or kennel cough and require daily medications and TLC.
WCDC provides veterinary care and medicine for foster animals and lots of support to foster care volunteers. Foster care volunteers provide time, shelter, and lots of love.
How foster care works.- WCDC receives an animal who is not ready to be put up for adoption, and needs immediate foster care.
- Foster homes are contacted. If you are called to foster an animal and cannot do it for any reason, we will find another foster home and call you the next time. It's always okay to say you are not available.
- The animal goes to the foster home until ready for adoption. You may need to bring the animal to WCDC to get checked periodically by WCDC staff or to receive any necessary vaccines or treatments.
- The animal is returned to WCDC for adoption when they are ready for adoption and as space in the adoption center is available. Animals coming out of foster care are spayed/neutered unless already done so, and then placed up for adoption right away.
Foster Care Testimonials
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The decision to foster kittens came about after losing both our cats to age-related causes. With two young children, we felt we weren't ready to commit to the permanence of getting new pets, yet we all missed having kitties around to love. Fostering has been the ideal solution for us. We get to enjoy the ongoing presence of warm, purring kittens, without the expense of pet ownership, as WCDC does reimburse their foster care providers for all supplies needed.
Our family has been fostering for WCDC for a year and a half, in which time we have fostered approximately 42 cats and kittens. It is a very fulfilling experience for us; one that each member of our family takes part in. Our daughters, now ages 9 and 5, do remarkably well with feeding, watering, and socializing the kitties. And my husband tends to be the one who holds napping kittens. We fall in love with each new batch of kittens, enjoy them immensely while they're with us, then feel a wonderful sense of satisfaction every time we see one of our kittens adopted into their forever home. Then we get more......and that is the best part!!
Blazevich Family, Eugene, OR / Fosters for WCDC