Foster
Some pets require a little extra help before they can move on to their forever homes. Pets in the foster care program may be underage, ill, injured, struggling with a variety of behavioural issues, or they are simply just in need of a kennel break. Temporary foster homes allow these pets to thrive and grow into incredible adoption candidates. We foster out pets for a variety of different reasons, but our greatest needs are as follows:
Nursing Moms with Kittens
We often get litters of underage animals, most often kittens, who need to be placed in foster care until they are about nine weeks old, or until they reach their goal weight. When animals are this young, their immune systems aren't strong enough to fight off viruses and infection, so we always try to move them out of the shelter, where unfortunately we do see sick animals on a daily basis. When kittens come in with a nursing mother, we will always place her in foster care with her babies, as this is their greatest chance of survival. Kittens are typically placed in foster care until they are approximately nine weeks old.
Dogs with Behavioural Issues
Dogs can arrive at the shelter with a wide range of potential behaviour issues that we will try to correct before placing the animal up for adoption. Issues related to food guarding, for example, would be something that we would aim to correct prior to adoption. It’s also fairly common for dogs to arrive at the shelter in a highly nervous or anxious state. These animals typically come from a difficult past where they may not have been receiving enough food, attention, training, or could have been subject to abuse. Often times, these dogs just need to learn how to live in a house where they are being fed on a regular basis and learn a few basic commands before they can be placed up for adoption. We only use positive reinforcement training with dogs at the shelter, and we insist that any foster parent avoids negative reinforcement or punishment techniques when working with a Saskatoon SPCA dog.
Short Term Kennel Breaks
Many animals spend a long time at the shelter before they can find their forever homes. As you can imagine, the shelter environment can be hard on some animals, especially long term. These long term residents can benefit so much from just a short kennel break in a foster home. Fostering animals with the Saskatoon SPCA doesn't have to be a long term commitment! If you want to help animals, but can't commit long term then becoming a short term foster might be the perfect option for you.
URI Cats & Kittens
Another short term option is fostering cats & kittens with URI (Upper Respiratory Infection). URI is common in a shelter environment, but don't worry, it's nothing more than a kitty cold! URI can often resolve on it's own quite quickly in a low stress foster home environment. All that these cats & kittens need to get better is a nice calm and loving home to recover and get back in shape for adoption.
Click below to complete an application or to contact our foster care coordinator to answer any qustions you may have.
